FDR Fire Side Chats On Drought Conditions 9/6/36

"There are two reasons why I want to end by talking about reemployment.

Tomorrow is Labor Day. The brave spirit with which so many millions

of working people are winning their way out of depression deserves respect

and admiration. It is like the courage of the farmers in the drought

areas.

That is my first reason. The second is that healthy employment conditions

stand equally with healthy agricultural conditions as a buttress of

national prosperity. Dependable employment at fair wages is just as

important to the people in the towns and cities as good farm income

is to agriculture. Our people must have the ability to buy the goods

they manufacture and the crops they produce. Thus city wages and farm

buying power are the two strong legs that carry the nation forward.

Re-employment in industry is proceeding rapidly. Government spending

was in large part responsible for keeping industry going and putting

it in a position to make this reemployment possible. Government orders

were the backlog of heavy industry government wages turned over and

over again to make consumer purchasing power and to sustain every merchant

in the community. Businessmen with their businesses, small and large,

had to be saved. Private enterprise is necessary to any nation which

seeks to maintain the democratic form of government. In their case,

just as certainly as in the case of drought-stricken farmers, government

spending has saved."