Remarks at Hamtramck Stadium, Detroit, Mich.

My friends, I am glad for many reasons to be with you tonight at this great gathering. I am happy to be here by the side of my old friends, Senator Couzens, Governor Murphy, Prentiss Brown and many others; and I am glad, also, to come to this dedication of one of the projects in which the Federal Government has been able to help your city.

As I came through those streets tonight, lined by thousands of men, women and children, I was thinking mostly about the children. I was thinking mostly about the days to come when they would be the citizens of the United States and would take our places in the conduct of the affairs of the State and of the Nation.

During these past three and a half years we have tried to do much to save the United States for these children. We have tried to keep people from starving; we have tried to save the homes of the Nation; we have tried to restore employment to the people of the Nation. I think that in these three years we have come a long way.

But it has not been only the immediate emergency that we have had to cope with. We have been thinking about some of the things that the country needs in addition to bare food and lodging. That is why a great stadium of this kind has been built. This stadium is one of the things that will last for many years and contribute toward the enjoyment and recreation, not only of us older people but of the younger generation as well.

Yes, I am thinking of a future America, where we may all have a little bit more of the better things of life than we have today, a little bit more in the way of money compensation for our work, a little bit more in the way of holidays—shorter hours and Saturdays off and Sundays off as well.

Some people in this country have called it "boondoggling" for us to build stadiums and parks and forests and to improve the recreational facilities of the Nation. My friends, if this stadium can be called boondoggling, then I am for boondoggling, and so are you.

I am looking forward to a continuation in the next few years of the policy that will work for the good of the average citizen in the United States, that will not forget the forgotten man. It has been a privilege to be with you tonight; and I hope that some time in the next four years I shall be able to leave Washington, and visit with you again.