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The White
House 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue
July 1938
No purpose is closer to
my heart at this moment than to obtain a statement —
or perhaps I should say restatement, as of today —
of the economic conditions of the South, a picture of the
South in relation to the rest of the country, in order
that we may do something about it — in order that we
may not only carry forward the work that has been begun
toward the rehabilitation of the South, but that the
program of such work may be expanded in the directions
that this new presentation shall indicate.
My intimate interest in
all that concerns the South is, I believe, known to all
of you, but this interest is far more than a sentimental
attachment born of a considerable residence in your
section and of close personal friendship for so many of
your people. It proceeds even more from my feeling of
responsibility toward the whole Nation.
It is my conviction
that the South presents right now the Nation’s No. 1
economic problem — the Nation’s problem, not
merely the South’s. For we have an economic
unbalance in the Nation as a whole, due to this very
condition of the South. It is an unbalance that can and
must be righted, for the sake of the South and of the
Nation.
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