National Affairs: On Bought Time

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While her husband played foreign war (see above) and his chief spokesman wooed Business (see p. 49), Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, increasingly vocal these days on national issues* delivered an extemporaneous speech in Manhattan last week on security for youth and age. Excerpts:

". . . We had this problem, remember, in 1931 and 1932. Business says today if they trusted Government they could answer it. They trusted Government presumably in '31 and '32 and the problem was not answered. Since that time we have had a change of political party. I believe in the things which have been done, but they don't answer the fundamental question. We have done things I think which helped, but we have been afraid, all of us, to really face the facts that this is an economic problem and that none of us knows the answer.

"Now, I believe in the Social Security Act. I believe in old-age pensions. I think we have to deal that way with many things. I believe in the National Youth Administration, never as a fundamental answer, but simply as something which gives hope, which gives perhaps a suggestion which might be followed by communities; never because the Federal Government could answer the whole problem of the unemployment of youth by a Youth Administration or WPA. It can't be done. These are stopgaps. We bought ourselves time to think. That is what we have done.

"There is no use kidding ourselves. We have got to face this problem and we have got to face it together. ... It is not just Youth. To be sure it matters more to Youth. Youth wants to begin living, it is vital for them. But we have all got to face it and face it together. . . . This goes down to the roots of whether civilization goes on or civilization dies, as many civilizations have died in the past. It is nothing new for a civilization to come to the end. We have seen it happen over and over again. It is just a question of whether we have the brains to keep it from happening and the determination and the character and the unselfishness. It is a great challenge to the people of this country because we are the leading country today. We have bought ourselves time. Is it going to be worth buying?"