Evening star., 1934-10-01
Text. of President Roosevelt's Radio Speech

organize themselves adequately to
promote their legitimate interests;
when the farmers were demanding
legislation which would give them
opportunities and incentives to organ
ize themselves for common advance,
it was natural that the workers should
seek and obtain a statutory declara-
tion Of their constitutional right to
organize themselves for collective bar
gaining as embodied in Section z (a)
of the national industrial recovery act.
Machinery set up by the Federal
Government has provided some new
methods Of adjustment. Both employ
ers and employees must share the
blame OF not using them as fully as
they should. The employer who turns
away from impartial agencies OF
peace, who denies freedom OF organ
ization to his employees, or fails TO
make every reasonable effort at a
peaceful solution of their differences,
Is not fully supporting the recovery
effort of his Government. The workers
who turn away from these same
impartial agencies and decline to use
their good Offices to gain their ends
are likewise not fully cooperating
with their Government.
1T Is time that we made clean
cut effort to bring about that united
action of management and labor,
which is one of the high purposes OF
the recovery act. We have passed
through more than a year Of educa-
ton. Step by step we have created all
the Government agencies necessary to
insure, as general rule, industrial
peace, with justice for all those will
ing to use these agencies whenever
their voluntary bargaining fails tc
produce a necessary agreement.
There should be at least full and
fair trial given to these means OF
ending industrial warfare; and In
such an effort we should be able to
secure for employers and employees
and consumers the benefits that all
derive from the continuous. peaceful
operation Of our essential enterprises
Asks Industrial Peace.
Accordingly, I propose to confer
within the coming month with small
groups of those truly representative
of large employers Of labor and OF
large groups Of organized labor, in
order to seek their cooperation in
establishing what I may describe as
a specific trial period of industrial
peace
Prom those willing to join In estab-
fishing this hoped-for period Of peace
I shall seek assurances of the making
and maintenance Of agreements, which
can be mutually relied upon. under
which wages, hours and working con-
ditions may be determined and any
later adjustments shall be made either
by agreement or. in case of disagree
ment. through the mediation or ar
btration Of state or Federal agencies
I shall not ask either employers OF
employees permanently to lay aside
the weapons common to industrial
war. But l shall ask both groups to
give a fair trial to peaceful methods
Of adjusting their conflicts OF opinion
and interest. and to experiment for a
reasonable time with measures suit
able to civilize our industrial civiliza-
ton.
Closely allied to the N. r. A. Is
the program of public works provided
for in the same act and designed to
put more men back TO work. both di-
rectly on the public works themselves
and indirectly in the industries sup
plying the materials for these public
works. To those who say that our
expenditures for public works and
other means for recovery are waste
that we cannot afford, answer that
no country, however rich. can afford
the waste of its human resources
Decentralization caused by vast unem-
ployment is our greatest extravaganza
Morally, it is the greatest menace to
our social order. Some people try to
tell me that we must make up our
minds that for the future We shall
permanently have millions of unem-
ployed just as other countries have
had them for over a decade. What
may be necessary for those countries
is not my responsibility to determine.