Evening star., 1941-07-25
Text of Roosevelt Talk
President Tells Civilian Defense
Unit He Looks for Real Results

OHlC TIC kUOkS III
The tert Of President Roose-
selts remarks yesterday to mem
bers OF the. Volunteer Parttct-
putino Committee, Office OF
CiUilian Defense, tollo1Ds:
You have a lot of work to do, I
haven't prepared any speech, but /
do feel very strongly that we must
hiring home certain things to every
part of the country, and that it has
got to be done through civilian
work. 1t has got to be done by
civilians among civilians. Other
things are pretty we'll organized
production-and the training pro-
gram. but what we need is to get
the people as whole to realize
certain facts.
The MAYORS work is really in two
parts. The first is what call quasi
military-a thing like preparing
sandbaps, and they may be necessary
in certain parts of the country, not
necessarily all over. Afraid alarms
and so forth and so on. That is oniy
part of it that can be done largely
through the constituted authorities
IN the State governments, city and
county governments, but beyond
that it is your work which is at least
EQUALLY important-more important
War Between Populations.
peonle in this country unfortu-
nately haven't got enough loea OF
what modern war means. Ano IL
isn't anvbodys fault over here tnat
modern war means something en-
tirelv different from what it used 10
he II is a war between populatlons
and not alone between armies. lnat,
I think, is something that tnose M
the average home in this country
have not yet got through tneii
heads.
We know what is happening IN
ENGLAND today. We know the 1acC
that women in London-mothers OF
,ies-are 1ust as important IN
efense of Britain as men on q
DESTROYER. They are all part OF tnls
defense. And I think that we nave
q long, long ways to go IN tnls
country.
We are going to get through you
an organization in every community.
We can't do 1t all from Washington.
The responsibility, think, IS yours
bv units-by corps areas. ! am
going to hold you responsible IN
these corps areas for what goes on
and 7 am not going to be put on py
neople who say, well, we couldn't
And out about this from Washlng-
ton" Or We don't know who has
the Jurisdiction" I don't care VINO
has the ultimate jurisdiction. You
have. In other words, If you nave
some problem of organization ana
YOU can't find out Whetner IL
heins handled by this, that or the
other agency within State, or a
corps area, or a community, l am
not going to take that as an excuse.
Go ahead and do the thing tnat you
want to do first and talk about
Jurisdiction afterwards.
Cross Section of U. S.
lam looking for real results. You
NAV have some question about your
relationship to State councils OF
defense and local councils OF defense.
I am looking for results. l tnlnk
thev will work with you in almost
every part of the country. 1 don't
think you are going to have any
real trouble any more than you are
going to have sporadic cases of what
might be called political trouble.
I don't know, but have an idea
that there are just about as many
Republicans in this group as there
are Democrats. Frankly-I don't
care, except for the fact that this
has been a good illustration that
this work is political. You have
labor here. You have capital. You
have Negroes here. You have white
people. You have got every cross
section Of American life represented
on this committee.
About this question of politics.
Somebody may start 1t. Don't bring
It to me. You are Americans. You
don't belong to any party in this
work.
I don't know that there is any
thing else I want to say, except that,
quite frankly, I am looking for re-
suits from all of you. We will do the
best we can. 1t is going to take a
little while to get all the machinery
working smoothly. I am inclined to
think that you don't want to make
mountains out of molehills.
Must Inform People.
What we want is to get this thing
into every family in the United
States. And, incidentally, there are
great many people who don't even
belong to families, who are of by
Observation-Disclosures We want
you to 60 after those people and
explain the real necessity, and seri-
BUSINESS of this world situation.
There are lots of things that peo-
paa don't quite understand You are