FDR

The prevention of a spiraling domestic economy is a vital part of the winning of the war itself.

Remember, the folks back home are counting on us.

We cannot hold the actual cost of food and clothing down to approximately the present level beyond October first.

When the cost of living spirals upward, everybody becomes poorer.

The reason why price ceilings have not already been imposed on all food products is that paragraph 3 of the Emergency Price Control Act prohibits such ceilings until farm prices as a whole have gone up beyond parity prices.

We did not count in vain.

We must stabilize the remuneration received by individuals for their work.

The cost of living goes up as fast as it is threatening to do in the immediate future.

The American people can also be sure that I shall not hesitate to use every power vested in me to accomplish the defeat of our enemies.

We are determined that no group shall suffer a shrinkage of its normal quota of basic necessities because some richer group can buy all the available supply at high prices.

We must tax heavily, and in that process keep personal and corporate profits at a reasonable rate.

This total war, with our fighting fronts all over the world, makes the use of the executive power far more essential than in any previous war.

If the vicious spiral of inflation ever gets under way, the whole economic system will stagger.

This will require vast assemblies of weapons and men at all the vital points of attack.

The Congress must realize that unless the existing control over farm prices is strengthened, we must abandon our efforts to stabilize wages and salaries and the cost of living.

I think I know the American farmers.

I will use my powers with a full sense of my responsibility to the Constitution and to my country.

The Nation must have more money to run the war.

It is not necessary for me to enumerate again the disastrous results of a runaway cost of living.

We cannot afford to let prices rise unchecked.

They have given their sons to the military services.

All this is little enough for free men to sacrifice in a world where freedom is imperiled.

They know just what stake they have in America, just what they are fighting for.

Production of war materials here is now the greatest in our history, but it is not yet enough.

The rights of free labor and free men have vanished in the conquered lands.