588 State Papers and Addresses

Country was aligned. Our leaders know from long experience that the farm
people would be on the side of the preservation of those principles and institu-
tions of Democracy, which brought to the people of America a more com-
plete enjoyment of life, and have made this Country of ours the envy of all the
other people of the world. So today, they count upon you as one of the bul-
warks of strength at this critical moment.

America's answer to the Dictator's challenge is a spontaneous uprising of
all our people, the people of our cities, and of our farms. All recognize that
this is everybody's war. In a world where treachery and brute force have
become the chief weapons of war-mad dictators, ours is the task of preserving
and strengthing the principles of liberty and of the rights to the individual.
The unity of spirit in America today is so complete that our people need but to
be informed as to their duty in order to perform it. We are united in spirit.
We must translate this unity of spirit into unity of action.

This is no ordinary war crisis. The threat to our democratic way of life
is the greatest we have ever faced in all the years of our National existence.
It is evident, therefore, that the times call for a national unity far exceeding
that ordinarily achieved by free people in wartime.

The dictators would tell us that we are too easy going, and that we could
never hope to complete in war with the soulless war machine they have so
ruthlessly perfected. You know, and I know, that we shall prove that philosophy
false, that we shall demonstrate convincingly, that the spirit of free men can
rise to mightier heights of war than even the driven slaves of the militarists can
achieve.

To do this, however, we must attain to uncharted heights of National
unity. We must work, and sacrifice, with an unconquerable spirit. Only along
such paths can we come to that overwhelming preparedness called for by
President Roosevelt in his ringing speech of Tuesday. Only thus, can we gain
that overwhelming victory that must be, and will be, the vindication of De-
mocracy's ideals.