of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 463

NATIONAL DEFENSE EXERCISES

RADIO STATION WTBO

August 12, 1941

Cumberland

1 WELCOME the opportunity to discuss with the people of Cumberland and
vicinity several matters of immediate and pressing importance.

We face today a rapidly changing world. How vastly these changing condi-
tions will affect our own great Nation, no one would be rash enough to predict.
Certainly, however, we would be blind to realities to fail to recognize the
potential and actual threat today's world turmoil offers to our institutions and
our individual heritage of liberty.

Within the past relatively few months the map of the world has changed
until it is now almost beyond recognition when compared with the map of a few
years ago. The greed of the dictators has brought about this deplorable state
of affairs.

Facing facts realistically, we cannot be content to rest quietly in the hope
that America will be safe from the aggressive acts of these war lords. The
experience of the other democracies and other nations should teach us that the
dictators are determined to overthrow any government that stands in their way.
In fact, Hitler has proclaimed the fact that his program is one of world
domination.

Under such circumstances the only sensible thing for us to do is to concen-
trate our every effort for preparedness for the worst. No half-way measures
should be adopted in a period when civilization itself hangs in the balance. We
must realize that the surest way to preserve our free institutions is to be pre-
pared to the limit to defend them.

Only the strong are safe. Nations which relied upon the fairness and
humanity 'of the aggressor nations learned, to their everlasting regret, that
such trust was misplaced. It must, therefore, be our aim to let nothing be
undone to guarantee the fullest protection to our Country in this time of world
peril.

As far as the State Governments are concerned, extra efforts must be ex-
erted to maintain their efficient and smooth operation during the present
emergency. With forty-eight sovereign States, each with a separate and in-
dependent government in satisfactory operation, we can gain assurance that
legal safeguards and protective measures will be guaranteed. No Blitzkrieg
can wipe out forty-eight governmental machines at once.

This imposes a grave obligation on all those who are charged with the
responsibility of administering the State Governments. The watchword of the
day should be economy. We owe to the taxpayer the duty of administering the
affairs of government at the lowest possible cost. At a time when huge ex-
penditures are necessary for National Defense, we must conserve all funds so