of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 715

Today's assemblage, a counterpart of thousands of other demonstrations
that have been and will be staged throughout the Country, gives evidence un-
mistakable that the people of America are ready for the supreme test ahead.
It proves anew the esteem in which Americans generally regard their individual
and National freedom.

The guns carried by our State Guards are symbols of the grim determina-
tion of America to resist, as long as life shall endure, any encroachments upon
our life as a Nation or upon our liberties as individuals. The faithfulness of
our civilian volunteers to the tasks assigned them, the responsiveness of so
many to the call for Minute Men, all of these are but expressions of the genuine
American desire for freedom, the unconquerable American determination to
retain those privileges, won for them by their gallant ancestors and preserved
and strengthened through the years.

No! America will never give up this fight until freedom has been restored
throughout the world. It is a solemn obligation that has been laid upon us, not
only to maintain our own security but to help restore to enslaved millions every-
where, the freedom that is rightfully theirs.

One hundred and thirty million Americans are united with the people of
Allegany County in the patriotic determination to win through to Victory in
this war, no matter what the costs. Only thus can the menace of Hitler and
his perverted ideologies be destroyed; only thug can there be reestablished
throughout the world the principles of decency and humanity that are so
essential to world happiness, and to the hope for maintenance of peace upon
the earth.