, though vastly important, are in point of
time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national
economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things
first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international
economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that
accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national
recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a
first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements
in and parts of the United States of America--a recognition of the old
and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the
pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the
strongest assurance that recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the
policy of the good neighbor--the neighbor who resolutely respects
himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others--the
neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his
agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we
have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we
cannot merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go
forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice
for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no
progress can be made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know,
ready and willing to submit our lives and our property to such
discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at the
larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes
will bind upon us--bind upon us all--as a sacred obligation with a
unity of duty hitherto evoked only in times of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this
great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our
common problems.

Action in this image--action to this end--is feasible under the form
of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our
Constitution is so simple, so practical that it is possible always to
meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without
loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has
proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern
world has ever seen. It ha