and second, as a result of that, a flight of American capital, in
the form of gold, out of our country. It is not exaggerating the
possibility to tell you that such an occurrence might well have
taken from us the major part of our gold reserve and resulted in
such a further weakening of our government and private credit as to
bring on actual panic conditions and the complete stoppage of the
wheels of industry.

The administration has the definite objective of raising commodity
prices to such an extent that those who have borrowed money will,
on the average, be able to repay that money in the same kind of
dollar which they borrowed. We do not seek to let them get such a
cheap dollar that they will be able to pay back a great deal less
than they borrowed. In other words, we seek to correct a wrong and
not to create another wrong in the opposite direction. That is why
powers are being given to the administration to provide, if
necessary, for an enlargement of credit, in order to correct the
existing wrong. These powers will be used when, as, and if it may
be necessary to accomplish the purpose.

Hand in hand with the domestic situation which, of course, is our
first concern, is the world situation, and I want to emphasize to
you that the domestic situation is inevitably and deeply tied in
with the conditions in all of the other nations of the world. In
other words, we can get, in all probability, a fair measure of
prosperity to return in the United States, but it will not be
permanent unless we get a return to prosperity all over the world.

In the conferences which we have held and are holding with the
leaders of other nations, we are seeking four great objectives: