FDR on Welfare

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, father of the New Deal, nevertheless took a dim view of welfare payments to people. Here are his words from his annual message to Congress, dated January 4, 1935:

The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.

His alternative was to find people real jobs, easier said than done. My source is from Jay Nordlinger's column in National Review, scroll down.