Chicago, Illinois .............................................................. October 28, 1944
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are now engaged in the greatest war in history-and we are also engaged in a political campaign.
We are fighting this war and we are holding this election-both for the same essential reason: because we have faith in democracy.
And there is no force and there is no combination- of forces powerful enough to shake that faith.
As you know, I have had some previous experience in war-and I have also had a certain amount of previous experience in political campaigning.
But-I must confess-this is the strangest campaign I have ever seen.
I have listened to the various Republican orators who are urging the people to throw the present Administration out and put them in.
And what do they say?
Well, they say in effect, just this:
"Those incompetent bunglers in Washington have passed a lot of excellent laws about social security and labor and farm relief and soil conservation-and many others-and we promise if elected not to change any of them."
And they go on to say: "These same quarrelsome tired old men have built the greatest military machine the world has ever known, which is fighting its way to victory; and, if you elect us, we promise not to change any of that, either."
"Therefore," say these Republican orators, "it is time for a change."
They also say in effect: "Those inefficient and worn-out crackpots have really begun to lay the foundations of a lasting world peace. If you elect us, we will not change any of that either." "But," they whisper, "we'll do it in such a way that we won't lose the support even of Gerald Nye or Gerald Smith-and-and this is very important-we won't lose the support of any isolationist campaign contributor. We will even be able to satisfy the Chicago Tribune ."
Tonight, I shall talk simply about the future of America about this land of unlimited opportunity. I shall give the Republican campaign orators some more opportunities to say "me too."
Today everything we do is devoted to the most important job before us-winning the war and bringing our men and women home as quickly as possible.
We have astonished the world and confounded our enemies with our stupendous war production, with the overwhelming courage and skill of our fighting men- with the bridge of ships carrying our munitions and men through the seven seas with our gigantic Fleet which has pounded the enemy all over the Pacific and has just driven through for a touch-down
The American people are prepared to meet the problems 0 peace in the same bold way that they have met the. problems o war.
For the American people are resolved that when our men an women return home from this war, they shall come back to the best possible place on the face 6f this earth-to a place where all persons, regardless of race, color, creed or place of birth, can live in peace, honor and human dignity-free to speak and pray as they wish-free from want-and free from fear.
Last January, in my Message to the Congress on the state of the Union, I outlined an Economic Bill of Rights on which "a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all-regardless of station, race or creed":
I repeat them now:
"The right of a useful and remunerative job in the industries, o r shops or farms or mines of the nation;
"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
"The right of every business man, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
"The right of every family to a decent home;
"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment;
"The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being."
Some people have sneered at these ideals as well as the ideals of the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms-saying they were the dreams of starry-eyed New Dealers-that it is silly to talk of them because we cannot attain these ideals tomorrow or the next day.
The American people have greater faith than that. I know that they agree with those objectives-that they demand them-that they are determined to get them-and that they are going to get them.
The American people have a habit of going right ahead and accomplishing the impossible.
And the people today who know that best are the Nazis and the japs.
This Economic Bill of Rights is the recognition of the simple fact that, in America, the future of the worker and farmer lies in the well-being of private enterprise; and that the future of private enterprise lies in the well-being of the worker and farmer.
The well-being of the Nation as a whole is synonymous with the well-being of each and every one of its citizens.
Now, I have the possibly old-fashioned theory that when you have problems to solve, objectives to achieve, you cannot get very far by just talking-about them.
You have got to go out and do something!
To assure the full realization of the right to a useful and remunerative employment, an adequate program must provide America with close to sixty million productive jobs.
I foresee an expansion of our peacetime productive capacity which will require new facilities, new plants and new equipment- capable of hiring millions more men.
I propose that the Government do its part in helping private enterprise to finance expansion of our private industrial plant through normal investment channels.
For example, business, large and small, must be encouraged by the Government to expand their plants and to replace their obsolete or worn out equipment with new equipment. And to that end the rate of depreciation on these new plants and facilities for tax purposes should be accelerated. That means more jobs for the worker, increased profits for the business man, and lower cost to the consumer.
In 1933, when my Administration took office, vast numbers of our industrial workers were unemployed, our plants and businesses were idle, our monetary and banking system in ruins- our economic resources were running to waste.
By 1940 before Pearl Harbor-we had increased our-employment by ten million workers. We had converted a corporate loss of five billion five hundred million dollars in 1932, to a corporate profit (after taxes) of nearly five billion dollars in 1940.
Obviously, to increase jobs after this war, we shall have to increase demand for our industrial and agricultural production not only here at home, but also abroad.
I am sure that every man and woman in this vast gathering here tonight agree with me in my conviction that never again must we in the United States attempt to isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.
I am confident that, with Congressional approval, the foreign trade of the United States can be trebled after the war-providing millions of more jobs.
Such cooperative measures provide the soundest economic foundation for a lasting peace. And, after this war, we do not intend to settle for anything less than lasting peace.
When we think of the America of tomorrow, we think of many things.
One of them is American homes-in our cities, in our villages and on our farms. Millions of our people have never had homes worthy of American standards-well built homes with electricity and plumbing and air and sunlight.
The demand for homes and our capacity to build them call for a program of well over a million homes a year for, at least ten years. Private industry can build and finance the vast majority of these homes. Government can and will assist and encourage private industry to do this, as it has for many years. For those very low income groups that cannot possibly afford decent homes, the Federal Government should continue to assist local housing authorities in meeting that need.
In the future America we think of new highways and parkways. We think of thousands of new airports to service the new commercial and private air travel which is bound to come after the war. We think of new airplanes, new cheap automobiles with low maintenance and operation costs. We think of new hospitals and new health clinics. We think of a new merchant marine for our expanded world trade.
