694 State Papers and Addresses

boys from half the world away. There is not a member of the United Nations
which has not had cause to give thanks—and praise—to the speed and power
with which America has jumped into the fray. There are American bombers
with the Chinese and the English; there is American armament in Russia;
there are American tanks and planes patrolling the sands of Africa; and there
is not an ocean washing the shores of any continent but is guarded by the bat-
tleships of the U. S. A.

And while this vast extension of our armed might has taken place, we
have been asked to keep pace at home. To us has been entrusted the task of
Civilian Defense.

Here again it is impossible not to feel satisfaction in the accomplishment
of so brief a space.

You have seen the evidence of this yourselves. I know that most of you
have been a part of this evidence. Who would have predicted a year ago that
Maryland would be able to put 10, 000 Guardsmen and Minute Men into the field
after having sent thousands of other men into the Army and Navy, the Marine
Corps and other services.

Who would have been bold enough to predict that in a matter of weeks the
23 counties of our State would be able to set up such complete Civilian Defense
organizations? Remember that what we have done was not accomplished under
the stimulation of present and actual threats. We may be sure that had Axis
planes been roaring overhead and an Axis invasion force been a few miles off
shore, we should have done these things more quickly. But the encouraging
fact is that our people have had the imagination and the patriotic energy to
make large readjustments voluntarily.

None of this optimistic observation, however, should let us overlook the
great undone tasks ahead.

I do not hold with those who say that America has not yet waked up.
Our people are awake—wide awake to the responsibilities before us. And it
is for that very reason we "can expect to carry on what has been so well begun.

If we survey the situation as it stands today, we get some idea of the
hugeness of what still remains to be done in the way of organization and
sacrifice. It is a mistake, I think, ever to think separately of the military and
the civilian problem. Essentially, those things are inseparable. They must
go along together if either is to be effective. For, to use Hitler's own phrase,
this is a total war. Everybody is in it. The air warden can no more shirk his job
than can the soldier or aviator on the battle front, or the man on the vital pro-
duction line, to whom our fighting men must look for the tools of war they
need so vitally.

So when we attempt to make a survey of what is to be done, we must do
so in terms of the worldwide struggle. Only a member of the War Council
could give an idea as to what plans have been made for striking the Axis. But
even the layman can see the strategy in general terms.

Obviously, our Navy is doing its utmost to rub out the submarine menace
along our Atlantic Coast. Let us take thought to see how closely we civilians