in the trend to better times.

The whole picture, however--the average of the whole territory from
coast to coast--the average of the whole population of 120,000,000
people--shows to any person willing to look, facts and action of
which you and I can be proud.

In the early spring of this year there were actually and
proportionately more people out of work in this country than in any
other nation in the world. Fair estimates showed twelve or thirteen
millions unemployed last March. Among those there were, of course,
several millions who could be classed as normally unemployed--
people who worked occasionally when they felt like it, and others
who preferred not to work at all. It seems, therefore, fair to say
that there were about 10 millions of our citizens who earnestly,
and in many cases hungrily, were seeking work and could not get it.
Of these, in the short space of a few months, I am convinced that
at least 4 millions have been given employment--or, saying it
another way, 40 percent of those seeking work have found it.

That does not mean, my friends, that I am satisfied, or that you
are satisfied that our work is ended. We have a long way to go but
we are on the way.

How are we constructing the edifice of recovery--the temple which,
when completed, will no longer be a temple of money-changers or of
beggars, but rather a temple dedicated to and maintained for a
greater social justice, a greater welfare for America--the
habitation of a sound economic life? We are building, stone by
stone, the columns which will support that habitation. Those