INDEPENDENCE VERSUS DEPENDENCE 143 



steadily we have been shifting our population from 

 the country (where they used to at one time support 

 themselves) into cities (where they became wholly 

 dependent upon industry for their livelihood). And 

 while doing this, we have boasted about the glorious 

 conquests of the machine age. The machine age was 

 shortening the hours of labor; it was annihilating 

 space and enabling us to fly; it was furnishing even 

 the humblest of us magical amusements "pictures" 

 which moved and talked, and "radios" which brought 

 song and speech on the waves of the air. 



Yet today, millions of the beneficiaries of this ma- 

 chine age are no longer worrying about maintaining 

 the high standard of living about which we have been 

 boasting. They have lost their aspirations for two-car 

 garages, and new models each year. They are no longer 

 trying to keep up with the Joneses. 



We have dotted the landscape with our factories. 

 We have filled the cities with skyscrapers. We have 

 covered the continent with a network of rails and 

 roadways. But in spite of all these things, we have 

 been unable to furnish the American people security 

 even as to such bare essentials as food and clothing and 

 shelter. 



During the depression of 1837 they were told that 

 the Central Bank of the United States was responsible 

 for the country's depression. So they abolished it. 



During the depression of 1854 they were told that 

 the state banks and their wild-cat currency were re- 



