A very wise man, Bernard Baruch, once said that America has never forgotten the nobler things that brought her into being and that light her path.  Our country is a special place, because we Americans have always been sustained, through good times and bad, by a noble vision—­a vision not only of what the world around us is today but what we as a free people can make it be tomorrow.

We’re realists; we solve our problems instead of ignoring them, no matter how loud the chorus of despair around us.  But we’re also idealists, for it was an ideal that brought our ancestors to these shores from every corner of the world.

Right now we need both realism and idealism.  Millions of our neighbors are without work.  It is up to us to see they aren’t without hope.  This is a task for all of us.  And may I say, Americans have rallied to this cause, proving once again that we are the most generous people on Earth.

We who are in government must take the lead in restoring the economy.  And here all that time, I thought you were reading the paper.

The single thing—­the single thing that can start the wheels of industry turning again is further reduction of interest rates.  Just another 1 or 2 points can mean tens of thousands of jobs.

Right now, with inflation as low as it is, 3.9 percent, there is room for interest rates to come down.  Only fear prevents their reduction.  A lender, as we know, must charge an interest rate that recovers the depreciated value of the dollars loaned.  And that depreciation is, of course, the amount of inflation.  Today, interest rates are based on fear—­fear that government will resort to measures, as it has in the past, that will send inflation zooming again.

We who serve here in this Capital must erase that fear by making it absolutely clear that we will not stop fighting inflation; that, together, we will do only those things that will lead to lasting economic growth.

Yes, the problems confronting us are large and forbidding.  And, certainly, no one can or should minimize the plight of millions of our friends and neighbors who are living in the bleak emptiness of unemployment.  But we must and can give them good reason to be hopeful.

Back over the years, citizens like ourselves have gathered within these walls when our nation was threatened; sometimes when its very existence was at stake.  Always with courage and common sense, they met the crises of their time and lived to see a stronger, better, and more prosperous country.  The present situation is no worse and, in fact, is not as bad as some of those they faced.  Time and again, they proved that there is nothing we Americans cannot achieve as free men and women.

Yes, we still have problems—­plenty of them.  But it’s just plain wrong—­unjust to our country and unjust to our people—­to let those problems stand in the way of the most important truth of all:  America is on the mend.