Show I I I I i i 1 I THE THE TE TIME FOR FORI FORS S U M M I N G UP P Three years of depression have I ended and we can cnn begin to sum um up r Hard upHard times have brought ill liard winds but but they have also brought some healthful breezes I I Businesses and individuals have hare been forced to write down fictitious fictitious fictitious valuations and standards st This has naturally caused a great eat deal of hardship and a long black blacklist blacklist blacklist list of bankruptcies But real read read- read adjustments adjustments had to occur to put a foundation under family and business life Those who expanded and operated operated operated edon ed on th the principle that that which goes oes up need never come down and that boom prosperity would wold wo ld con con- continue continue unabated forever fore had to be deflated The individual has found that it itis itis itis is possible to live happily and com corn comfortably comfortably on a war pre-war basis lIe has found that the arbiter of wa wages s sis is what the thc dollar will ill buy lIes lIe's come down to earth These are re the healthful breezes of depression The decks have been n cleared for action and the way to recover recovery is open As for the problems of depres depres- depression depression depression sion they arc are still vital and intense Writing in the Yale Review Sir Arthur Salter observed that 1933 1033 will be one of the most crucial years in modern modem history The pressing and increasing weight of taxation the capital industry of the world creating unemployment and pre pro preventing preventing venting industrial e expansion and the further investment of money The Thc burden of armaments with their drain on national incomes and their constant threat to world peace grows greater In every im- im imi important im important country of wars past present and future i is the major item in the national budget The question of foreign trade looms large on the economic hori hori- horizon hori hori- horizon horizon zon In normal normal times foreign sales amount to ten per cent of the gross in this country and country and ten per percent percent percent cent is the margin between profit and loss in the average business Today foreign trade is almost non non- nonexistent nonexistent existent due lar largely ely to a new and intense spirit o of economic nation nation- nationalism nationalism nationalism which finds its expression in in tariff wars and embargoes es Almost every economist of distinction here and abroad stresses the need for revitalizing foreign trade as a fac- fac factor factor fac factor tor in the work of recovery Tied up with this is the problem of sil- sil silver silver sil silver ver which affects the the- purchasing power of half the worlds world's When silver is depressed as at present time the silver standard countries coun- coun countries i tries are arc unable to buy in the gold The picture at home is undoubtedly undoubtedly undoubtedly edly more encouraging than the world picture We have the finest industrial organism in existence existence- existence we have the factories and the ma-I ma ma- ma machines ma machines chines an farms that are ade ado adequate quate to our needs Our utilities our our railroads our oil companies our insurance institutions are arc the harbingers of American progress They represent honest national as- as assets assets as assets sets as against the assets we counted on in the boom days Because cause the machinery of distri- distri distribution distribution tion distri-tion has slowed it does not E mean that the machinery of pro pro- production production pro is lacking or fault faulty Our greatest single problem unemployment Ten million of our working population is at present out of a job and iss buying has come to a stop Much of this hasI un- un unemployment unemployment un unemployment I employment is part temporary temporary part of it it is the result of machine displace displace- displacement displacement displacement ment of labor Today the more most industrialists arc are working toward plans to shorten the working day and the working week and to pro pro- provide provide pro provide vide some means of unemployment insurance that will assure the able and willing worker a n livelihood in It is isI bad times s as well as good I difficult to believe that their ef- ef efforts ef efforts forts will end in failure The Wei weight of taxation which forces re retrenchment is preventing the em- em cm of many of those now socking seeking jobs This is America at the opening of a 1933 1933 a vast and incalculably em- em emerging emerging em emerging rich land which is gradually from depression and enter enter- entering entering entering ing a a new era It is still a land of promise as it was in the days of the Argonauts It has ls lost nothing that it really is still fruitful its mines are still filled with metals its factories are ready to make the necessities and luxuries its people want Its peo- peo pIe are courageous and they peo-I peo still have faith Its leaders retain those vital qualities intelligence qualities intelligence and vision American will pull out of the depression and depression and from the les- les lessons lessons les lessons sons that depression has taught it may find a means of preventing both extreme rises and extreme drops in the economic and social cycle and of creating genuine per permanent permanent permanent manent and sound prosperity Let the people curb the tax bill billand billand billand and the first great gleat step will be betaken betaken betaken taken toward industrial recovery and employment |