In such a spirit on my part and on yours, we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce, and the savings of many years and thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equal and great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

And yet, our distress comes from no failure of substance, we are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and were not afraid, we have so much to be thankful for. Nature surrounds us with her bounty, and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.