US Presidency
1937

On my recent trip many people have talked to me about the millions of men and women and children who still work at insufficient wages and overlong hours. American industry has searched the outside world to find new markets but it can create on its very doorstep the biggest and most permanent market it has ever ( had ) seen. It needs the reduction of trade barriers to improve its foreign markets, but it should not overlook the chance to reduce the domestic trade barrier right here right away without waiting for any treaty. A few more dollars a week in wages, a better distribution of jobs with a shorter working day will almost overnight make millions of our lowest-paid workers actual buyers of billions of dollars of industrial and farm products. That increased volume of sales ought to lessen other cost of production so much that even a considerable increase in labor costs can be absorbed without imposing higher prices on the consumer. I am a firm believer in fully adequate pay for all labor.