Think of all these vast possibilities for industrial expansion and you will foresee opportunities for more millions of jobs. Our Economic Bill of Rights like the sacred Bill of- Rights of our Constitution itself- must be applied to all our citizens, irrespective of race, creed or color.
In 1941, I appointed a Fair Employment Practice Committee to prevent discrimination in war industry and Government employment. The work of the Committee and the results obtained more than justify its creation.
I believe that the Congress should by law make the Committee
permanent.
America must remain the land of high wages and efficient production. Every full-time job in America must provide enough for a decent living. And that goes for jobs in mines, offices, factories, stores, canneries-and everywhere where men and women are employed.
During the war we have been compelled to limit wage and salary increases for one great objective-to prevent runaway inflation. You all know how successfully we have held the line by the way your cost of living has been kept down.
However, at the end of the war there will be more goods available, and it is only good common sense to see to it that the working man is paid enough, and that the farmers earn enough, to buy these goods and keep our factories running. It is a simple fact that a greatly increased production of food and fibre on the farms can be consumed by the people who work in industry only if those people who work in industry have enough money to buy food and clothing. If industrial wages go down, farm prices will go down too. After the war, we shall of course remove the control of wages and leave their determination to free collective bargaining between trade unions and employers.
In this war, the American farmer has been called upon to do far and away the biggest food production job in history.
The American farmer has met that challenge triumphantly.
Despite all manner of wartime difficulties- shortage of farm labor and of new farm machinery-the American farmer has achieved a total of food production which is one of the wonders of the world.
The American farmer is a great producer; and he must have the means to be also a great consumer. For more farm income means more jobs everywhere in the nation.
Let us look back for a moment to 1932. All of us remember the spreading . tide of farm foreclosures; we remember four twenty-cent wheat, five-cent cotton.
I am going to give you some figures of recovery-and I am sure you will pardon me if I quote them correctly.
In 1932 the American farmers' net income was only two and a quarter billion dollars.
In 1940- a year before we were attacked-farm income was more than doubled to five and a half billion dollars.
This year-1944-it will be approximately thirteen and a half billion dollars.
Certainly the American farmer does not want to go back to a Government owned by the moguls of 1929-and let us bear it constantly in mind that those same moguls still control, the destinies of the Republican Party.
We must continue this Administration's policy of conserving the enormous gifts with which an abundant Providence has blessed our country-our soil, our forests, our water.
The work of the Tennessee Valley Authority is closely related to our national farm program, and we look toward the similar developments which I have recommended in the valley of the Missouri-in the valley of the Arkansas-and in the Columbia River Basin.
And incidentally-and as an aside-I cannot resist the temptation to point to the gigantic contribution to our war effort made by the power generated at TVA and Bonneville and Grand Coulee.
Do you remember when the building of these great public works was ridiculed as New Deal "boondoggling"? And we are now planning developments at Grand Coulee, which will provide irrigation for many thousands of acres providing fertile farm land for settlement-I hope-by many of our returning soldiers and sailors.
More "boondoggling"!
This Administration has put into the -law of the land the farmers' long dream of parity prices.
And we propose, too, that the Government will cooperate when the weather will not-by a genuine crop insurance program.
This Administration adopted-and will continue-the policy of giving to as many farmers as possible the chance of owning, their own farms.
That means something to those veterans who left their farms to fight for their country.
This time they can grow apples on their own farms instead of having to sell apples on street corners.
I believe in free enterprise-and always have.
I believe in the profit system-and always have.
I believe that private enterprise can give full employment to our people.
And if anyone feels that my faith in our ability to provide sixty million peacetime jobs is fantastic, let him remember that some people said the same thing about my demand in 1940 for fifty thousand airplanes.
I believe in exceptional rewards for innovation, skill, and risk-taking by business.
We shall lift production and price control as soon as they are no longer needed-encouraging private business to produce more of the things to which we are accustomed and also thousands of new things, in ever-increasing volume, under conditions of free and open competition.
This Administration has been mindful from its earliest days, and will continue to be mindful, of the problems of small business as well as large.
Small business played a magnificent part in producing thousands of items needed for our Armed Forces. When the war broke out, it was mobilized into war production. Money was loaned to them for machinery. Over one million prime and subcontracts have been distributed among sixty thousand smaller plants of the Nation.
We shall make sure that small business is given every facility to buy Government-owned plants, equipment and inventories. The special credit and capital requirements of small business will be met.
And small business will continue to be protected from selfish and cold-blooded monopolies and cartels. Beware of that profound enemy of the free enterprise system who pays lip-service to free competition-but also labels every anti-trust prosecution as a persecution."
This war has demonstrated that when the American business man and the American worker and the American farmer work together, they form an unbeatable team.
We know that-our Allies know that-and so do our-enemies.
That winning team must keep together after the war, and it will win many more historic victories of peace for our country, and for the cause of security and decent standards of living throughout the world.
We owe it to our fighting men and to their families-we owe it to all of our people who have given so much in this war-we owe it to our children-to keep that winning team together.
The future of America, like its past, must be made by deeds not words.
America has always been a land of action-a land of adventurous pioneering-a land of growing and building:
America must always be such a land.
The creed of our democracy is that liberty is acquired and kept by men and women who are strong and self-reliant, and possessed of such wisdom as God gives to mankind-men and women who are just, and understanding, and generous to others-men and women who are capable of disciplining themselves.
For they are the rulers and they must rule themselves. I believe in our democratic faith and in the future of our country which has given eternal strength and vitality to that faith.
Here in Chicago you know a lot about that vitality.
And as I say good-night to you, I say it in a spirit of faith-a spirit of hope-a spirit of confidence.
