602 State Papers and Addresses
our giant battleships, is being forged into the mighty guns without which no
war could be conducted successfully today.
These industrial facilities, to which expansion is adding continually, will
play a more and more important part in the gigantic production program that
has been laid down by our Commander-in-chief for the years 1942 and 1943.
The production figures demanded by the President are truly staggering!
They would be absolutely impossible of attainment for any other nation in the
world but America. 76, 000 planes this year, an additional 126, 000 in '43;
45, 000 tanks this year, 76, 000 in the next twelve months; 8, 000, 000 tons of ship-
ping for 1942, 10, 000, 00 for '43—the totals are almost inconceivable to the lay
mind. But they can be achieved. They will be produced.
American industry has rallied as a unit behind the inspired leadership of
our great President. The efforts of all our people are at his command. The
planes, the tanks, the ships required, all will be forthcoming, in never-ending
stream, because Americans have supreme confidence in the wisdom of Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt.
American industrial production admits of no limit when our 130, 000, 000
people make up their minds as one, to -produce and produce and produce until
the war-crazed Axis nations are literally overwhelmed 'neath an avalanche of
weapons such as the world has never seen. When President Roosevelt asks
for a new plane every four minutes; a new tank every seven minutes; two
ships a day, and submarines, guns, torpedoes, ammunition, and other war
equipment in proportion, the response of America's millions of present and
potential workers is a thundering chorus of assent and approval.
Throughout the ages the curse of mankind has been the destruction BO
often inflicted upon it by the ravages of war. In all those ages, however, the
depredation possible to be inflicted was limited by geography, communication
and transportation. Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, each overran
and ravaged numbers of nations and vast portions of the earth. Neither of
these, however, even at the apex of his achievements, ever furnished a threat
such as that with which the Hitler-Japanese combination now confronts every
continent of the entire world.
In purpose, plan, and preparation, these international buccaneers have
instigated, and are successfully prosecuting a war of literal world-conquest.
In an all too real sense it may be said to be a race war—a war of civilization.
The philosophies of life as heretofore known and practiced, the freedom of
religion which has-been our guarantee, the manner of living, and the standards
of life as heretofore known, are all under direct attack—the determination to
obliterate them having been openly proclaimed. These purposes, and that
threat carry all the more awful significance when we take note of the vast
progress this military oligarchy has already made.
There is still another matter to be considered, a matter of major importance
in a crisis such as that in which we now find ourselves* Morale! Morale is a
world potent with meaning, especially during times of great stress. Morale is
£hat spirit of national unity and determination that helps a nation "Keep its
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