FDR

The greatest tribute which can be paid to the courage and fighting ability of these splendid soldiers in Italy is to point out that although their strength is about equal to that of the Germans they oppose, the Allies have been…

The people of this Nation have a right to be proud of the courage and fighting ability of the men in the armed forces--on all fronts.

By the end of 1944, the Air Transport Command was carrying into China a tonnage of supplies three times as great as that delivered a year ago, and much more, each month, than the Burma Road ever delivered at its peak.

Despite the loss of important bases in China, the tonnage delivered by air transport has enabled General Chennault's Fourteenth Air Force, which includes many Chinese flyers, to wage an effective and aggressive campaign against the…

British, Dominion, and Chinese forces together with our own have not only held the line in Burma against determined Japanese attacks but have gained bases of considerable importance to the supply line into China.

The officers and men who have served with so much devotion in these far distant jungles and mountains deserve high honor from their countrymen.

In all of the far-flung operations of our own armed forces--on land, and sea and in the air--the final job, the toughest job, has been performed by the average, easy-going, hard-fighting young American, who carries the weight of battle on…

It is to him that we and all future generations of Americans must pay grateful tribute.

He wants, he needs, and he is entitled to insist upon, our full and active support--now.

It is tragic that our wounded men should ever want for the best possible nursing care.

Since volunteering has not produced the number of nurses required, I urge that the Selective Service Act be amended to provide for the induction of nurses into the armed forces.

The need is too pressing to await the outcome of further efforts at recruiting.

We cannot tolerate a lowering of them by failure to provide adequate nursing for the brave men who stand desperately in need of it.

In the continuing progress of this war we have constant need for new types of weapons, for we cannot afford to fight the war of today or tomorrow with the weapons of yesterday.

Almost every month finds some new development in electronics which must be put into production in order to maintain our technical superiority--and in order to save lives.

If we do not keep constantly ahead of our enemies in the development of new weapons, we pay for our backwardness with the life's blood of our sons.

The only way to meet these increased needs for new weapons and more of them is for every American engaged in war work to stay on his war job--for additional American civilians, men and women, not engaged in essential work, to go out and…

This is no time to quit or change to less essential jobs.

And this Nation must pay for all those who leave their essential jobs--or all those who lay down on their essential jobs for nonessential reasons.

And--again--that payment must be made with the life's blood of our sons.

Many critical production programs with sharply rising needs are now seriously hampered by manpower shortages.

Last year, after much consideration, I recommended that the Congress adopt a national service act as the most efficient and democratic way of insuring full production for our war requirements.

I now again call upon the Congress to enact this measure for the total mobilization of all our human resources for the prosecution of the war.

In fact, bitter experience has shown that in this kind of mechanized warfare where new weapons are constantly being created by our enemies and by ourselves, the closer we come to the end of the war, the more pressing becomes the need for…

First, it would assure that we have the right numbers of workers in the right places at the right times.