THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS OF THE ROOSEVELT NEW DEAL---AN INVENTORY
The First Seven Years of The Roosevelt New Deal—An Inventory [SPEECH BY SEN. LEWIS B. SCHWELLENBACH, WASHINGTON DEMOCRAT] SEVEN years ago Franklin Roosevelt became president. To get the whole...
...Under President V.oosevelt congress has written the Social Security act, which Is our first recognition of the responsibility of government to the aged...
...Therefore, it la argped that the debt has been increased by $18,190,000,000...
...Deducting this $2,000,000,000 payment, which should not be charged against President Roosevelt, you have an actual net Increase In the national debt up to Dec...
...But that statement is very widely exaggerated...
...Are they going to let the barons of organized labor secure a stronger and stronger hold on their government until this nation will be converted Into a mere monocracy...
...Yet today the American dollar is the soundest and most sought-after currency in the world...
...Never in our history has one man accomplished what Roosevelt did then...
...I am going to let one of the nation's most respected and reliable newspaper correspondents describe it to you...
...31, of $8,475,000,000...
...Yet 3 weeks ago the Supreme court, a majority of whom he has now appointed, handed down the most outstanding opinion supporting the liberties of the people it has ever rendered...
...The facts are that during the 3 years from 1936 to 1938, Inclusive, the net profit of industry averaged 8.3 per cent on net worth, the highest return ever made by American industry...
...It must be remembered, however, that we are setting up a balance sheet...
...The rest of the world is at war...
...I found there the same attacks upon the railroad brotherhoods that are now being made upon the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. Let me read briefly from one of them, which is typical, I quote: "Are the patriotic citizens of this country gcing to remain inert and let this disease continue Its ravages...
...Our Republican friends have certainly proved in the last seven years that they did not want these reform children to be born...
...They claim they can operate them better than can the Democrats...
...In 1929 there were 48,000,000 laborers in the United States, 47,000,000 of them at work...
...You were told last fall, when we passed the president's neutrality Dill, that within 2 months we would be at war...
...In addition to that we spent 4ti billion do'.lars on national defense...
...What are the Roosevelt accomplishments...
...It has regulated stock selling and public utilities...
...Therefore, they argue that he has failed...
...Fortunately for the American people, that seems to be the same elusive corner around which Hoover promised to find prosperity...
...Deducting these items leaves a true net increase in the national debt of $10,475,000,000...
...For the last 6'2 years we have heard scare stories...
...All about us we see civilization threatened...
...Any fair balance sheet makes a showing of the assets as well as the liabilities...
...In certain sections citizens were beginnfng lo grow desperate...
...Since 1935 the National Youth administration has made it possible for 2,500,000 young boys and girls to get a high school and college education...
...31 we had cash on hand in the treasury, in the stabilization fund, and in government-owned corporations amounting to 7,715,000,000...
...BALANCE sheets invariably have two sides...
...National farm income has Increased from $4,-682,000,000 in 1932 lo $7,711,000,000 in 1039...
...President Roosevelt has come within 1,000,000 of the 1929 figure...
...The deductions that I have made are the actual cash deductions, but that does not mean that the country as a whole has not many other assets for the money which was spent...
...Homes and farms were going on the auction block In ever Increasing numbers...
...Let us examine briefly the most serious charges nnde against, the president...
...The business whose balance sheet shows no liabilities has not done very much business...
...I am not going to be foolish enough to claim thai there have been no liabilities in the Roosevelt record...
...Six million farmers now participate in the soil-conservation program...
...That is what, they then said about the railroad brotherhoods...
...In the New York Times, Turner Catledge said this: "That day dawned a dark one in every respect...
...But these items of a permanent nature which have been added to the- total national wealth have a value of 13 % billion dollars...
...The leadership of Franklin Roosevelt has kept and wili keep us at peace...
...The fact is that last year's figures show a substantial Increase in net profit over the year before...
...Our friends say that he has only reduced unemployment from Ihe 14 or 15 million down to 8 or nine million...
...The economic structures of many nations have collapsed...
...The other night I heard over the radio a speaker tell of the railroad brotherhoods' record during this last 10 years, with no | strikes, no contracts broken by either side...
...Yet the two reorganization orders he has sent to the congress were approved a most without debate...
...We have school buildings, public buildings, highways and streets, water works, reclamation and power dams, airports, rural electrification lines...
