Date: January 19, 1931
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
It would be difficult to recall when the American Red Cross has appealed to the people in vain for money. The request is now made for $10,000,000.
While that is a large sum, it is less than the daily cost of the national government. No one can doubt the ability of the country easily to meet this requirement.
The emergency is acute and urgent. The large centers of population are able to care for their needy and generally are doing it. The great stretches of open country where drought has been superimposed upon bad business conditions are unable to relieve the most intense suffering without outside assistance. Many people in those areas are on the border of starvation. They are face to face with famine.
Such an unusual condition in our domestic experience makes it extremely difficult for our people to realize it. But the suffering does exist. It must be relieved. No more compelling demand has been presented to private charity since the war. The situation is such that it is not too much to say that our whole social organization is on trial. A comparatively small expenditure made now will avert a possible future calamity.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of David Diao who prepared this document for digital publication.