Evening star., 1940-02-10

- WV
I thirty-f1ve million people were SINH
larly employed in 1939-a gain OF
% per cent.
You have heard of certain local
or special opposition to our foreign
trade policy-listen to this: Our
exports for the calendar year 1882
were worth a billion six hundred
million. In 1889 they were worth
nearly three billion two hundred
million-an increase of 81 per cent.
I am repeating these figures on
the air because not one citizen in
a hundred read them in the papers
last Tuesday morning.
Furthermore, 1 remarked last
Monday that interest received by in
dividuals in 1899 was 9 per cent
less than it had been in 1892 l
am proud of that-because it means
that the exorbitant interest rates on
| mortgages and on loans of all kinds
in 1882 have, because of Federal ac-
ton, been reduced to lower and
more humane rate to people who had
to borrow money for themselves in
dividually or for themselves as par
ticipants in many varieties of busi-
ness.
Finally, I said last Monday-and
this was the part that was most
seriously mangled and garbled by
certain types of papers and certain
| types of pOliticians-that the total
debt of all of the people of the
United States-private debt, State
! and local government debts. and the
debt of the Federal Governme hts
less today than it was in 1882. That
is a simple fact-somewhere around
two billion dollars less-in a Nation
which had six or seven million peo-
Pile more in it than eight years ago
Words of Warning
To the Voters.
Why am I giving you all these
figures? First, to remove fears
fears which are subtly instilled in
your minds by propaganda OF
which you are we'll aware. The
other day I saw an old friend, born
if you like, with silver spoon in
his mouth; moving, if you like. in
so-called social circles; a decent
citizen who, while he has never
held public office. has tried to
understand the tendencies of the
times. He said to me, Il have come
to the conclusion that there is nc
use in my trying to argue with cer-
tain types of the older generation
because all they do is to hope that
some miracle will restore the period
OF 80 years ago when they did not
have to think about social prob
lens, when taxes on the rich were
comparatively low, when nobody
was worrying about social security
or organized labor or wages and
hours or the supervision of security
offerings or the regulation of the
management of banks He said
Il am past so, but 1 recognize full
we'll that those days, thank God
will never come again-and, fur
thermore. that a great majority OF
the people today who want to see
a liberal administration of govern
ment turned out and replaced by a
conservative administration of gov
ernment are really wishing down
IN their hearts for a return of the
social and economic philosophy OF
1910"
And now a word of warning tc
you who are voters and you who
will soon be voters-several words
of warning.
Don't seek Or expect Utopia over
night. Don't seek or expect pana-
cea-a grand new law that will give
you q handout-a guarantee of per-
manent remunerative occupation OF
your own choosing. I told one OF
your members couple of weeks
ago, somewhat to his surprise, that
ever since I became Governor of
New York in 1929 I have been re-
ceiving in every mail sincere, hon.
est proposal of some panacea, one
of them. two of them, three of them
every day. These plans have not
been put in the waste basket-they
have been subjected to the closest
scrutiny by honest liberals who have
hoped that somebody would hit on
so nething that would save us all a
lot Of time and a lot of worry. 1t
is clear that no such plan exists.
Take, for example, the question of
the employment of old people and
the employment of young people
You young people must remember
that the problem of the older work.
ers is just as difficult as yours
that when people slow up, when
they have reached the age when
one can reasonably expect no great
improvement or imagination in their
work, they find it very difficult to
get a job. We have not solved the
problem of older people and the
solution of that problem is evolu-
tionary. We have made beginnings
with the Old Age Pension Act, but
we know that it is only a beginning
and that through the next 10 or
20 years the system must be ex-
tended and improved. Ham and
eg IS and other plans will not do it
because they are all open to the
simple objection that they either
print so much paper money that
the money would soon be worthless
or that the whole burden would be
placed on the shoulders of the
younger workers.
Work Opportunities
May Be No Worse.
In the case of jobs for you young
people, let me make it very clear in
the beginning that it is not at all
certain that your opportunities for
employment are any worse today
than they were for young people ten
years or twenty years or thirty years