FDR

Any failure in production may well result in costly defeat on the field of battle.

The fathers and mothers of our fighting men, their brothers and sisters and friends--and that includes all of us--are also in the line of duty--the production line.

They know how essential it is to the tens of thousands--hundreds of thousands--and ultimately millions of other young Americans to get the best of arms and equipment into the hands of our fighting forces--and get them there quickly.

We have already received telegrams from some of our fighting men overseas, and I only wish they could tell you what they think of the stoppage of work in the coal mines.

You have sons who at this very minute--this split second--may be fighting in New Guinea, or in the Aleutian Islands, or Guadalcanal, or Tunisia, or China, or protecting troop ships and supplies against submarines on the high seas.

The government needs their services just as surely as it needs the services of our soldiers, and sailors, and marines-- and the services of the millions who are turning out the munitions of war.

But the consequences of this arbitrary action threaten all of us everywhere.

Therefore, I say to all miners--and to all Americans everywhere, at home and abroad--the production of coal will not be stopped.

It would involve an unwarranted, unnecessary and terribly dangerous gamble with our chances for victory.

A stopping of the coal supply, even for a short time, would involve a gamble with the lives of American soldiers and sailors and the future security of our whole people.

We will win this war only as we produce and deliver our total American effort on the high seas and on the battle fronts.

And equally, it must not be hampered by any one individual or by the leaders of any one group here back home.

This tremendous forward movement of the United States and the United Nations cannot be stopped by our enemies.

We shall need everything that we have and everything that our Allies have to defeat the Nazis and the Fascists in the coming battles on the continent of Europe, and the Japanese on the continent of Asia and in the islands of the Pacific.

Young men who were green recruits last autumn have matured into self-assured and hardened fighting men.

We are pouring into the world-wide conflict everything that we have--our young men, and the vast resources of our nation.

We are engaged in a war on the successful outcome of which will depend the whole future of our country.

We are united in seeking the kind of victory that will guarantee that our grandchildren can grow and, under God, may live their lives, free from the constant threat of invasion, destruction, slavery and violent death.

We, therefore, fight for the restoration and perpetuation of faith and hope and peace throughout the world.

It is useless to win a war unless it stays won.

But it is useless to win battles if the cause for which we fight these battles is lost.

We are mindful of the countless millions of people whose future liberty and whose very lives depend upon permanent victory for the United Nations.

They are fighting to save for all mankind, including ourselves, the principles which have flourished in this new world of freedom.

We are celebrating today the exploit of a bold and adventurous Italian--Christopher Columbus--who with the aid of Spain opened up a new world where freedom and tolerance and respect for human rights and dignity provided an asylum for the…

I want every father and every mother who has a son in the service to know--again, from what I have seen with my own eyes--that the men in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps are receiving today the best possible training, equipment and medical…