Evening star., 1938-08-12
~ the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
GAINESVILLE, Ga, Aug. "a
Here is the text of President Roose-
velt's address yesterday:
Fourteen years ago Democratic
Yankee came to a neighboring county
in your State in search of a pool Of
warm water wherein he might swim
his way back to health. The place
Warm Springs-waS a rather delapi-
neighbors extended to him the hand
Of genuine hospitality, welcomed him
to their firesides and made him feel
so much at home that he built him.
self house, bought himself farm
and has been coming back ever since.
And he proposes to keep to that good
custom. 1 intend to keep on coming
back.
There was only one discordant note
In that first stay of mine at Warm
Springs; when the first-of-the month
bills came in for electric hight for my
little cottage, I found that the charge
was l8 cents per kilowatt hour-about
four times as much as paid in Hyde
Park, N Y. That started my long
study of proper public utility charges
for electricity and the whole subject
of getting electricity in farm homes
throughout the United States.
Talk of Cheaper Rates
Finally Becomes an Actually.
So it can be said that a little cot
tage at Warm Springs, Ga, was the
birthplace of the Rural Electriflcatlon
Administration. Six years ago there
was much talk of the more widespread
and cheaper use of electricity, but it
is only since March 4, 1888. that your
Government has reduced that talk to
practical results. Electricity is mod
ern necessity of life and ought to be
found in every village, every home and
every farm in every part OF the
United States. The dedication of this
Rural Electrification Administration
project in Georgia today is a symbol
of the progress we are maklng-and
we are not going to stop.
One month ago invited a group OF
distinguished, broadminded Southern
ers to meet in Washington to discuss
the economic conditions of the South.
I said to them:
INV intimate interest in all that
concerns the South is, 1 believe, known
tn all of you; but this interest is
far more than a sentimental attach
ment born of a considerable residence
in YOUR section and of close personal
friendship for so many OF your people
It proceeds even more from my feeling
Of responsibility toward the whole
Nation. 1t is my conviction that the
South presents right now the Nations
No. l economic problem-the Nations
problem. not merely the South'S. For
we have an economic unbalance in
the Nation as a whole, due to this
very condition of the South.
1T is an unbalance that can and
must be righted, for the sake OF the
South and of the Nation"
Recommendations Soon to
Be Given to Public.
Yesterday I received the report and
the recommendations based on their
advice-and these will be made public
in the course of the next day or two.
I commend a careful reading OF this
document to all Of you.
It is we'll said that this report pre-
sents in only a small degree the mani
fold assets and advantages possessed
by the South because the report is
concerned primarily not with what
the South has but with what the South
needs. 1t is short report divided
into IS sections and it covers in
a broad way subjects of vital i'm
portance, such as economic resources.
soil, water, population. private and
public income, education, health,
housing, labor, ownership and use
of land credit, use Of natural re-
sources, industry and purchasing
power.
The very fact that it is necessary
to divide the economics of the South
into IS important groups-each one
a problem in itself-proves to you and
to me that if you and I are to cover
the ground effectively there is no one
simple answer. 1t is true that many
obvious needs ought to be attained
ouickly-such as the reduction OF
discriminatory freight rates, such as
putting a floor under industrial wages,
such as continuing to raise the pur-
chasing power of the farm population,
but no one of these things, no combi-
nation of few of them will meet the
whole of the problem. We cannot
nd ri IN
won the battle because the battle front
extends over thousands of miles and
we must push forward along the
whole length of its front.
Brings Conviction of Peril in
Two Types of Political Leadership.
That is why the longer I live the
more am 1 convinced that there are |
two types of political leadership which |
are dangerous to the continuation of |
broad economic and social progress all |
along the long battle front. The
first type of political leadership |
which is dangerous to progress is
represented by the man who harpS on |
one or two remedies or proposals and
claims that these one or two remedies
will cure all our ills. The other is
represented by the man who says that
he is in favor of progress, but whose
record shows that he hinders or hamp- |
ers new measures. He tells his friends |
that he does not like this, that or the
I