US Presidency
1942

I can not tell what powers may have to be exercised in order to win this war. The American people can be sure that I will use my powers with a full sense of responsibility to the Constitution and to my country. 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 in any part of the world where our own safety demands such defeat. And when the war is won, the powers under which I act will automatically revert to the people of the United States to the people to whom ( they ) those powers belong. I think I know the American farmers. I know ( that ) they are as wholehearted in their patriotism as any other group. They have suffered from the constant fluctuations of farm prices occasionally too high, more often too low. Nobody knows better than farmers the disastrous effects of wartime inflationary booms, and post-war deflationary panics.