Before I come to any of the specific measures, however, I want to
leave in your minds one clear fact. The administration and the
Congress are not proceeding in any haphazard fashion in this task
of government. Each of our steps has a definite relationship to
every other step. The job of creating a program for the nation's
welfare is, in some respects, like the building of a ship. At
different points on the coast where I often visit they build great
seagoing ships. When one of these ships is under construction and
the steel frames have been set in the keel, it is difficult for a
person who does not know ships to tell how it will finally look
when it is sailing the high seas.

It may seem confused to some, but out of the multitude of detailed
parts that go into the making of the structure the creation of a
useful instrument for man ultimately comes. It is that way with the
making of a national policy. The objective of the nation has
greatly changed in three years. Before that time individual self-
interest and group selfishness were paramount in public thinking.
The general good was at a discount.

Three years of hard thinking have changed the picture. More and
more people, because of clearer thinking and a better
understanding, are considering the whole rather than a mere part
relating to one section or to one crop, or to one industry, or to
an individual private occupation. That is a tremendous gain for the
principles of democracy. The overwhelming majority of people in
this country know how to sift the wheat from the chaff in what they
hear and what they read. They know that the process of the
constructive rebuilding of America cannot be done in a day or a
year, but that it is being done in spite of the few who seek to