We have come thus far, and thus fortunately, through the most difficult period of reconstruction that we have ever known.

The best test of policy is by results.

I have wondered if it were not possible, for example, that a scheme of cooperation among consumers, financed, in part at least, through a carefully organized and supervised adaptation of the principles of the savings bank or the building…

Ours is an individualistic society and we want it to remain so.

We want this republic to remain always the land of opportunity wherein every man's abilities and usefulness shall measure his personal advancement and prosperity.

Not only have I no apology for what has been done in the interest of the agricultural community; not only do I regard it as one of the monumental achievements of the last generation in developing our country’s institutions, but I venture…

We have become convinced that somehow our system of distribution has grown too cumbersome, too costly, too complex, too indirect, too unrelated to the interests of real producers and legitimate consumers.

Anything tending to break down personal initiative, to destroy enterprise and ambition, must not enter into any program which can hope for the approval of the American people.

Some critics have indeed protested that it was class legislation.

My thought is that the Government should give the largest encouragement, consistent with sound economics and proper Government functions, to every effort of the people to help themselves in dealing with the high cost of living and the…

The aim and object of our every policy must be the establishment and maintenance of an independent and self-respecting, reliant and industrious, intelligent and self-helpful American citizenship.

The development of such a general program into a sound working business scheme would doubtless be found chiefly an affair of the state governments, but one in which the jointure of state and national authorities might prove practicable and…

On the whole, I think the agricultural community has been more alive to the promotion of its interests along these lines than has the urban community.

We realize that the real producer, under our elaborate and costly system of distribution, is not permitted a fair share of his product for his own use and enjoyment.

There is need to have working and practical cooperative associations of producers in the country, and at the same time to have equally effective cooperations among the consuming communities of the cities and towns; and, finally, to link…

I believe it is possible, and altogether desirable, that systems of credit and finance should be developed, under public auspices, to encourage both these kinds of cooperation; and to draw them together into a harmonious working scheme of…

It is idle to look for stability, or the assurance of social justice, or the security of peace while wasteful and unproductive outlays deprive effort of its just reward and defeat the reasonable expectation of progress.

It is the earnest wish of this Government that through an interchange of views with the facilities afforded by a conference, it may be possible to find a solution of Pacific and Far Eastern problems, of unquestioned importance at this…