FDR

It is obvious that if we can greatly increase the purchasing power of the tens of millions of our people who make a living from farming and the distribution of farm crops, we will greatly increase the consumption of those goods which are…

Last Autumn, on several occasions, I expressed my faith that we can make possible by democratic self-discipline in industry general increases in wages and shortening of hours sufficient to enable industry to pay its own workers enough to…

This can be done only if we permit and encourage cooperative action in industry because it is obvious that without united action a few selfish men in each competitive group will pay starvation wages and insist on long hours of work.

We have seen the result of action of that kind in the continuing descent into the economic Hell of the past four years.

There is a clear way to reverse that process: If all employers in each competitive group agree to pay their workers the same wages-- reasonable wages--and require the same hours--reasonable hours-- then higher wages and shorter hours will…

Moreover, such action is better for the employer than unemployment and low wages, because it makes more buyers for his product.

On the basis of this simple principle of everybody doing things together, we are starting out on this nationwide attack on unemployment.

It will succeed if our people understand it--in the big industries, in the little shops, in the great cities and in the small villages.

It goes back to the basic idea of society and of the nation itself that people acting in a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could even hope to bring about.

In the Cotton Textile Code and in other agreements already signed, child labor has been abolished.

The moment the Recovery Act was passed, this monstrous thing which neither opinion nor law could reach through years of effort went out in a flash.

I use this incident, my friends, not to boast of what has already been done but to point the way to you for even greater cooperative efforts this summer and autumn.

We are not going through another winter like the last.

We cannot ask America to continue to face such needless hardships.

It is time for courageous action, and the Recovery Bill gives us the means to conquer unemployment with exactly the same weapon that we have used to strike down child labor.

If all employers will act together to shorten hours and raise wages we can put people back to work.

But if any considerable group should lag or shirk, this great opportunity will pass us by and we will go into another desperate winter.

There are, of course, men, a few of them who might thwart this great common purpose by seeking selfish advantage.

But, important as is this heartening demonstration, the richest field for results is among the small employers, those whose contribution will give new work for from one to ten people.

These smaller employers are indeed a vital part of the backbone of the country, and the success of our plans lies largely in their hands.

You can look on every employer who adopts the plan as one who is doing his part, and those employers deserve well of everyone who works for a living.

It will be clear to you, as it is to me, that while the shirking employer may undersell his competitor, the saving he thus makes is made at the expense of his country's welfare.

It is time for patience and understanding and cooperation.

The workers of this country have rights under this law which cannot be taken from them, and nobody will be permitted to whittle them away, but, on the other hand, no aggression is now necessary to attain those rights.

I cannot guarantee the success of this nationwide plan, but the people of this country can guarantee its success.