630 State Papers and Addresses

dashing cavalry charges of the Civil War; at San Juan Hill, there was that
personal contact, that man-to-man struggle, that gave unlimited scope for
personal daring and resourcefulness.

Today's war, however, bears little resemblance to any of the wars of the
past. True, in the active fighting phrases, such as in the Philippines, in Java,
in Australia, there still is need for valor and daring, and unquestionably those
attributes will play a large part in deciding the issue. But, relatively, they are
much less important than the mechanized equipment, the planes, the tanks,
the guns, that come to dominate modern fighting so thoroughly.

Many will assert that they are mindful of this development. What is not
appreciated nearly as well as it must be, however, is that while this active
fighting is raging many miles away from us, there is another war, with two
distinct phases, being waged just as relentlessly right at our very doorsteps.
Here in Baltimore County, where some of the Nation's greatest war industries
are concentrated, and where thousands of men, and women too, are engaged in
turning out modern weapons of war, and ships in which to transport them, it
would seem hardly necessary to stress the importance of the first of these two
phases, the battle of production.

In addition to the battle of production, and entirely separate from it, is
another phase of warfare which affects not only the thousands of war industry
workers, but their families as well. It affects, too, every man, woman and
child in Baltimore County and throughout the United States and all its pos-
sessions. This is the battle of Civilian Defense.

Here is no struggle limited to groups or types or ages. This is a battle in
which every able-bodied man and woman in your county, and in all the counties
of this great Country, not only may, but must, take part. It is a battle whose
full significance is unsuspected by even the great masses of patriotic volunteers
who are participating in one phrase or another of its activities. It is a battle
that, in the final analysis, may well affect not only the health, the convenience,
the supplies of food, clothing, and every-day necessities, but even the very lives,
of all the people of this community.

Because there have been relatively few attempts at sabotage, here in our
own State or throughout the Country, there has crept into the minds of many
of our people a feeling of security that is in no wise justified. Indeed, to many
of our military leaders some of whom were in conference with me only this
morning, the very absence of sabotage to date is a source of the gravest
concern.

Knowing how thoroughly the Axis Fifth Column had been organized in all
the countries that have been attached to date, it is an accepted fact on the
part of our military and Federal authorities generally, that Axis plans have
been laid just as completely in our own Country.

The West Coast is all agog over the possibility of hostile activities on the
part of their Japanese population. However, the problem there is nothing as
compared to ours here on the East Coast. The Japanese, whom they fear, have