Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Revision of procedure of the Federal Trade Commission will give more
constructive purpose to this department.
If our Alaskan fisheries are to be saved from destruction, there must be
further legislation declaring a general policy and delegating the authority
to make rules and regulations to an administrative body.
ARMY AND NAVY
For several years we have been decreasing the personnel of the Army and
Navy, and reducing their power to the danger point. Further reductions
should not be made. The Army is a guarantee of the security of our citizens
at home; the Navy is a guarantee of the security of our citizens abroad.
Both of these services should be strengthened rather than weakened.
Additional planes are needed for the Army, and additional submarines for
the Navy. The defenses of Panama must be perfected. We want no more
competitive armaments. We want no more war. But we want no weakness that
invites imposition. A people who neglect their national defense are putting
in jeopardy their national honor.
INSULAR POSSESSIONS
Conditions in the insular possessions on the whole have been good. Their
business has been reviving. They are being administered according to law.
That effort has the full support of the administration. Such
recommendations as may conic from their people or their governments should
have the most considerate attention.
EDUCATION AND WELFARE
Our National Government is not doing as much as it legitimately can do to
promote the welfare of the people. Our enormous material wealth, our
institutions, our whole form of society, can not be considered fully
successful until their benefits reach the merit of every individual. This
is not a suggestion that the Government should, or could, assume for the
people the inevitable burdens of existence. There is no method by which we
can either be relieved of the results of our own folly or be guaranteed a
successful life. There is an inescapable personal responsibility for the
development of character, of industry, of thrift, and of self-control.
These do not come from the Government, but from the people themselves. But
the Government can and should always be expressive of steadfast
determination, always vigilant, to maintain conditions under which these
virtues are most likely to develop and secure recognition and reward. This
is the American policy.
It is in accordance with this principle that we have enacted laws for the
protection of the public health and have adopted prohibition in narcotic
drugs and intoxicating liquors. For purposes of national uniformity we
ought to provide, by constitutional amendment and appropriate legislation,
for a limitation of child labor, and in all cases under the exclusive
jurisdiction of the Federal Government a minimum wage law for women, which
would undoubtedly find sufficient power of enforcement in the influence of
public opinion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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