President Hoover's Message
On Tuesday, President Hoover sent his Message to Congress. It dealt chiefly with the economic depression, and he strongly implied, if he did not predict, that there would soon be an improvement. In his opinion the United States had not lost more than 15 to 20 per cent. of her former activities. The origins of the depression, he thought, were not to be found within the United States ; she had suffered from the political unrest and economic disturbances all over the world. " Our recuperation has been retarded by an unwarranted degree of fear and apprehension." Mr. Hoover then laid it down that the economic distress and unemploy- ment could not be cured by legislation. The true way was for the Government to encourage voluntary co- operation. American unemployment had been less than elsewhere in proportion to the population. He mentioned the figure of 2,500,000 unemployed which was arrived at in the census last April. He did not discuss the much higher figures which have been suggested—one as high as 5,000,000. Ile offered the comforting reflection that there was normally a pool of about 1,000,000 unem- ployed.
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