We would not have an America living within and for herself alone,
but we would have her self-reliant, independent, and ever nobler,
stronger, and richer. Believing in our higher standards, reared
through constitutional liberty and maintained opportunity, we
invite the world to the same heights. But pride in things wrought
is no reflex of a completed task. Common welfare is the goal of
our national endeavor. Wealth is not inimical to welfare; it ought
to be its friendliest agency. There never can be equality of
rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied
talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours
ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed
poverty. We ought to find a way to guard against the perils and
penalties of unemployment. We want an America of homes, illumined
with hope and happiness, where mothers, freed from the necessity
for long hours of toil beyond their own doors, may preside as
befits the hearthstone of American citizenship. We want the cradle
of American childhood rocked under conditions so wholesome and so
hopeful that no blight may touch it in its development, and we
want to provide that no selfish interest, no material necessity,
no lack of opportunity shall prevent the gaining of that education
so essential to best citizenship.
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