FDR

We still have to drive the Germans out of Italy as we have driven them out of Tunisia and Sicily; we must drive them out of France and all other captive countries; and we must strike them on their own soil from all directions.

After years of war and suffering and degradation, the Italian people are at last coming to the day of liberation from their real enemies, the Nazis.

This was a great victory for the United Nations--but it was also a great victory for the Italian people.

In this war bond campaign we are filling bags and placing them against the flood--bags which are essential if we are to stand off the ugly torrent which is trying to sweep us all away.

Today, in the same kind of community effort, only very much larger, the United Nations and their peoples have kept the levees of civilization high enough to prevent the floods of aggression and barbarism and wholesale murder from engulfing…

We are a great nation--a rich nation--but we are not so great or so rich that we can afford to waste our substance or the lives or our men by relaxing along the way.

It is not too much to say that we must pour into this war the entire strength and intelligence and will power of the United States.

But this will require a far greater concentration of our national energy and our ingenuity and our skill.

We still have to defeat Hitler and Tojo on their own home grounds.

Are you loyally and cheerfully cooperating with your government in preventing inflation and profiteering, and in making rationing work with fairness to all?

And yet--if he gets complacent or indifferent and slacks on his job, he too may sacrifice the lives of American soldiers and contribute to the loss of an important battle.

By the same token--a worker here at home may not like the driving, wartime conditions under which he has to work and live.

And yet--if he lays off for one single instant he may lose his own life and sacrifice the lives of his comrades.

The American soldier does not like the necessity of waging war.

And that can be gained only by straight thinking--not guesswork, not political manipulation.

Fifth, improved and liberalized provisions for hospitalization, for rehabilitation, for medical care of disabled members of the armed forces and the merchant marine.

Fourth, allowance of credit to all members of the armed forces, under unemployment compensation and federal old-age and survivors' insurance, for their period of service.

Third, an opportunity for members of the armed services to get further education or trade training at the cost of the government.

Second, in case no job is found after diligent search, then unemployment insurance if the individual registers with the United States Employment Service.

First, mustering-out pay to every member of the armed forces and merchant marine when he or she is honorably discharged; mustering- out pay large enough in each case to cover a reasonable period of time between his discharge and the…

But the members of the armed forces have been compelled to make greater economic sacrifice and every other kind of sacrifice than the rest of us, and they are entitled to definite action to help take care of their special problems.

The American people will insist on fulfilling this American obligation to the men and women in the armed forces who are winning this war for us.

I have assured our men in the armed forces that the American people would not let them down when the war is won.

We must, this time, have plans ready-- instead of waiting to do a hasty, inefficient, and ill-considered job at the last moment.

They must not be demobilized into an environment of inflation and unemployment, to a place on a bread line, or on a corner selling apples.