6. Economy (1931)

(i) Saving and Spending (Jan. 1931) 1

The slump in trade and employment and thebusiness losses which are being incurred are asbad as the worst which have ever occurred inthe modern history of the world. No countryis exempt. The privation and—what is some-times worse—the anxiety which exist to-day inmillions of homes all over the world is extreme.In the three chief industrial countries of theworld. Great Britain, Germany, and the UnitedStates, I estimate that probably 12,000,000 in-dustrial workers stand idle. But I am not surethat there is not even more human misery to-dayin the great agricultural countries of the world—Canada, Australia, and South America, wheremillions of small farmers see themselves ruinedby the fall in the prices of their products, sothat their receipts after harvest bring them inmuch less than the crops have cost them to pro-duce. For the fall in the prices of the greatstaple products of the world such as wheat, wool,sugar, cotton, and indeed most other commodi-ties has been simply catastrophic. Most ofthese prices are now below their pre-war level;

1 A Broadcast Address.

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