As the Congress reassembles, the impact of war abroad makes it natural to
approach "the state of the union" through a discussion of foreign affairs.
But it is important that those who hear and read this message should in no
way confuse that approach with any thought that our Government is
abandoning, or even overlooking, the great significance of its domestic
policies.
The social and economic forces which have been mismanaged abroad until they
have resulted in revolution, dictatorship and war are the same as those
which we here are struggling to adjust peacefully at home.
You are well aware that dictatorships--and the philosophy of force that
justifies and accompanies dictatorships--have originated in almost every
case in the necessity for drastic action to improve internal conditions in
places where democratic action for one reason or another has failed to
respond to modern needs and modern demands.
It was with far-sighted wisdom that the framers of our Constitution brought
together in one magnificent phrase three great concepts--"common defense,"
"general welfare" and "domestic tranquility."
More than a century and a half later we, who are here today, still believe
with them that our best defense is the promotion of our general welfare and
domestic tranquillity.
In previous messages to the Congress I have repeatedly warned that, whether
we like it or not, the daily lives of American citizens will, of necessity,
feel the shock of events on other continents. This is no longer mere
theory; because it has been definitely proved to us by the facts of
yesterday and today.
To say that the domestic well-being of one hundred and thirty million
Americans is deeply affected by the well-being or the ill-being of the
populations of other nations is only to recognize in world affairs the
truth that we all accept in home affairs.
If in any local unit--a city, county, State or region--low standards of
living are permitted to continue, the level of the civilization of the
entire nation will be pulled downward.
The identical principle extends to the rest of the civilized world. But
there are those who wishfully insist, in innocence or ignorance or both,
that the United States of America as a self-contained unit can live happily
and prosperously, its future secure, inside a high wall of isolation while,
outside, the rest of Civilization and the commerce and culture of mankind
are shattered.
I can understand the feelings of those who warn the nation that they will
never again consent to the sending of American youth to fight on the soil
of Europe. But, as I remember, nobody has asked them to consent--for nobody
expects such an undertaking.
The overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens do not abandon in the
slightest their hope and their expectation that the United States will not
become involved in military participation in these wars.
I can also understand the wishfulness of those who oversimplify the whole
situation by repeating that all we have to do is to mind our own business
and keep the nation out of war. But there is a vast difference between
keeping out of war and pretending that this war is none of our business.
We do not have to go to war with other nations, but at least we can strive
with other nations to encourage the kind of peace that will lighten the
troubles of the world, and by so doing help our own nation as well.
I ask that all of us everywhere think things through with the single aim of
how best to serve the future of our own nation. I do not mean merely its
future relationship with the outside world. I mean its domestic future as
well--the work, the security, the prosperity, the happiness, the life of all
the boys and girls in the United States, as they are inevitably affected by
such world relationships. For it becomes clearer and clearer that the
future world will be a shabby and dangerous place to live in--yes, even for
Americans to live in--if it is ruled by force in the hands of a few.
Already the crash of swiftly moving events over the earth has made us all
think with a longer view. Fortunately, that thinking cannot be controlled
by partisanship. The time is long past when any political party or any
particular group can curry or capture public favor by labeling itself the
"peace party" or the "peace bloc." That label belongs to the whole United
States and to every right thinking man, woman and child within it.
For out of all the military and diplomatic turmoil, out of all the
propaganda, and counter-propaganda of the present conflicts, there are two
facts which stand out, and which the whole world acknowledges.
The first is that never before has the Government of the United States of
America done so much as in our recent past to establish and maintain the
policy of the Good Neighbor with its sister nations.
The second is that in almost every nation in the world today there is a
true public belief that the United States has been, and will continue to
be, a potent and active factor in seeking the reestablishment of world
peace.
In these recent years we have had a clean record of peace and good-will. It
is an open book that cannot be twisted or defamed. It is a record that must
be continued and enlarged.
So I hope that Americans everywhere will work out for themselves the
several alternatives which lie before world civilization, which necessarily
includes our own.
We must look ahead and see the possibilities for our children if the rest
of the world comes to be dominated by concentrated force alone--even though
today we are a very great and a very powerful nation.
We must look ahead and see the effect on our own future if all the small
nations of the world have their independence snatched from them or become
mere appendages to relatively vast and powerful military systems.
We must look ahead and see the kind of lives our children would have to
lead if a large part of the rest of the world were compelled to worship a
god imposed by a military ruler, or were forbidden to worship God at all;
if the rest of the world were forbidden to read and hear the facts--the
daily news of their own and other nations--if they were deprived of the
truth that makes men free.
We must look ahead and see the effect on our future generations if world
trade is controlled by any nation or group of nations which sets up that
control through military force.
It is, of course, true that the record of past centuries includes
destruction of many small nations, the enslavement of peoples, and the
building of empires on the foundation of force. But wholly apart from the
greater international morality which we seek today, we recognize the
practical fact that with modern weapons and modern conditions, modern man
can no longer lead a civilized life if we are to go back to the practice of
wars and conquests of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Summing up this need of looking ahead, and in words of common sense and
good American citizenship. I hope that we shall have fewer American
ostriches in our midst. It is not good for the ultimate health of ostriches
to bury their heads in the sand.
Only an ostrich would look upon these wars through the eyes of cynicism or
ridicule.
Of course, the peoples of other nations have the right to choose their own
form of Government. But we in this nation still believe that such choice
should be predicated on certain freedoms which we think are essential
everywhere. We know that we ourselves shall never be wholly safe at home
unless other governments recognize such freedoms.
Twenty-one American Republics, expressing the will of two hundred and fifty
million people to preserve peace and freedom in this Hemisphere, are
displaying a unanimity of ideals and practical relationships which gives
hope that what is being done here can be done on other continents. We in
all the Americas are coming to the realization that we can retain our
respective nationalities without, at the same time, threatening the
national existence of our neighbors.
Such truly friendly relationships, for example, permit us to follow our own
domestic policies with reference to our agricultural products, while at the
same time we have the privilege of trying to work out mutual assistance
arrangements for a world distribution of world agricultural surpluses.
And we have been able to apply the same simple principle to many
manufactured products--surpluses of which must be sold in the world export
markets if we intend to continue a high level of production and
employment.
