of Governor Herbert, R. O'Conor 597

engaged in war industry. This was one out of eleven persons. To achieve
the industrial production goals set by President Roosevelt for 1942, the war
industries personnel must be increased to 18, 000, 000, and then raised again to
25, 000, 000 for 1943. Considering the grand total of man power in our military
forces and in war industries in 1943, this will mean that seven out of every
twelve men in America must be engaged on either the military front or on the
production lines. If we are to accomplish needed results, America must be
made to understand that no part-time effort will be accepted. The American
Legion can be the spear-head in the drive for an awakened citizenry.

We have unbounded confidence in the grit and in the ultimate fighting
power of American forces, regardless of whether they are engaged in combat
on land, on sea or in the air. But we will be untrue to these men who are
risking their lives for the future of our Nation unless we back them with every
ounce of energy and with every resource at our command.

There is the most compelling reason why we should do so. Our Govern-
mental system is the grandest conception ever known to man. Under it op-
pression cannot exist because the rights of individuals are guaranteed. No
dictator could last under our Constitutional form of Government. Regardless
of race, or creed, or color, the individual American is a power in his own
right, who does not yield one inch in privileges to any other American citizen.

It was a foregone conclusion that we would be drawn into such a war as
unleashed by Hitler and the other international gangsters. Their object is to
dominate the world. This goal was revealed in the early stages when Europe
was being over-run. To reach their goal it was necessary to subdue America,
and all that remained was to decide the opportune time to strike.

We are the natural enemies of the tyrants of Europe and Asia. As a
natural consequence we could not help but be engulfed in a war that is designed
to reduce free peoples and free nations to slavery and to bondage. It is the
National Faith of America that human beings must be free and must not be
slaves. It is fundamental in American citizenship that men and women must
be equal before God, and not be vassals, subject to the will of military over-
lords. It was inevitable, therefore, that America was compelled to be the
antagonist of barbarians to whom religious tolerance and national equality
mean absolutely nothing.

And let us not fool ourselves into believing that this feeling is one-sided.
We. naturally, despite dictators, but that antipathy is nothing as compared
with their resentment against Americans. They have long realized that while
America stands, there is the hope of down-trodden peoples of the world. As
long as this Nation keeps aflame the torch of liberty, there is a light to lead
people out of the wilderness of bondage and of despair.

It can be understood, therefore, how desperate have been their aims against
us. Their whole scheme was doomed to defeat as long as a liberty-loving Na-
tion, with power and with resources remained as a guarantor of decency and
order and liberty in the world.