The Pittsburgh Press (January 7, 1943)
Roosevelt warns Axis –
More hard blows coming; ‘better America’ pledged
Victory in 1944 visioned as President urges security measures
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
President Roosevelt today delivered before a joint session of Congress a mailed-fist annual message promising victory – perhaps in 1944 – and calling for post-war unity of our Allies to disarm Germany, Italy and Japan and to keep them disarmed.
He said:
Yes, the Nazis and the fascists have asked for it – and they are going to get it.
He revealed that a million and a half American fighting men are serving outside the continental United States. The overall armed force now numbers 7 million – and it is going up.
He revealed enormous 1942 munitions production, although tanks and airplanes fell short of numerical goals.
And to Germany, Japan and Italy, to their peoples and their leaders he uttered the solemn warning – the Yanks are coming and they are full of fight.
Against the urgent advice of some of his own legislative leaders, the President bluntly insisted that this new Congress proceed to bring about the third of the four freedoms – freedom from want. He did not, however, present a detailed program.
He said he had reason to know that “our boys at the front” are interested in two broad aims beyond winning the war and he named them:
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A lasting peace.
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Permanent employment for themselves, their families and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.
He said:
…they want assurance against the evils of all major economic hazards – assurance that will extend from the cradle to the grave. And this great government can and must provide this assurance.
I have been told that this is no time to speak of a better America after the war. I am told it is a grave error on my part.
I dissent.
And if the security of the individual citizen, or the family, should become a subject of national debate, the country knows where I stand.
I say this now to this 78th Congress, because it is wholly possible that freedom from want – the right of employment, the right of assurance against life’s hazards – will loom very large as a task of America during the coming two years.
Mr. Roosevelt’s assurance of victory was absolute and unqualified. His judgment on the time was more cautious.
He said:
I do not prophesy when this war will end.
But I do believe that this year of 1943 will give to the United Nations a very substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.
I tell you it is within the realm of possibility that this 78th Congress may have the historic privilege of helping greatly to save the world from future fear.
By freedom from fear, Mr. Roosevelt meant assurance to the world that it would not again be subject to further aggression by the Axis or by any other; that before this Congress ends sometime in December 1944, the business of disarming the Axis and keeping it disarmed may well be underway.
Mr. Roosevelt’s message, one of the most forceful state papers of his career, was divided into three parts: Progress of the war, production, and problems of the peace.
The Axis powers knew they must win the war in 1942 and having failed, he said, they must eventually lose everything.
In the Pacific, our objective has been to wear down the Japanese by destroying more war material than their hard-pressed industry could replace and, Mr. Roosevelt said, a large part of that task had been accomplished.
He continued:
That will become evident to the Japanese people themselves when we strike at their own home islands, and bomb them constantly from the air.
The period of our defensive attrition in the Pacific is drawing to a close. Now our aim is to force the Japanese to fight. Last year, we stopped them. This year, we intend to advance.
Even today we are flying as much Lend-Lease material into China as ever traversed the Burma Road, flying it over mountains 17,000 feet high, flying blind through sleet and snow.
Turning now to the European theater of war, during this past year it was clear that our first task was to lessen the concentrated pressure on the Russian front by compelling Germany to divert part of her manpower and equipment to another theater of war.
The President said the invasion of North Africa and the British drive from Egypt into Libya had accomplished that but that:
Great rains and appalling mud and very limited communications have delayed the final battles of Tunisia.
Although the Axis is reinforcing its strong positions there, Mr. Roosevelt had no doubts.
He said:
I am confident that though the fighting will be tough, when the final Allied assault is made, the last vestige of Axis power will be driven from the whole of the south shores of the Mediterranean.
But that was not the half of it. Mr. Roosevelt promised the Axis a direct land attack on Europe – and he said the Axis could try to guess where.
He said:
But I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike by land, we and the British and the Russians will hit them from the air heavily and relentlessly. Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.
Hitler and Mussolini will understand now the enormity of their miscalculations – that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior airpower as they did when they bombed Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and London and Coventry. That superiority has gone – forever.
Turning to the American productive effort in 1942, the President said the results justified the confidence in the ability of the American people to establish new records.
Explaining the goals he originally set for 1942 were altered – some upward, others downward – he cited these 1942 figures:
About 48,000 military planes during the year – more than the airplane production of Germany, Italy, and Japan put together.
56,000 combat vehicles, including tanks and self-propelled artillery.
670,000 machine guns and 21,000 anti-tank guns.
10,250,000,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition and 181 million rounds of artillery ammunition.
The President said:
The arsenal of democracy is making good.
He cited the production record as disproving certain misconceptions:
…especially the one which holds that the various blocs or groups within a free country cannot forego their political and economic differences in time of crisis and work together toward a common goal.
Emphasizing the need for a proper “sense of proportion” in viewing the war and its needs, Mr. Roosevelt said:
We should never forget the things we are fighting for.
