Evening star., 1935-08-25
Text of Presidents Speech
He Adyises Young Democrats Not to Fear the
Changes That New Conditions
Demand.
Demand.

advancing Win you.
You and I know that this modern
economic world of ours is governed
by rules and regulations vastly
more complex than those laid down
in the days of Adam Smith or John
Stuart Mill. They faced simpler
mechanical processes and social
needs. 1t is worth remembering.
for example, that the business cor
poration, as we know it; did not
exist in the days of Washington
and Hamilton and Jefferson. Pri-
vate businesses then were con-
Quoted solely by individuals or by
partnerships in which every MEM
ber was immediatly and wholly re-
sponsible for success or failure.
Facts are relentless. We must ao-
lust our ideas to the facts OF today.
Credit Concepts Different.
Our concepts of the regulation OF
money and credit and industrial
competition, of the relation OF en-
ployer and employe created for the
old civilization, are being modified
to save our economic structure from
confusion, destruction and paraly-
sis. The rules that governed the
relationship between an employer
and employe in the blacksmith's
shop in the days of Washington
cannot, of necessity. Govern the
relationship between the 10000 en-
ployes of a great corporation and
the infinitely complex and diffused
ownership of that corporation. II
$4,000 employees spoke with $4,000
voices, there would be modern
Tower of Babel. That Is why we
insist on their right to choose their
representatives to bargain collec-
lively in their behalf with their
employer. In the case of the en-
ployes, every individual employe
will know in his daily work whether
he is adequately represented or not.
In the case of the hundreds Of
thousands of stockholders in the
present-day ownership of great cor
porations, however. their knowledge
of the success Of the management
Is based too often solely on flnan-
cial balance sheet. Things may go
wrong in the management with
out their being aware Of l. for
year, or for many years to come.
Without their day-to-day knowl-
edge they may be exploited and
their investments jeopardized.
Therefore, we have come to the
need of simple but adequate pub
lie protection for the rights of the
investing public.
A rudimentary concept Of credit
control appropriate for financing
the economic life of nation of
100000 people can hardly be
urged as a means of directing and
protecting the welfare of our twen-
tieth century industriahsm. The
simple banking rules Of Hamilton's
day, when all the transactions of
a fair-sized bank could be kept in
the neat penmanship of :. clerk in
one large ledger, fail to protect the
millions of individual depositors of
great modern banking institution.
And so 1t goes through all the
range of economic life. Aggressive
enterprise and shrewd invention
have been at work on our economic
machine. Our rules Of conduct for
the operation of that machine must
be subjected to the same constant
development.
Fight of 1911 Recalled.
And so in our social life. Forty
years ago, slum conditions in our
great cities were much worse than
today. Living conditions on farms
and working conditions in mines
and factories were primitive. But
they were taken for granted. Few
people considered that the Govern
ment had responsibility for santa.
tion, for safety devices, for prevent.
ing child labor and night work for
women. In 1911, "a years ago,
when I was first a member of the
New York State Legislature, a
number Of the younger members of
the Legislature worked against
these old conditions and called for
laws governing factory inspection,
for workmen's compensation and
for the limitation of work for
women and children to 81 hours,
with one days rest in seven. Those
Of us who joined in this movement
in the Legislature were called re-
I;-tz
We were opposed by many of the
same organizations and the same
individuals who are now crying
aloud about the socialism involved
in social security legislation, in
bank deposit insurance, in farm
credit, in the saving Of homes, IN
the protection of investors and the
regulation Of public utilities. The
reforms, however, for which We
were condemned "a years ago are
taken today as a matter of course.
And so, ! believe, will be regarded
the reforms that now cause such
concern to the reactionaries of
1885. We come to an understand
ing of these new ways Of protect
ing people because our knowledge
enlarges and our capacity for Or
ganized action increases. People
have learned that they can carry
their burden effectively only by
cooperation. We have found out
how to conquer the ravages If dis
eases that years ago were regarded
as unavoidable and inevitable. We
must learn that many other social
ills can be cured.
Let me emphasize that serious
as have been the errors of unre-
strained individualism, I do not
believe in abandoning the system
of individual enterprise. The free
dom and opportunity that have
characterized American develop
ment in the past can be maintained
II we recognize the fact that the
individual system Of our day calls
for the collaboration Of all of US to
provide, at the least, security for
all of us. Those words freedom"
and opportunity" do not mean a
license to climb upwards by pushing
other people down.
New Political Practices Needed.
Any paternalistic system which