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Since the War. "In the reaction from wartime exaltation the moral power of the nation suffered little diminution." Heavy taxes were borne courageously. Three times taxes have been reduced, "saving the nation between $6,000,000 and $7,000,000 each day." The national debt will have been reduced by one-third next June. "The saving in interest alone is about $1,000,000 for each day."
Still in Debt. But the U. S. debt remains 18 billions big.^ "It is a, menace to our credit. It is the greatest weakness in our line of national defense." It should be paid by "reasonable" taxation. Government economy must continue.
"Not Commonplace." "These results have not been easy to accomplish. They have been extremely hard. They have been anything but commonplace. They mark a new epoch and set a new record in successful Government financing."
Future Program. A moderate tax reduction is possible. "But let it be remembered that tax reduction is possible solely on account of economy. Anybody can spend the money somebody else has saved." Flood control, Lakes-to-Gulf and St. Lawrence waterways, the Colorado River water & power project, the Columbia Basin, the Navy, and aviation and highways to make more intimate "our relationship with the vast territory between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn in a commercial way . . . will be some of the rewards of a judicious management of the national finances."
Domestic Affairs. ."The web of our affairs is extremely delicate, extremely intricate. Producing, transporting, marketing, financing, all require a higher skill, a more intelligent organization, than under a less developed, less prosperous people. . The entire life of the nation, all its economic activities, have become so interrelated that maladjustment in any one of them is sufficient to cause serious disarrangement in all the rest.
"We have become one nation, we can only survive through the most elaborate system of concerted action. Any part which fails to function is chargeable with disloyalty to the whole people."
Foreign Loans. "We are more concerned than ever with our foreign affairs. The wealth of our people is going out in a constant stream of record dimensions for restoration and development in all parts of the world. We want our moral, influence to be on the side of liberty, of education, of fair elections and of honest constitutional government."
"Sensational Story." "This, I believe, is a fair representation of what has been taking place in the immediate past, and what we may hope for in the immediate future.
"Rightly understood, there is no more sensational story of human experience. Society is made up of constants and variables. The variables attract us by their contrasts and are always appearing in the headlines. But the constants always predominate, always push ahead in the march of progress."