For many years after the World War blind economic selfishness in most
countries, including our own, resulted in a destructive mine-field of trade
restrictions which blocked the channels of commerce among nations. Indeed,
this policy was one of the contributing causes of existing wars. It dammed
up vast unsalable surpluses, helping to bring about unemployment and
suffering in the United States and everywhere else.
To point the way to break up that log-jam our Trade Agreements Act was
passed--based upon a policy of equality of treatment among nations and of
mutually profitable arrangements of trade.
It is not correct to infer that legislative powers have been transferred
from the Congress to the Executive Branch of the Government. Everyone
recognizes that general tariff legislation is a Congressional function; but
we know that, because of the stupendous task involved in the fashioning and
the passing of a general tariff law, it is advisable to provide at times of
emergency some flexibility to make the general law adjustable to quickly
changing conditions.
We are in such a time today. Our present trade agreement method provides a
temporary flexibility and is, therefore, practical in the best sense. It
should be kept alive to serve our trade interests--agricultural and
industrial--in many valuable ways during the existing wars.
But what is more important, the Trade Agreements Act should be extended as
an indispensable part of the foundation of any stable and enduring peace.
The old conditions of world trade made for no enduring peace; and when the
time comes, the United States must use its influence to open up the trade
channels of the world, in all nations, in order that no one nation need
feel compelled in later days to seek by force of arms what it can well gain
by peaceful conference. For that purpose, too, we need the Trade Agreements
Act even more today than when it was passed.
I emphasize the leadership which this nation can take when the time comes
for a renewal of world peace. Such an influence will be greatly weakened if
this Government becomes a dog in the manger of trade selfishness.
The first President of the United States warned us against entangling
foreign alliances. The present President of the United States subscribes to
and follows that precept.
I hope that most of you will agree that trade cooperation with the rest of
the world does not violate that precept in any way.
Even as through these trade agreements we prepare to cooperate in a world
that wants peace, we must likewise be prepared to take care of ourselves if
the world cannot attain peace.
For several years past we have been compelled to strengthen our own
national defense. That has created a very large portion of our Treasury
deficits. This year in the light of continuing world uncertainty, I am
asking the Congress for Army and Navy increases which are based not on
panic but on common sense. They are not as great as enthusiastic alarmists
seek. They are not as small as unrealistic persons claiming superior
private information would demand.
As will appear in the annual budget tomorrow, the only important increase
in any part of the budget is the estimate for national defense. Practically
all other important items show a reduction. But you know, you can't eat
your cake and have it too. Therefore, in the hope that we can continue in
these days of increasing economic prosperity to reduce the Federal deficit,
I am asking the Congress to levy sufficient additional taxes to meet the
emergency spending for national defense.
Behind the Army and Navy, of course, lies our ultimate line of defense--"the
general welfare" of our people. We cannot report, despite all the progress
that we have made in our domestic problems--despite the fact that production
is back to 1929 levels--that all our problems are solved. The fact of
unemployment of millions of men and women remains a symptom of a number of
difficulties in our economic system not yet adjusted.
While the number of the unemployed has decreased very greatly, while their
immediate needs for food and clothing--as far as the Federal Government is
concerned--have been largely met, while their morale has been kept alive by
giving them useful public work, we have not yet found a way to employ the
surplus of our labor which the efficiency of our industrial processes has
created.
We refuse the European solution of using the unemployed to build up
excessive armaments which eventually result in dictatorships and war. We
encourage an American way--through an increase of national income which is
the only way we can be sure will take up the slack. Much progress has been
made; much remains to be done.
We recognize that we must find an answer in terms of work and opportunity.
The unemployment problem today has become very definitely a problem of
youth as well as of age. As each year has gone by hundreds of thousands of
boys and girls have come of working age. They now form an army of unused
youth. They must be an especial concern of democratic Government.
We must continue, above all things, to look for a solution of their special
problem. For they, looking ahead to life, are entitled to action on our
part and not merely to admonitions of optimism or lectures on economic
laws.
Some in our midst have sought to instill a feeling of fear and defeatism in
the minds of the American people about this problem.
To face the task of finding jobs faster than invention can take them
away--is not defeatism. To warble easy platitudes that if we would only go
back to ways that have failed, everything would be all right--is not
courage.
In 1933 we met a problem of real fear and real defeatism. We faced the
facts--with action and not with words alone.
The American people will reject the doctrine of fear, confident that in the
'thirties we have been building soundly a new order of things, different
from the order of the 'twenties. In this dawn of the decade of the
'forties, with our program of social improvement started, we will continue
to carry on the processes of recovery, so as to preserve our gains and
provide jobs at living wages.
There are, of course, many other items of great public interest which could
be enumerated in this message--the continued conservation of our natural
resources, the improvement of health and of education, the extension of
social security to larger groups, the freeing of large areas from
restricted transportation discriminations, the extension of the merit
system and many others.
Our continued progress in the social and economic field is important not
only for the significance of each part of it but for the total effect which
our program of domestic betterment has upon that most valuable asset of a
nation in dangerous times--its national unity.
The permanent security of America in the present crisis does not lie in
armed force alone. What we face is a set of world-wide forces of
disintegration--vicious, ruthless, destructive of all the moral, religious
and political standards which mankind, after centuries of struggle, has
come to cherish most.
In these moral values, in these forces which have made our nation great, we
must actively and practically reassert our faith.
These words--"national unity"--must not be allowed to be come merely a
high-sounding phrase, a vague generality, a pious hope, to which everyone
can give lip-service. They must be made to have real meaning in terms of
the daily thoughts and acts of every man, woman and child in our land
during the coming year and during the years that lie ahead.
For national unity is, in a very real and a very deep sense, the
fundamental safeguard of all democracy.
Doctrines that set group against group, faith against faith, race against
race, class against class, fanning the fires of hatred in men too
despondent, too desperate to think for themselves, were used as
rabble-rousing slogans on which dictators could ride to power. And once in
power they could saddle their tyrannies on whole nations and on their
weaker neighbors.
