of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 653

upon to suffer injury or possible death in the case of air raids, or other hostile
attacks.

Despite the war-time regulations that have been laid upon us; despite the
departure of thousands of our young men, and of hundreds of nurses and other
women volunteers; despite the gruesome happenings of recent days*; despite all
these and many other drastic effects of the war, are we as war-minded as we
should be? Do we realize as we should that it isn't merely our own personal
comfort, or our love of luxuries, or the lives of a few seamen or soldiers, or
sailors, that are in jeopardy?

It is hard to believe that we have come to such a realization. If we had
done so, as a Nation, we would be devoting our entire thought and effort to
pushing the conduct of the war, instead of pursuing our own individual lives as
most of us seem to be doing. I am concerned greatly because our people still
are putting too many considerations ahead of the one consideration that should
motivate us—the problem of all-out conduct of the war effort.

We must realize that whatever we have, in the way of freedom, of ma-
terial possessions, of social progress, is in vital danger. The time has come
now when many of the aims and objects of our normal National life must be
laid aside. To survive, we must distinguish between those that are merely
desirable and those that are absolutely essential. We must devote our thought
and effort to the essentials.

The time has come when we must accept the fact that, unless America does
this war job better by far than has been done to date, we may not have any
freedom or material wealth or advancement with which to console ourselves.

Unless we find a way to get our fighting forces, and the supplies they need,
to the vital war areas before we are excluded from them altogether, we are apt
to find ourselves some day slaves of cruel, ruthless masters, just as millions of
our fellow-beings throughout the world are today—just as are some hundreds,
perhaps even several thousands of once-free citizens, captured at Wake Island
in the Philippines, at Hong Kong, Singapore, and elsewhere.

Along with the old mistaken idea of the invincibility of our Navy, we must
discard once and for all the comforting belief that because America has never
lost a war, she cannot lose one. We can lose this one, and we will lose it unless
we give to the training of our men, to the production of arms and planes and
all the other war necessities, all the vigor and enthusiasm that our great Na-
tion of 130, 000, 000 people can generate. If we do this, nothing can beat us. If
we don't we not-only can, but we will fall from the high estate in which the
people of America have been placed, as a heritage of the gallantry and the pro-
gressivness of generations of patriotic American forefathers.