He added:
But, at this critical period of the war, we should confine ourselves to the larger objectives and not get bogged down in argument over methods and details.
From the days of World War I and the beginning of the present war, he said:
…we were not living under a decent or a durable peace.
Things must be different this time, he said. The men of the Armed Forces, he added:
…want a lasting peace, and, equally, they want permanent employment for themselves, their families, and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.
They expect the opportunity to work, to run their farms, their stores, to earn decent wages. They are eager to face the risks inherent in our system of free enterprise.
Mr. Roosevelt said he hoped the problem of granting “the right of employment and the right of assurance against life’s hazards” would not be regarded “as an issue but rather as a task” for all to approach “sympathetically” and achieve “with fairness to all and with injustice to none.”
The President said that “this great government can and must provide” assurance desired by our young men and women:
…against the evils of all major economic hazards – assurance that will extend from the cradle to the grave.
Without going into any details, the President said “this great government can and must provide this assurance” in addition to making certain that the people of the country are given a stable opportunity fore employment and not bogus prosperity or a dole.
Mr. Roosevelt did not, however, present the detailed and expanded Social Security program which some observers had expected. Congressional leaders had urged him to forego presentation at this time of the cradle-to-grave insurance protection program covering health and old age which he was understood to have prepared.
They feared such a proposal would precipitate a knockdown Congressional fight which would be undesirable in the midst of the war effort.
Mr. Roosevelt, while the tone of his speech was definitely optimistic as far as war progress in 1943 was concerned, declined to prophesy when the war would end but he did express the belief that the year would:
… give to the United Nations a very substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.
He said:
I tell you it is within the realm of possibility that this 78th Congress may have the historic privilege of helping greatly to save the world from future fear.
A tremendous, costly, long-enduring task in peace as well as in war is still ahead of us.
“No force, no combination of forces, no trickery, deceit, or violence,” the President said, could stop the people in their forward movement toward “a decent, secure, peaceful life for all men everywhere.”
Explaining the “dislocations… inconveniences and… hardships” in this country necessitated by the war, the President said that putting the nation on a war footing could not have been done without “burdensome government regulations which are a nuisance to everyone.”
Admitting that there had been “inevitable mistakes,” Mr. Roosevelt reaffirmed his determination:
… to see to it that our supplies of food and other essential civilian goods are distributed on a fair and just basis…
He said:
Our experience will enable us during the coming year to improve the necessary mechanisms of wartime economic controls, and to simplify administrative procedures. But we do not intend to leave things so lax that loopholes will be left for cheaters, for chiselers, or for the manipulators of the black market.
Declaring his thankfulness that there are only a few Americans who place appetite above patriotism.” Mr. Roosevelt said there would be many more hardships before this war is won and that in our common labors:
…we must build and fortify the very foundation of national unity – confidence in one another.
The President described 1942 production as a “miracle,” particularly in view of the fact that during the year, some five million workers were withdrawn from the labor force and from the farms to go into the armed services which now total about 7,000,000 men and women.
He paid particular tribute to farmers for:
…producing the greatest quantity of food ever made available during a single year in all our history.
He vigorously defended Congress and the administration from charges of “general incompetence.”
Although distracted by opening ceremonies and glamorous additions to the feminine contingent in the House, the Congress got its legislative machinery in motion yesterday with introduction of a few new bills.
Rep. George Bender (R-OH) submitted a measure to outlaw the poll tax now operating as a vote restriction in eight Southern states. A similar measure was blocked in the last Congress by filibuster.
Fly is attacked
A proposal to lower the minimum enlistment age for WAACs from 21 to 18 and for WAVES from 20 to 18 was introduced by Rep. Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL). He said the action was logical in view of the lowering of the male draft age to 18.
Charging “shocking” operations by the Federal Communications Commission under chairmanship of James L. Fly, Rep. Eugene E. Cox (D-GA) introduced a resolution to investigate the commission.
Mr. Cox charged the commission:
…maintains a Gestapo the equal of which has never been seen in free government, and has developed the smear business into a fine art.
‘Just plain modern’
Others were unable to take the first day of the session so seriously. In fact, the House’s new glamor girls, Reps. Clare Boothe Luce (R-CT) and Winifred Stanley (R-NY), took things so lightly they didn’t even answer their first roll call. In justice to them, however, they were being besieged by admiring colleagues.
Mrs. Luce also gained admirers from within the ranks of the eight-member feminine bloc. Rep. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), who served as her husband’s secretary when he was a representative and then replaced him in 1940, said:
She’s modern, just modern. And she looks like a woman with a mind of her own. I like her looks. I like her style.
The lineup
The 1942 general elections aligned the new Congress as follows:
| House | Senate | |
|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 222 | 57 |
| Republicans | 208 | 38 |
| American Labor | 1 | 0 |
| Progressive | 3 | 1 |
| Vacant | 1 | 0 |
The Democrats’ slim edge of only 10 votes more than a bare majority in the House is not considered an adequate working margin.