This is the danger to which we in America must begin to be more alert. For
the apologists for foreign aggressors, and equally those selfish and
partisan groups at home who wrap themselves in a false mantle of
Americanism to promote their own economic, financial or political
advantage, are now trying European tricks upon us, seeking to muddy the
stream of our national thinking, weakening us in the face of danger, by
trying to set our own people to fighting among themselves. Such tactics are
what have helped to plunge Europe into war. We must combat them, as we
would the plague, if American integrity and American security are to be
preserved. We cannot afford to face the future as a disunited people.
We must as a united people keep ablaze on this continent the flames of
human liberty, of reason, of democracy and of fair play as living things to
be preserved for the better world that is to come.
Overstatement, bitterness, vituperation, and the beating of drums have
contributed mightily to ill-feeling and wars between nations. If these
unnecessary and unpleasant actions are harmful in the international field,
if they have hurt in other parts of the world, they are also harmful in the
domestic scene. Peace among ourselves would seem to have some of the
advantage of peace between us and other nations. In the long run history
amply demonstrates that angry controversy surely wins less than calm
discussion.
In the spirit, therefore, of a greater unselfishness, recognizing that the
world--including the United States of America--passes through perilous
times, I am very hopeful that the closing session of the Seventy-sixth
Congress will consider the needs of the nation and of humanity with
calmness, with tolerance and with cooperative wisdom.
May the year 1940 be pointed to by our children as another period when
democracy justified its existence as the best instrument of government yet
devised by mankind.
***
State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 6, 1941
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Seventy-seventh Congress:
I address you, the Members of the Seventy-seventh Congress, at a moment
unprecedented in the history of the Union. I use the word "unprecedented,"
because at no previous time has American security been as seriously
threatened from without as it is today.
Since the permanent formation of our Government under the Constitution, in
1789, most of the periods of crisis in our history have related to our
domestic affairs. Fortunately, only one of these--the four-year War Between
the States--ever threatened our national unity. Today, thank God, one
hundred and thirty million Americans, in forty-eight States, have forgotten
points of the compass in our national unity.
It is true that prior to 1914 the United States often had been disturbed by
events in other Continents. We had even engaged in two wars with European
nations and in a number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the
Mediterranean and in the Pacific for the maintenance of American rights and
for the principles of peaceful commerce. But in no case had a serious
threat been raised against our national safety or our continued
independence.
What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a
nation has at all times maintained clear, definite opposition, to any
attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession
of civilization went past. Today, thinking of our children and of their
children, we oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any other part
of the Americas.
That determination of ours, extending over all these years, was proved, for
example, during the quarter century of wars following the French
Revolution.
While the Napoleonic struggles did threaten interests of the United States
because of the French foothold in the West Indies and in Louisiana, and
while we engaged in the War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful
trade, it is nevertheless clear that neither France nor Great Britain, nor
any other nation, was aiming at domination of the whole world.
In like fashion from 1815 to 1914--ninety-nine years--no single war in
Europe or in Asia constituted a real threat against our future or against
the future of any other American nation.
Except in the Maximilian interlude in Mexico, no foreign power sought to
establish itself in this Hemisphere; and the strength of the British fleet
in the Atlantic has been a friendly strength. It is still a friendly
strength.
Even when the World War broke out in 1914, it seemed to contain only small
threat of danger to our own American future. But, as time went on, the
American people began to visualize what the downfall of democratic nations
might mean to our own democracy.
We need not overemphasize imperfections in the Peace of Versailles. We need
not harp on failure of the democracies to deal with problems of world
reconstruction. We should remember that the Peace of 1919 was far less
unjust than the kind of "pacification" which began even before Munich, and
which is being carried on under the new order of tyranny that seeks to
spread over every continent today. The American people have unalterably set
their faces against that tyranny.
Every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment
being directly assailed in every part of the world--assailed either by
arms, or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to
destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.
During sixteen long months this assault has blotted out the whole pattern
of democratic life in an appalling number of independent nations, great and
small. The assailants are still on the march, threatening other nations,
great and small.
Therefore, as your President, performing my constitutional duty to "give to
the Congress information of the state of the Union," I find it, unhappily,
necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and of
our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our
borders.
Armed defense of democratic existence is now being gallantly waged in four
continents. If that defense fails, all the population and all the resources
of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia will be dominated by the
conquerors. Let us remember that the total of those populations and their
resources in those four continents greatly exceeds the sum total of the
population and the resources of the whole of the Western Hemisphere--many
times over.
In times like these it is immature--and incidentally, untrue--for anybody to
brag that an unprepared America, single-handed, and with one hand tied
behind its back, can hold off the whole world.
No realistic American can expect from a dictator's peace international
generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or
freedom of expression, or freedom of religion--or even good business.
Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. "Those,
who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety."
As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we
cannot afford to be soft-headed.
We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal preach the "ism" of appeasement.
We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip
the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests.
I have recently pointed out how quickly the tempo of modern warfare could
bring into our very midst the physical attack which we must eventually
expect if the dictator nations win this war.
There is much loose talk of our immunity from immediate and direct invasion
from across the seas. Obviously, as long as the British Navy retains its
power, no such danger exists. Even if there were no British Navy, it is not
probable that any enemy would be stupid enough to attack us by landing
troops in the United States from across thousands of miles of ocean, until
it had acquired strategic bases from which to operate.
But we learn much from the lessons of the past years in Europe--particularly
the lesson of Norway, whose essential seaports were captured by treachery
and surprise built up over a series of years.
The first phase of the invasion of this Hemisphere would not be the landing
of regular troops. The necessary strategic points would be occupied by
secret agents and their dupes--and great numbers of them are already here,
and in Latin America.
As long as the aggressor nations maintain the offensive, they--not we--will
choose the time and the place and the method of their attack.
That is why the future of all the American Republics is today in serious
danger.
That is why this Annual Message to the Congress is unique in our history.
That is why every member of the Executive Branch of the Government and
every member of the Congress faces great responsibility and great
accountability.
The need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted
primarily--almost exclusively--to meeting this foreign peril. For all our
domestic problems are now a part of the great emergency.
Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a
decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within
our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a
decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small.
And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.
Our national policy is this:
First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to
partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.
Second, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard
to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute
peoples, everywhere, who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping
war away from our Hemisphere. By this support, we express our determination
that the democratic cause shall prevail; and we strengthen the defense and
the security of our own nation.
Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to
partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of
morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to
acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We
know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's
freedom.
In the recent national election there was no substantial difference between
the two great parties in respect to that national policy. No issue was
fought out on this line before the American electorate. Today it is
abundantly evident that American citizens everywhere are demanding and
supporting speedy and complete action in recognition of obvious danger.
Therefore, the immediate need is a swift and driving increase in our
armament production.
Leaders of industry and labor have responded to our summons. Goals of speed
have been set. In some cases these goals are being reached ahead of time;
in some cases we are on schedule; in other cases there are slight but not
serious delays; and in some cases--and I am sorry to say very important
cases--we are all concerned by the slowness of the accomplishment of our
plans.
The Army and Navy, however, have made substantial progress during the past
year. Actual experience is improving and speeding up our methods of
production with every passing day. And today's best is not good enough for
tomorrow.
I am not satisfied with the progress thus far made. The men in charge of
the program represent the best in training, in ability, and in patriotism.
They are not satisfied with the progress thus far made. None of us will be
satisfied until the job is done.
No matter whether the original goal was set too high or too low, our
objective is quicker and better results. To give you two illustrations:
We are behind schedule in turning out finished airplanes; we are working
day and night to solve the innumerable problems and to catch up.
We are ahead of schedule in building warships but we are working to get
even further ahead of that schedule.
To change a whole nation from a basis of peacetime production of implements
of peace to a basis of wartime production of implements of war is no small
task. And the greatest difficulty comes at the beginning of the program,
when new tools, new plant facilities, new assembly lines, and new ship ways
must first be constructed before the actual materiel begins to flow
steadily and speedily from them.
The Congress, of course, must rightly keep itself informed at all times of
the progress of the program. However, there is certain information, as the
Congress itself will readily recognize, which, in the interests of our own
security and those of the nations that we are supporting, must of needs be
kept in confidence.
New circumstances are constantly begetting new needs for our safety. I
shall ask this Congress for greatly increased new appropriations and
authorizations to carry on what we have begun.
I also ask this Congress for authority and for funds sufficient to
manufacture additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds, to be
turned over to those nations which are now in actual war with aggressor
nations.
Our most useful and immediate role is to act as an arsenal for them as well
as for ourselves. They do not need man power, but they do need billions of
dollars worth of the weapons of defense.
The time is near when they will not be able to pay for them all in ready
cash. We cannot, and we will not, tell them that they must surrender,
merely because of present inability to pay for the weapons which we know
they must have.
I do not recommend that we make them a loan of dollars with which to pay
for these weapons--a loan to be repaid in dollars.
I recommend that we make it possible for those nations to continue to
obtain war materials in the United States, fitting their orders into our
own program. Nearly all their materiel would, if the time ever came, be
useful for our own defense.
Taking counsel of expert military and naval authorities, considering what
is best for our own security, we are free to decide how much should be kept
here and how much should be sent abroad to our friends who by their
determined and heroic resistance are giving us time in which to make ready
our own defense.
For what we send abroad, we shall be repaid within a reasonable time
following the close of hostilities, in similar materials, or, at our
option, in other goods of many kinds, which they can produce and which we
need.
Let us say to the democracies: "We Americans are vitally concerned in your
defense of freedom. We are putting forth our energies, our resources and
our organizing powers to give you the strength to regain and maintain a
free world. We shall send you, in ever-increasing numbers, ships, planes,
tanks, guns. This is our purpose and our pledge."
In fulfillment of this purpose we will not be intimidated by the threats of
dictators that they will regard as a breach of international law or as an
act of war our aid to the democracies which dare to resist their
aggression. Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator should
unilaterally proclaim it so to be.
When the dictators, if the dictators, are ready to make war upon us, they
will not wait for an act of war on our part. They did not wait for Norway
or Belgium or the Netherlands to commit an act of war.
Their only interest is in a new one-way international law, which lacks
mutuality in its observance, and, therefore, becomes an instrument of
oppression.
The happiness of future generations of Americans may well depend upon how
effective and how immediate we can make our aid felt. No one can tell the
exact character of the emergency situations that we may be called upon to
meet. The Nation's hands must not be tied when the Nation's life is in
danger.
We must all prepare to make the sacrifices that the emergency--almost as
serious as war itself--demands. Whatever stands in the way of speed and
efficiency in defense preparations must give way to the national need.
A free nation has the right to expect full cooperation from all groups. A
free nation has the right to look to the leaders of business, of labor, and
of agriculture to take the lead in stimulating effort, not among other
groups but within their own groups.
The best way of dealing with the few slackers or trouble makers in our
midst is, first, to shame them by patriotic example, and, if that fails, to
use the sovereignty of Government to save Government.
As men do not live by bread alone, they do not fight by armaments alone.
Those who man our defenses, and those behind them who build our defenses,
must have the stamina and the courage which come from unshakable belief in
the manner of life which they are defending. The mighty action that we are
calling for cannot be based on a disregard of all things worth fighting
for.
The Nation takes great satisfaction and much strength from the things which
have been done to make its people conscious of their individual stake in
the preservation of democratic life in America. Those things have toughened
the fibre of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their
devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.
Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social
and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution
which is today a supreme factor in the world.
For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and
strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their
political and economic systems are simple. They are:
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
Jobs for those who can work.
Security for those who need it.
The ending of special privilege for the few.
The preservation of civil liberties for all.
The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and
constantly rising standard of living.
These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the
turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and
abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon
the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.
Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate
improvement.
As examples:
We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and
unemployment insurance.
We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.
We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing
gainful employment may obtain it.
I have called for personal sacrifice. I am assured of the willingness of
almost all Americans to respond to that call.
A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my
Budget Message I shall recommend that a greater portion of this great
defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying today. No
person should try, or be allowed, to get rich out of this program; and the
principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be
constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.
If the Congress maintains these principles, the voters, putting patriotism
ahead of pocketbooks, will give you their applause.
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a
world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own
way--everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world terms, means
economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy
peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a
world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough
fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical
aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a
kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world
is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the
dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception--the moral order. A good
society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions
alike without fear.
Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in
change--in a perpetual peaceful revolution--a revolution which goes on
steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions--without the
concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we
seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly,
civilized society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its
millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance
of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support
goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength
is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save
victory.
***
State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 6, 1942
In fulfilling my duty to report upon the State of the Union, I am proud to
say to you that the spirit of the American people was never higher than it
is today--the Union was never more closely knit together--this country was
never more deeply determined to face the solemn tasks before it.
The response of the American people has been instantaneous, and it will be
sustained until our security is assured.
Exactly one year ago today I said to this Congress: "When the dictators. . .
are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of war on
our part. . . . They--not we--will choose the time and the place and the
method of their attack."
We now know their choice of the time: a peaceful Sunday morning--December
7, 1941.
We know their choice of the place: an American outpost in the Pacific.
We know their choice of the method: the method of Hitler himself.
Japan's scheme of conquest goes back half a century. It was not merely a
policy of seeking living room: it was a plan which included the subjugation
of all the peoples in the Far East and in the islands of the Pacific, and
the domination of that ocean by Japanese military and naval control of the
western coasts of North, Central, and South America.
The development of this ambitious conspiracy was marked by the war against
China in 1894; the subsequent occupation of Korea; the war against Russia
in 1904; the illegal fortification of the mandated Pacific islands
following 1920; the seizure of Manchuria in 1931; and the invasion of China
in 1937.
A similar policy of criminal conquest was adopted by Italy. The Fascists
first revealed their imperial designs in Libya and Tripoli. In 1935 they
seized Abyssinia. Their goal was the domination of all North Africa, Egypt,
parts of France, and the entire Mediterranean world.
But the dreams of empire of the Japanese and Fascist leaders were modest in
comparison with the gargantuan aspirations of Hitler and his Nazis. Even
before they came to power in 1933, their plans for that conquest had been
drawn. Those plans provided for ultimate domination, not of any one section
of the world, but of the whole earth and all the oceans on it.
When Hitler organized his Berlin-Rome-Tokyo alliance, all these plans of
conquest became a single plan. Under this, in addition to her own schemes
of conquest, Japan's role was obviously to cut off our supply of weapons of
war to Britain, and Russia and China--weapons which increasingly were
speeding the day of Hitler's doom. The act of Japan at Pearl Harbor was
intended to stun us--to terrify us to such an extent that we would divert
our industrial and military strength to the Pacific area, or even to our
own continental defense.
The plan has failed in its purpose. We have not been stunned. We have not
been terrified or confused. This very reassembling of the Seventy-seventh
Congress today is proof of that; for the mood of quiet, grim resolution
which here prevails bodes ill for those who conspired and collaborated to
murder world peace.
That mood is stronger than any mere desire for revenge. It expresses the
will of the American people to make very certain that the world will never
so suffer again.
Admittedly, we have been faced with hard choices. It was bitter, for
example, not to be able to relieve the heroic and historic defenders of
Wake Island. It was bitter for us not to be able to land a million men in a
thousand ships in the Philippine Islands.
But this adds only to our determination to see to it that the Stars and
Stripes will fly again over Wake and Guam. Yes, see to it that the brave
people of the Philippines will be rid of Japanese imperialism; and will
live in freedom, security, and independence.
Powerful and offensive actions must and will be taken in proper time. The
consolidation of the United Nations' total war effort against our common
enemies is being achieved.
That was and is the purpose of conferences which have been held during the
past two weeks in Washington, and Moscow and Chungking. That is the primary
objective of the declaration of solidarity signed in Washington on January
1, 1942, by 26 Nations united against the Axis powers.
Difficult choices may have to be made in the months to come. We do not
shrink from such decisions. We and those united with us will make those
decisions with courage and determination.
Plans have been laid here and in the other capitals for coordinated and
cooperative action by all the United Nations--military action and economic
action. Already we have established, as you know, unified command of land,
sea, and air forces in the southwestern Pacific theater of war. There will
be a continuation of conferences and consultations among military staffs,
so that the plans and operations of each will fit into the general strategy
designed to crush the enemy. We shall not fight isolated wars--each Nation
going its own way. These 26 Nations are united--not in spirit and
determination alone, but in the broad conduct of the war in all its
phases.
For the first time since the Japanese and the Fascists and the Nazis
started along their blood-stained course of conquest they now face the fact
that superior forces are assembling against them. Gone forever are the days
when the aggressors could attack and destroy their victims one by one
without unity of resistance. We of the United Nations will so dispose our
forces that we can strike at the common enemy wherever the greatest damage
can be done him.
The militarists of Berlin and Tokyo started this war. But the massed,
angered forces of common humanity will finish it.
Destruction of the material and spiritual centers of civilization--this has
been and still is the purpose of Hitler and his Italian and Japanese
chessmen. They would wreck the power of the British Commonwealth and Russia
and China and the Netherlands--and then combine all their forces to achieve
their ultimate goal, the conquest of the United States.
They know that victory for us means victory for freedom.
They know that victory for us means victory for the institution of
democracy--the ideal of the family, the simple principles of common decency
and humanity.
They know that victory for us means victory for religion. And they could
not tolerate that. The world is too small to provide adequate "living room"
for both Hitler and God. In proof of that, the Nazis have now announced
their plan for enforcing their new German, pagan religion all over the
world--a plan by which the Holy Bible and the Cross of Mercy would be
displaced by Mein Kampf and the swastika and the naked sword.
Our own objectives are clear; the objective of smashing the militarism
imposed by war lords upon their enslaved peoples the objective of
liberating the subjugated Nations--the objective of establishing and
securing freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and
freedom from fear everywhere in the world.
We shall not stop short of these objectives--nor shall we be satisfied
merely to gain them and then call it a day. I know that I speak for the
American people--and I have good reason to believe that I speak also for
all the other peoples who fight with us--when I say that this time we are
determined not only to win the war, but also to maintain the security of
the peace that will follow.
But we know that modern methods of warfare make it a task, not only of
shooting and fighting, but an even more urgent one of working and
producing.
Victory requires the actual weapons of war and the means of transporting
them to a dozen points of combat.
It will not be sufficient for us and the other United Nations to produce a
slightly superior supply of munitions to that of Germany, Japan, Italy, and
the stolen industries in the countries which they have overrun.
