The problem of the credit of the individual was made more difficult
because of another fact. The dollar was a different dollar from the
one with which the average debt had been incurred. For this reason
large numbers of people were actually losing possession of and
title to their farms and homes. All of you know the financial steps
which have been taken to correct this inequality. In addition the
Home Loan Act, the Farm Loan Act and the Bankruptcy Act were
passed.

It was a vital necessity to restore purchasing power by reducing
the debt and interest charges upon our people, but while we were
helping people to save their credit it was at the same time
absolutely essential to do something about the physical needs of
hundreds of thousands who were in dire straits at that very moment.
Municipal and state aid were being stretched to the limit. We
appropriated half a billion dollars to supplement their efforts and
in addition, as you know, we have put 300,000 young men into
practical and useful work in our forests and to prevent flood and
soil erosion. The wages they earn are going in greater part to the
support of the nearly one million people who constitute their
families.

In this same classification we can properly place the great public
works program running to a total of over three billion dollars--to
be used for highways and ships and flood prevention and inland
navigation and thousands of self-sustaining state and municipal
improvements. Two points should be made clear in the allotting and
administration of these projects--first, we are using the utmost
care to choose labor-creating, quick-acting, useful projects,