...Yet (iie figures show that Roosevelt has done a much better Job than he is given credit for...
...The number of failures has been brought down from 1,500 per year under Hoover to 51 per year under Roosevelt...
...THE fourth charge is that business can no longer operate at a profit...
...None of them proved true...
...Then I remembered 1916, when they were fighting for an 8-hour day...
...It is hardly understandable how a man who had accomplished this much and had been so acclaimed could have been subjected to the wrath, rancor, and even ridicule which have been the president's lot the last 6% years...
...11 last, year was $41,942,000,000...
...We have had too many strikes...
...I got some of the magazines of that day...
...Since then the average index figure for utilities' common stocks has gone up from 63 to 69...
...THE second charge is that we have increased the national debt, That...
...Life savings In bank accounts and securities were being blown away like so much dust...
...To get the whole picture, it may be well to think briefly of that day...
...You were told that the president wanted to control the courts in order that he might destroy your liberties...
...You were told when we passed the WheelerRayburn bill public-utilities' stock values would bs destroyed...
...President Roosevelt quickly changed those conditions...
...Foreign currencies have crumbled...
...We have had presidents who have made no mistakes...
...Why could not al labor unions be like the railroad brotherhoods...
...Of the 8,428,000 unemployed at the present time, approximately 7,000,000 are accounted for by Increases in the laboring population of the United States...
...On Dec...
...this compared with 6.5 per cent in the 3 years from 1927 to 1929...
...Ours have been protected...
...THE third charge is that President Roosevelt has let labor run wild...
...Ours has been maintained...
...Farm wealth has increased two and'a quarter billions, farm foreclosures dropped from 38 per thousand to 13 per thousand...
...It has adopted a fair-wage standards act under which wages of 900,000 have been Increased...
...More than 2,500,000 young boys have been taken off the streets and rehabilitated physically and mentally in the CCC camps...
...First, was the rehabilitation of banks and the establishment of federal deposit insurance...
...Knowing the fair-mindedness of the American people, who view the record in the light of the problems and difficulties, I think most of them on this night are saying to Franklin Roosevelt, "Weil done, thou good and faithful servant...
...We are at peace...
...The first Is that he has only half solved the unemployment problem...
...The great depression hung over the eountry like a darkening cloud...
...The gross national debt as of Dec...
...He was acclaimed by everyone...
...On Dec...
...31 last year there were 54,000,000 luborers in the United Stales, 4(1,000,000 of llieni at work...
...Of this, $2,000,000,000 was ordered paid by the Democratic congress to keep a promise made previously on the soldiers' bonus...
...In that regard I simply want to say this: It is very seldom that a parent who did not want to have children turns out to be a very good father or mother...
...They are the ones who have accomplished nothing...
...NOW, let us turn to the liability side of this balance sheet...
...These last 10 years have been cruel ones everywhere...
...I thought...
...Both sides to that controversy have since learned how to deal with each other amicably...
...Certainly nobody today regrets that investment...
...On one are the assets and on the other are the liabilities...
...They had a leader whom they trusted...
...Two million nine hundred thousand homes have been built or rebuilt under the Federal Housing act...
...The national debt at the end of Hoover's last, fiscal year was $23,756,000,000...
...Under the president's foreign-trade program our exports increased from a billion and a half in 1932 to three billion one hundred million in 1939...
...It >as given those who labor the right to organize and bargain collectively...
...Even in these failures 993/4 per cent of the depositors have been paid in full...
...It is of interest, in reference to these controversial questions that the Republican parly policy committee, under Glenn Frank, in It* recent report did not urge abandonment of a one of them...
...REPUBLICAN speakers rely chiefly upon their prediction that disaster is just around the corner...
...Within a week the hearts of the American people, which had been filled with despair, found new hope and courage...
...Ours has stood firm...
...is true...
...I.i most places civil liberties have been destroyed...
...Banks were closing literally by the hundreds...
...You were told that Roosevelt was to plunge us into inflation...
...So long as we have the Weirs and the Girdlers dominating our industrial scene, just so long will we have labor controversy...
...There is not time to list them all or give the amount for each...
...You were told that if we passed the reorganization bill Roosevelt would berome a dictator...
...The Republicans say they will keep all these reforms...
...The rural-electrlflration program has brought cheap electricity to 1,500,000 farm folks...
...The Democratic congress advanced the date of the payment of the bonus from 1942 (the date set by statute) to 1936...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 15