The superiority of the United Nations in munitions and ships must be
overwhelming--so overwhelming that the Axis Nations can never hope to catch
up with it. And so, in order to attain this overwhelming superiority the
United States must build planes and tanks and guns and ships to the utmost
limit of our national capacity. We have the ability and capacity to produce
arms not only for our own forces, but also for the armies, navies, and air
forces fighting on our side.
And our overwhelming superiority of armament must be adequate to put
weapons of war at the proper time into the hands of those men in the
conquered Nations who stand ready to seize the first opportunity to revolt
against their German and Japanese oppressors, and against the traitors in
their own ranks, known by the already infamous name of "Quislings." And I
think that it is a fair prophecy to say that, as we get guns to the
patriots in those lands, they too will fire shots heard 'round the world.
This production of ours in the United States must be raised far above
present levels, even though it will mean the dislocation of the lives and
occupations of millions of our own people. We must raise our sights all
along the production line. Let no man say it cannot be done. It must be
done--and we have undertaken to do it.
I have just sent a letter of directive to the appropriate departments and
agencies of our Government, ordering that immediate steps be taken:
First, to increase our production rate of airplanes so rapidly that in this
year, 1942, we shall produce 60,000 planes, 10,000 more than the goal that
we set a year and a half ago. This includes 45,000 combat planes--bombers,
dive bombers, pursuit planes. The rate of increase will be maintained and
continued so that next year, 1943, we shall produce 125,000 airplanes,
including 100,000 combat planes.
Second, to increase our production rate of tanks so rapidly that in this
year, 1942, we shall produce 45,000 tanks; and to continue that increase so
that next year, 1943, we shall produce 75,000 tanks.
Third, to increase our production rate of anti-aircraft guns so rapidly
that in this year, 1942, we shall produce 20,000 of them; and to continue
that increase so that next year, 1943, we shall produce 35,000
anti-aircraft guns.
And fourth, to increase our production rate of merchant ships so rapidly
that in this year, 1942, we shall build 6,000,000 deadweight tons as
compared with a 1941 completed production of 1,100,000. And finally, we
shall continue that increase so that next year, 1943, we shall build
10,000,000 tons of shipping.
These figures and similar figures for a multitude of other implements of
war will give the Japanese and the Nazis a little idea of just what they
accomplished in the attack at Pearl Harbor.
And I rather hope that all these figures which I have given will become
common knowledge in Germany and Japan.
Our task is hard--our task is unprecedented--and the time is short. We must
strain every existing armament-producing facility to the utmost. We must
convert every available plant and tool to war production. That goes all the
way from the greatest plants to the smallest--from the huge automobile
industry to the village machine shop.
Production for war is based on men and women--the human hands and brains
which collectively we call Labor. Our workers stand ready to work long
hours; to turn out more in a day's work; to keep the wheels turning and the
fires burning twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week. They realize
well that on the speed and efficiency of their work depend the lives of
their sons and their brothers on the fighting fronts.
Production for war is based on metals and raw materials--steel, copper,
rubber, aluminum, zinc, tin. Greater and greater quantities of them will
have to be diverted to war purposes. Civilian use of them will have to be
cut further and still further--and, in many cases, completely eliminated.
War costs money. So far, we have hardly even begun to pay for it. We have
devoted only 15 percent of our national income to national defense. As will
appear in my Budget Message tomorrow, our war program for the coming fiscal
year will cost 56 billion dollars or, in other words, more than half of the
estimated annual national income. That means taxes and bonds and bonds and
taxes. It means cutting luxuries and other non-essentials. In a word, it
means an "all-out" war by individual effort and family effort in a united
country.
Only this all-out scale of production will hasten the ultimate all-out
victory. Speed will count. Lost ground can always be regained--lost time
never. Speed will save lives; speed will save this Nation which is in
peril; speed will save our freedom and our civilization--and slowness has
never been an American characteristic.
As the United States goes into its full stride, we must always be on guard
against misconceptions which will arise, some of them naturally, or which
will be planted among us by our enemies.
We must guard against complacency. We must not underrate the enemy. He is
powerful and cunning--and cruel and ruthless. He will stop at nothing that
gives him a chance to kill and to destroy. He has trained his people to
believe that their highest perfection is achieved by waging war. For many
years he has prepared for this very conflict--planning, and plotting, and
training, arming, and fighting. We have already tasted defeat. We may
suffer further setbacks. We must face the fact of a hard war, a long war, a
bloody war, a costly war.
We must, on the other hand, guard against defeatism. That has been one of
the chief weapons of Hitler's propaganda machine--used time and again with
deadly results. It will not be used successfully on the American people.
We must guard against divisions among ourselves and among all the other
United Nations. We must be particularly vigilant against racial
discrimination in any of its ugly forms. Hitler will try again to breed
mistrust and suspicion between one individual and another, one group and
another, one race and another, one Government and another. He will try to
use the same technique of falsehood and rumor-mongering with which he
divided France from Britain. He is trying to do this with us even now. But
he will find a unity of will and purpose against him, which will persevere
until the destruction of all his black designs upon the freedom and safety
of the people of the world.
We cannot wage this war in a defensive spirit. As our power and our
resources are fully mobilized, we shall carry the attack against the
enemy--we shall hit him and hit him again wherever and whenever we can reach
him.
We must keep him far from our shores, for we intend to bring this battle to
him on his own home grounds.
American armed forces must be used at any place in all the world where it
seems advisable to engage the forces of the enemy. In some cases these
operations will be defensive, in order to protect key positions. In other
cases, these operations will be offensive, in order to strike at the common
enemy, with a view to his complete encirclement and eventual total defeat.
American armed forces will operate at many points in the Far East.
American armed forces will be on all the oceans--helping to guard the
essential communications which are vital to the United Nations.
American land and air and sea forces will take stations in the British
Isles--which constitute an essential fortress in this great world
struggle.
American armed forces will help to protect this hemisphere--and also help to
protect bases outside this hemisphere, which could be used for an attack on
the Americas.
If any of our enemies, from Europe or from Asia, attempt long-range raids
by "suicide" squadrons of bombing planes, they will do so only in the hope
of terrorizing our people and disrupting our morale. Our people are not
afraid of that. We know that we may have to pay a heavy price for freedom.
