The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-10-01
Roosevelt, Still An Idealist, Seeks
 Way To End Labor Industry Strife

Three months have passed since I talked with you shortly after the adjournment of the Congress. Tonight continue that report, though, because of the shortness of time, l must defer a number of subjects to a later date.
 Recently the most notable public questions that have con- cerned us all have had to do with industry and labor, and with respect to these certain developments have taken place which I consider of importance.
 Order Out of Chaos
 am happy to report that after years of uncertainty, cul- minating in the collapse of the Spring of 1888, we are bring ing order out of the old chaos with a greater certainty of the employment of labor at rea- sonable wage and of more bus mess at a fair profit. These governmental and industrial de- velopments hold promise of new achievements for the na- tion.
 Men may differ as to the par ticular form of governmental activity with respect to industry and business, but nearly all are agreed that private enterprise in times such as these cannot be left without assistance and with out reasonable safeguards lest 1t destroy not only itself, but also our processes of civilization.
 The underlying necessity for such activity is index as strong now as it was years ago when Elihu Root said the following very significant words:
 Elihu Root Quoted
 Instead of the give-and-takc of free individual contract, the tremendous power of organiza- tion has combined great aggre- gations of capital in enormous industrial establishments work ing through vast agencies of commerce and employing great masses of men in movements of production and transportation and trade, so great in the mass that each individual concerned in them is quite helpless by himself.
 "The relations between the employer and the employed, be- tween the owners of aggregated capital and the units of organ ized labor, between the small producer, the small trader. the consumer, and the great trans porting and manufacturing and distributing agencies, all present new questions for the solution of which the old reliance upon the free action of individual wills appears quite adequate.
 And in many directions the intervention of that organized control which we call govern ment seems necessary to produce the same result of justice and right conduct which obtained through the attrition of individ- uals before the new conditions arose."
 In Same Spirit
 It was in this spirit thus des- cribed by Secretary Root that we approached our task of re- viving private enterprise in March, 1883. Our first problem was, of course, the banking sit uation because, as you know, the banks had collapsed. Some banks could not be saved, but the great majority of them, either through their own re- sources or with government aid, have been restored to complete public confidence. This has given safety to millions of depositors in these banks.
 Closely following this great constructive effort we have, through various Federal agen- cies, saved debtors and creditors alike in many other fields of en- terprise, such as loans on farm loans to the railroads and insur- ance companies and, finally help for home owners and industry itself.
 Government Has Aided
 In all of these efforts the gov ernment has come to the assis- tance of business and with the full expectation that the money used to assist these enterprises will eventually be repaid. It be- ueveS It VIII be.
 The second step we have taken in the restoration of normal busi- ness enterprises has been to clean up thoroughly unwho!e- some conditions in the field of investment. In this we have had assistance from many bank CTS and business men, most of whom recognize the vast evils in the banking system, in the sale of securities, in all deliber- ate encouragement of stock gambling in the sale of unsound mortgages and in many other ways in which the public lost billions of dollars. They saw that without changes in the policies and methods of investment there could be no recovery of public confidence in the securityaof sav- ings.
 Bank Laws Protest
 The country now enjoys the safety of bank savings under the new banking laws, the careful checking of new securities under the Securities Act and the cur. tailment of rank stock specula- tion through the Securities Ex- change Act.
 I sincerely hope that as a re- suit people will be discouraged in unhappy efforts to get rich quick by speculating in securities. The average person almost always loses. Only very small minority of the people of this country be- lieve in gambling as a substitute for the old philosophy of Benja- min Franklin that the way to wealth is through work.
 NRA A Chief Agency
 Tn meeting the problem of in- dustrial recovery the chief agency of the government has been the National Recovery Ad. ministration. Under its guid- nnce, trade and industries GOV. ering over 90 per cent of all in- dustriul employees, have adopted codes of fair competition. which have been approved by the Pres- ident.
 Under these codes, in the in- dustries covered, child labor has been eliminated. The workday and the workweek have been shortened. Minimum wages have ~ I.