Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Statement by the President on the Economic Situation.

February 12, 1958

YESTERDAY the Departments of Labor and Commerce published figures for January on employment and unemployment. They indicate that the current falling off in the economy is sharper than usual for this time of year.

All of us are deeply concerned over the hardships that these figures record for the families of the additional breadwinners temporarily out of work, and those that have gone on a shortened work week. I know that we are concerned, too, with the loss of production involved and the pressure this puts on many businesses across the land. While these developments reflect important features of our present economic situation, they must be seen in perspective as we look ahead.

From the best advice I can get, and on my own study of the facts regularly placed before me, I believe that we have had most of our bad news on the unemployment front. I am convinced that we are not facing a prolonged downswing in activity. Every indication is that March will commence to see the start of a pickup in job opportunities. That should mark the beginning of the end of the downturn in our economy, provided we apply ourselves with confidence to the job ahead. As Americans we have a responsibility to work toward the early resumption of sound growth in our economy.

I have confidence in the recovery of our economy later this year for two reasons.

First, it is my conviction that the underlying forces of growth remain strong and undiminished. As a Nation, we must provide the needs of a population growing at a rate of three million a year. Billions of dollars are being spent every year on research and development that will mean new products and new jobs. Overseas economic development will provide growing markets for our resources. The future will belong, not to the faint-hearted, but to those who believe in it and prepare for it.

Second, the firm policy of the Government is to foster this recovery in every sound way. I am making sure that we will go forward on every practical avenue of action. Some steps have already been taken; others are under administrative review; still others are before Congress in the form of requests for legislation.

To dispel false impressions and to make dear the activities of this Administration in these fields, I am releasing today a Fact Paper setting forth programs and policies bearing on the current economic situation. They include action in recent months by the Federal Reserve System to ease credit, with dramatic results already achieved in a greater availability of credit and lower borrowing costs. Steps have been taken, going back to last August, to stimulate homebuilding, even though we were disappointed by the failure of the Congress to authorize interest rates that would attract mortgage money into many phases of home construction. They also include sharply stepped-up expenditures on the national highway building program, an increase in activity under the urban renewal program, and a sharp increase in the first half of this year in the rate at which defense procurement contracts will be placed with private industry.

These and other programs and proposals are outlined in the Fact Paper. If other measures are needed, I assure you they will be proposed--and in time. For example, for some time now the Administration has been engaged in systematic and comprehensive planning for expansion and modernization of public works and buildings, all of these useful public projects to be taken off the shelf when they could most appropriately be undertaken. Yesterday I directed the Postmaster General to present to the Congress a $2 billion program for modernization during the next 3-5 years of Post Office buildings and equipment throughout the country.

In all these matters of Government policy it is well to remember that with an economy as complex as ours, it is necessary not only to avoid the taking of wrong steps but confidently take the right ones. This we propose to do.

Note: The Fact Paper referred to by the President was released with his statement.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President on the Economic Situation. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234112

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