We will pay this price with a will. Whatever the price, it is a thousand
times worth it. No matter what our enemies, in their desperation, may
attempt to do to us--we will say, as the people of London have said, "We
can take it." And what's more we can give it back and we will give it
back--with compound interest.
When our enemies challenged our country to stand up and fight, they
challenged each and every one of us. And each and every one of us has
accepted the challenge--for himself and for his Nation.
There were only some 400 United States Marines who in the heroic and
historic defense of Wake Island inflicted such great losses on the enemy.
Some of those men were killed in action; and others are now prisoners of
war. When the survivors of that great fight are liberated and restored to
their homes, they will learn that a hundred and thirty million of their
fellow citizens have been inspired to render their own full share of
service and sacrifice.
We can well say that our men on the fighting fronts have already proved
that Americans today are just as rugged and just as tough as any of the
heroes whose exploits we celebrate on the Fourth of July.
Many people ask, "When will this war end?" There is only one answer to
that. It will end just as soon as we make it end, by our combined efforts,
our combined strength, our combined determination to fight through and work
through until the end--the end of militarism in Germany and Italy and
Japan. Most certainly we shall not settle for less.
That is the spirit in which discussions have been conducted during the
visit of the British Prime Minister to Washington. Mr. Churchill and I
understand each other, our motives and our purposes. Together, during the
past two weeks, we have faced squarely the major military and economic
problems of this greatest world war.
All in our Nation have been cheered by Mr. Churchill's visit. We have been
deeply stirred by his great message to us. He is welcome in our midst, and
we unite in wishing him a safe return to his home.
For we are fighting on the same side with the British people, who fought
alone for long, terrible months, and withstood the enemy with fortitude and
tenacity and skill.
We are fighting on the same side with the Russian people who have seen the
Nazi hordes swarm up to the very gates of Moscow, and who with almost
superhuman will and courage have forced the invaders back into retreat.
We are fighting on the same side as the brave people of China--those
millions who for four and a half long years have withstood bombs and
starvation and have whipped the invaders time and again in spite of the
superior Japanese equipment and arms. Yes, we are fighting on the same side
as the indomitable Dutch. We are fighting on the same side as all the other
Governments in exile, whom Hitler and all his armies and all his Gestapo
have not been able to conquer.
But we of the United Nations are not making all this sacrifice of human
effort and human lives to return to the kind of world we had after the last
world war.
We are fighting today for security, for progress, and for peace, not only
for ourselves but for all men, not only for one generation but for all
generations. We are fighting to cleanse the world of ancient evils, ancient
ills.
Our enemies are guided by brutal cynicism, by unholy contempt for the human
race. We are inspired by a faith that goes back through all the years to
the first chapter of the Book of Genesis: "God created man in His own
image."
We on our side are striving to be true to that divine heritage. We are
fighting, as our fathers have fought, to uphold the doctrine that all men
are equal in the sight of God. Those on the other side are striving to
destroy this deep belief and to create a world in their own image--a world
of tyranny and cruelty and serfdom.
That is the conflict that day and night now pervades our lives.
No compromise can end that conflict. There never has been--there never can
be--successful compromise between good and evil. Only total victory can
reward the champions of tolerance, and decency, and freedom, and faith.
***
State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 7, 1943
Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Seventy-eighth Congress:
This Seventy-eighth Congress assembles in one of the great moments in the
history of the Nation. The past year was perhaps the most crucial for
modern civilization; the coming year will be filled with violent conflicts--
yet with high promise of better things.
We must appraise the events of 1942 according to their relative importance;
we must exercise a sense of proportion.
First in importance in the American scene has been the inspiring proof of
the great qualities of our fighting men. They have demonstrated these
qualities in adversity as well as in victory. As long as our flag flies
over this Capitol, Americans will honor the soldiers, sailors, and marines
who fought our first battles of this war against overwhelming odds the
heroes, living and dead, of Wake and Bataan and Guadalcanal, of the Java
Sea and Midway and the North Atlantic convoys. Their unconquerable spirit
will live forever.
By far the largest and most important developments in the whole world-wide
strategic picture of 1942 were the events of the long fronts in Russia:
first, the implacable defense of Stalingrad; and, second, the offensives by
the Russian armies at various points that started in the latter part of
November and which still roll on with great force and effectiveness.
The other major events of the year were: the series of Japanese advances in
the Philippines, the East Indies, Malaya, and Burma; the stopping of that
Japanese advance in the mid-Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Indian
Oceans; the successful defense of the Near East by the British
counterattack through Egypt and Libya; the American-British occupation of
North Africa. Of continuing importance in the year 1942 were the unending
and bitterly contested battles of the convoy routes, and the gradual
passing of air superiority from the Axis to the United Nations.
The Axis powers knew that they must win the war in 1942--or eventually lose
everything. I do not need to tell you that our enemies did not win the war
in 1942.
In the Pacific area, our most important victory in 1942 was the air and
naval battle off Midway Island. That action is historically important
because it secured for our use communication lines stretching thousands of
miles in every direction. In placing this emphasis on the Battle of Midway,
I am not unmindful of other successful actions in the Pacific, in the air
and on land and afloat--especially those on the Coral Sea and New Guinea
and in the Solomon Islands. But these actions were essentially defensive.
They were part of the delaying strategy that characterized this phase of
the war.
During this period we inflicted steady losses upon the enemy--great losses
of Japanese planes and naval vessels, transports and cargo ships. As early
as one year ago, we set as a primary task in the war of the Pacific a
day-by-day and week-by-week and month-by-month destruction of more Japanese
war materials than Japanese industry could replace. Most certainly, that
task has been and is being performed by our fighting ships and planes. And
a large part of this task has been accomplished by the gallant crews of our
American submarines who strike on the other side of the Pacific at Japanese
ships--right up at the very mouth of the harbor of Yokohama.
We know that as each day goes by, Japanese strength in ships and planes is
going down and down, and American strength in ships and planes is going up
and up. And so I sometimes feel that the eventual outcome can now be put on
a mathematical basis. That will become evident to the Japanese people
themselves when we strike at their own home islands, and bomb them
constantly from the air.
