Harry Truman

If you will all come by here, I will be glad to shake hands with each one of you.

When people ask what the Government of the United States is, it is you.

For these reasons, I feel obliged to withhold my approval of this measure.

Accordingly, it is my desire that all postponable public works be deferred until private demands for goods and services slacken off.

I must request your assistance in a most serious fiscal situation.

It is therefore essential that the expenditures of the Federal Government stay within the estimates of expenditures transmitted to the Congress in the January Budget.

The Federal Government should not compete with private industry for scarce materials, neither should it compete in any area for scarce labor.

In order to carry out the above program of curtailment of public works, the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion will issue a directive providing that for a period of sixty days, until October 1, 1946, there will be a moratorium…

I am convinced that this modification in program can be accomplished without impairing our effective defense.

No, we haven't made an estimate on that.

But we are stating that, to show that actually there will be more money turned in that will be paid out which we can turn into credit, because that would be paid in, in any case.

We want you to be entirely clear in your mind about this, so that is the reason why we have this special phone number that you can call over weekend.

Well, you can translate it that way, if you like.

I don't know the exact figure.

There is no double-talk in this message at all.

In fact, General Gregory got so disgusted with it, it made him sick, and he had to quit.

I call upon the people of the United States to observe Victory Day as a day of solemn commemoration of the devotion of the men and women by whose sacrifices victory was achieved.

It's nice to talk about making reductions, but it's hell to do it! [Laughter]

It's being absorbed in every other department.

It takes a little more than rough arithmetic to understand the Federal Government, it takes calculus. [Laughter]

They are going to be made, or we'll break somebody's neck.

You can say I am still hopeful. That will be all right.

I do hereby proclaim Wednesday, August 14, 1946, as Victory Day; and I direct that on that day the flag of the United States be displayed on all Government buildings.

It's off the record entirely.

We've got to have a Congress. The law provides for it. [Laughter]