Disorder is not an American habit.  Self-help and self-control are the essence of the American tradition—­not of necessity the form of that tradition, but its spirit.  The program itself comes from the American people.

It is an integrated program, national in scope.  Viewed in the large, it is designed to save from destruction and to keep for the future the genuinely important values created by modern society.  The vicious and wasteful parts of that society we could not save if we wished; they have chosen the way of self-destruction.  We would save useful mechanical invention, machine production, industrial efficiency, modern means of communication, broad education.  We would save and encourage the slowly growing impulse among consumers to enter the industrial market place equipped with sufficient organization to insist upon fair prices and honest sales.

But the unnecessary expansion of industrial plants, the waste of natural resources, the exploitation of the consumers of natural monopolies, the accumulation of stagnant surpluses, child labor, and the ruthless exploitation of all labor, the encouragement of speculation with other people’s money, these were consumed in the fires that they themselves kindled; we must make sure that as we reconstruct our life there be no soil in which such weeds can grow again.

We have plowed the furrow and planted the good seed; the hard beginning is over.  If we would reap the full harvest, we must cultivate the soil where this good seed is sprouting and the plant is reaching up to mature growth.

A final personal word.  I know that each of you will appreciate that.  I am speaking no mere politeness when I assure you how much I value the fine relationship that we have shared during these months of hard and incessant work.  Out of these friendly contacts we are, fortunately, building a strong and permanent tie between the legislative and executive branches of the Government.  The letter of the Constitution wisely declared a separation, but the impulse of common purpose declares a union.  In this spirit we join once more in serving the American people.

***

State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 7, 1943

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Seventy-eighth Congress: 

This Seventy-eighth Congress assembles in one of the great moments in the history of the Nation.  The past year was perhaps the most crucial for modern civilization; the coming year will be filled with violent conflicts—­ yet with high promise of better things.

We must appraise the events of 1942 according to their relative importance; we must exercise a sense of proportion.

First in importance in the American scene has been the inspiring proof of the great qualities of our fighting men.  They have demonstrated these qualities in adversity as well as in victory.  As long as our flag flies over this Capitol, Americans will honor the soldiers, sailors, and marines who fought our first battles of this war against overwhelming odds the heroes, living and dead, of Wake and Bataan and Guadalcanal, of the Java Sea and Midway and the North Atlantic convoys.  Their unconquerable spirit will live forever.