And in the attacks against Japan, we shall be joined with the heroic people
of China--that great people whose ideals of peace are so closely akin to our
own. Even today we are flying as much lend-lease material into China as
ever traversed the Burma Road, flying it over mountains 17,000 feet high,
flying blind through sleet and snow. We shall overcome all the formidable
obstacles, and get the battle equipment into China to shatter the power of
our common enemy. From this war, China will realize the security, the
prosperity and the dignity, which Japan has sought so ruthlessly to
destroy.
The period of our defensive attrition in the Pacific is drawing to a close.
Now our aim is to force the Japanese to fight. Last year, we stopped them.
This year, we intend to advance.
Turning now to the European theater of war, during this past year it was
clear that our first task was to lessen the concentrated pressure on the
Russian front by compelling Germany to divert part of her manpower and
equipment to another theater of war. After months of secret planning and
preparation in the utmost detail, an enormous amphibious expedition was
embarked for French North Africa from the United States and the United
Kingdom in literally hundreds of ships. It reached its objectives with very
small losses, and has already produced an important effect upon the whole
situation of the war. It has opened to attack what Mr. Churchill well
described as "the under-belly of the Axis," and it has removed the always
dangerous threat of an Axis attack through West Africa against the South
Atlantic Ocean and the continent of South America itself.
The well-timed and splendidly executed offensive from Egypt by the British
Eighth Army was a part of the same major strategy of the United Nations.
Great rains and appalling mud and very limited communications have delayed
the final battles of Tunisia. The Axis is reinforcing its strong positions.
But I am confident that though the fighting will be tough, when the final
Allied assault is made, the last vestige of Axis power will be driven from
the whole of the south shores of the Mediterranean.
Any review of the year 1942 must emphasize the magnitude and the diversity
of the military activities in which this Nation has become engaged. As I
speak to you, approximately one and a half million of our soldiers,
sailors, marines, and fliers are in service outside of our continental
limits, all through the world. Our merchant seamen, in addition, are
carrying supplies to them and to our allies over every sea lane.
Few Americans realize the amazing growth of our air strength, though I am
sure our enemy does. Day in and day out our forces are bombing the enemy
and meeting him in combat on many different fronts in every part of the
world. And for those who question the quality of our aircraft and the
ability of our fliers, I point to the fact that, in Africa, we are shooting
down two enemy planes to every one we lose, and in the Pacific and the
Southwest Pacific we are shooting them down four to one.
We pay great tribute--the tribute of the United States of America--to the
fighting men of Russia and China and Britain and the various members of the
British Commonwealth--the millions of men who through the years of this war
have fought our common enemies, and have denied to them the world conquest
which they sought.
We pay tribute to the soldiers and fliers and seamen of others of the
United Nations whose countries have been overrun by Axis hordes.
As a result of the Allied occupation of North Africa, powerful units of the
French Army and Navy are going into action. They are in action with the
United Nations forces. We welcome them as allies and as friends. They join
with those Frenchmen who, since the dark days of June, 1940, have been
fighting valiantly for the liberation of their stricken country.
We pay tribute to the fighting leaders of our allies, to Winston Churchill,
to Joseph Stalin, and to the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Yes, there is a
very great unanimity between the leaders of the United Nations. This unity
is effective in planning and carrying out the major strategy of this war
and in building up and in maintaining the lines of supplies.
I cannot prophesy. I cannot tell you when or where the United Nations are
going to strike next in Europe. But we are going to strike--and strike
hard. I cannot tell you whether we are going to hit them in Norway, or
through the Low Countries, or in France, or through Sardinia or Sicily, or
through the Balkans, or through Poland--or at several points
simultaneously. But I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike
by land, we and the British and the Russians will hit them from the air
heavily and relentlessly. Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons
of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.
Hitler and Mussolini will understand now the enormity of their
miscalculations--that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior
air power as they did when they bombed Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and London
and Coventry. That superiority has gone--forever.
Yes, the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it--and they are going to get
it.
Our forward progress in this war has depended upon our progress on the
production front.
There has been criticism of the management and conduct of our war
production. Much of this self-criticism has had a healthy effect. It has
spurred us on. It has reflected a normal American impatience to get on with
the job. We are the kind of people who are never quite satisfied with
anything short of miracles.
But there has been some criticism based on guesswork and even on malicious
falsification of fact. Such criticism creates doubts and creates fears, and
weakens our total effort.
I do not wish to suggest that we should be completely satisfied with our
production progress today, or next month, or ever. But I can report to you
with genuine pride on what has been accomplished in 1942.
A year ago we set certain production goals for 1942 and for 1943. Some
people, including some experts, thought that we had pulled some big figures
out of a hat just to frighten the Axis. But we had confidence in the
ability of our people to establish new records. And that confidence has
been justified.
Of course, we realized that some production objectives would have to be
changed--some of them adjusted upward, and others downward; some items
would be taken out of the program altogether, and others added. This was
inevitable as we gained battle experience, and as technological
improvements were made.
Our 1942 airplane production and tank production fell short,
numerically--stress the word numerically of the goals set a year ago.
Nevertheless, we have plenty of reason to be proud of our record for 1942.
We produced 48,000 military planes--more than the airplane production of
Germany, Italy, and Japan put together. Last month, in December, we
produced 5,500 military planes and the rate is rapidly rising. Furthermore,
we must remember that as each month passes by, the averages of our types
weigh more, take more man-hours to make, and have more striking power.
In tank production, we revised our schedule--and for good and sufficient
reasons. As a result of hard experience in battle, we have diverted a
portion of our tank-producing capacity to a stepped-up production of new,
deadly field weapons, especially self-propelled artillery.
Here are some other production figures:
In 1942, we produced 56,000 combat vehicles, such as tanks and
self-propelled artillery.
In 1942, we produced 670,000 machine guns, six times greater than our
production in 1941 and three times greater than our total production during
the year and a half of our participation in the first World War.
We produced 21,000 anti-tank guns, six times greater than our 1941
production.
We produced ten and a quarter billion rounds of small-arms ammunition, five
times greater than our 1941 production and three times greater than our
total production in the first World War.
We produced 181 million rounds of artillery ammunition, twelve times
greater than our 1941 production and ten times greater than our total
production in the first World War.