Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The result of magnificent cooperation throughout the country has been that
actual suffering has been kept to a minimum during the past 12 months, and
our unemployment has been far less in proportion than in other large
industrial countries. Some time ago it became evident that unemployment
would continue over the winter and would necessarily be added to from
seasonal causes and that the savings of workpeople would be more largely
depleted. We have as a Nation a definite duty to see that no deserving
person in our country suffers from hunger or cold. I therefore set up a
more extensive organization to stimulate more intensive cooperation
throughout the country. There has been a most gratifying degree of
response, from governors, mayors, and other public officials, from welfare
organizations, and from employers in concerns both large and small. The
local communities through their voluntary agencies have assumed the duty of
relieving individual distress and are being generously supported by the
public.
The number of those wholly out of employment seeking for work was
accurately determined by the census last April as about 2,500,000. The
Department of Labor index of employment in the larger trades shows some
decrease in employment since that time. The problem from a relief point of
view is somewhat less than the published estimates of the number of
unemployed would indicate. The intensive community and individual efforts
in providing special employment outside the listed industries are not
reflected in the statistical indexes and tend to reduce such published
figures. Moreover, there is estimated to be a constant figure at all times
of nearly 1,000,000 unemployed who are not without annual income but
temporarily idle in the shift from one job to another. We have an average
of about three breadwinners to each two families, so that every person
unemployed does not represent a family without income. The view that the
relief problems are less than the gross numbers would indicate is confirmed
by the experience of several cities, which shows that the number of
families in distress represents from 10 to 20 per cent of the number of the
calculated unemployed. This is not said to minimize the very real problem
which exists but to weigh its actual proportions.
As a contribution to the situation the Federal Government is engaged upon
the greatest program of waterway, harbor, flood control, public building,
highway, and airway improvement in all our history. This, together with
loans to merchant shipbuilders, improvement of the Navy and in military
aviation, and other construction work of the Government will exceed
$520,000,000 for this fiscal year. This compares with $253,000,000 in the
fiscal year 1928. The construction works already authorized and the
continuation of policies in Government aid will require a continual
expenditure upwards of half a billion dollars annually.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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