yes, the task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products, and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. it can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. it can be helped by insistence that the federal, the state, and the local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. it can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, unequal. it can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities that have a definitely public character. there are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped by merely talking about it.
we must act. we must act quickly.
and finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work, we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order. there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments. there must be an end to speculation with other people's money. and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.
these, my friends, are the lines of attack. i shall presently urge upon a new congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and i shall seek the immediate assistance of the 48 states.
through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time, and necessity, secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. i favor, as a practical policy, the putting of first things first. i shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment; but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.
the basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not nationally -- narrowly nationalistic. it is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the united states of america -- a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the american spirit of the pioneer. it is the way to recovery. it is the immediate way. it is the strongest assurance that recovery will endure.
in the field of world policy, i would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor: the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others; the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.
if i read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize, as we have never realized before, our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take, but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress can be made, no leadership becomes effective.
we are, i know, ready and willing to submit our lives and our property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at the larger good. this, i propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us, bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in times of armed strife.
with this pledge taken, i assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.
action in this image, action to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. our constitution is so simple, so practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. that is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has ever seen.
it has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. and it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. but it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.
i am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. these measures, or such other measures as the congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, i shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.
but, in the event that the congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, in the event that the national emergency is still critical, i shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. i shall ask the congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis -- broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
for the trust reposed in me, i will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. i can do no less.
we face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. we aim at the assurance of a rounded, a permanent national life.
we do not distrust the -- the future of essential democracy. the people of the united states have not failed. in their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. they have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. they have made me the present instrument of their wishes. in the spirit of the gift i take it.
in this dedication -- in this dedication of a nation, we humbly ask the blessing of god.
may he protect each and every one of us.
may he guide me in the days to come.
