the tasks of today. War never left such an aftermath. There has been
staggering loss of life and measureless wastage of materials. Nations
are still groping for return to stable ways. Discouraging indebtedness
confronts us like all the war-torn nations, and these obligations must
be provided for. No civilization can survive repudiation.

We can reduce the abnormal expenditures, and we will. We can strike at
war taxation, and we must. We must face the grim necessity, with full
knowledge that the task is to be solved, and we must proceed with a
full realization that no statute enacted by man can repeal the
inexorable laws of nature. Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too
much of government, and at the same time do for it too little. We
contemplate the immediate task of putting our public household in
order. We need a rigid and yet sane economy, combined with fiscal
justice, and it must be attended by individual prudence and thrift,
which are so essential to this trying hour and reassuring for the
future.

The business world reflects the disturbance of war's reaction. Herein
flows the lifeblood of material existence. The economic mechanism is
intricate and its parts interdependent, and has suffered the shocks and
jars incident to abnormal demands, credit inflations, and price
upheavals. The normal balances have been impaired, the channels of
distribution have been clogged, the relations of labor and management
have been strained. We must seek the readjustment with care and
courage. Our people must give and take. Prices must reflect the
receding fever of war activities. Perhaps we never shall know the old
levels of wages again, because war invariably readjusts compensations,
and the necessaries of life will show their inseparable relationship,
but we must strive for normalcy to reach stability. All the penalties