The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-09-10

Gov. Robert A. Hurley addressed the annual convention of the Con- necticut Federation of Labor at New Haven this afternoon.
 The text of Gov. Hurley's address follows:
 We are meeting today during the most crucial year in our nations history. Never before, not since the cold winter of Valley Forge, has the American people been confronted with such perilous and fearful pos abilities as now confront us. As our second winter of war approaches, powerful enemies are arrayed against us on all sides. To meet them, to fight them, to conquer them, we are sending our armies and navy over the whole face of the globe, into distant and danger ous places; we must adjust ourselves quickly to new and stringent cur- tailments of the comfortable way of living so familiar to all of us; we shall have to work harder, fight harder, make harder sacrifices until all the strength of our resources, our skill and our devotion are weld ed into weapons for victory. We shall have to win, because no other choice is possible for us. There can be no thought of peace without vic- tory. There can be no thought of re- treating from the responsibility of utterly defeating our enemies, of recognizing the world upon a foun- dation of just and enduring peace.
 No other course is open to us; and even if there were, We as Americans, would not-ard could not-choose it. We are committed by everything in which we believe, by everything our people have fought and died for in the past to see this war through. Every prancing tyrant who has had a hand in causing this war must be brought into captivity and tried and pun;nhed for his crimes. We can aspire to nothing less than that kind of complete and irrevocable victory.
 For the working people of Amer ica, particularly, anything less than that would not be victory.
 By now it should be clear to all that the war is very complex con- flict that must be fought at home as we'll as abroad. Beneath the surface of the great land and sea battles, bitter struggle of ideas is being fought. Not only must we win against the armed might of the Axis; we must win, just as decisive ly, against that kind of thinking and against those backward ideas out of which Fascist and Nazi- minded movements begin.
 We must not only defeat the for eign despots. We must also defeat every effort and inclination, every lingering hope to establish in Amer ica, or elsewhere, reactionary gov- ernments that would make mock cry of all that we are striving for.
 We must make 1t perfectly clear that we are fighting to put an end to that concept of society that per- mits some to go hungry in the midst of plenty.
 No, it is not only against Hitler ism and militarism that we are fighting. We are fighting against age-old slavery and ruthless exploitation. We are fighting against the vicious concept that some might be masters while others are serfs. We are fighting against every false principle of inequality that permits marks of distinction to be raised among human beings be- cause of race, color or creed. We are fighting against the forces which produce poverty and unemployment, against twentieth century feudalism in which one-third of a great na- tion can be ill-clad, ill-housed, ill., fed. We are fighting against those forces which would deny to working people the right to join trade unions of their own choosing, which would use every trick of deception and force to destroy the hard won rights of labor.
 Consider the world we can cre- ate if we are vigilant and alert, if we stand united and determined. We can spread the benefits of education to all who desire them. We can put an end to the frightening causes of war and social strife. We can nave society of really free men, where none will be tormented be- cause of station or class. We can have governments devoted only to the general welfare. We can es- tablish sound and workable sys- tenn for the distribution of goods and services. We can make a world in which the decent hopes of ordinary people for security and individual development will have the chance of fulfillment.
 I doubt If there is any one here who does not share with me that hope for a world to come. It Is for such world that American labor has struggled. and it is for such a world that American labor ls now making its greatest achievement.
 Those are the goals for which VIC are fighting. Those are the goals for which on sacrifice we make can be too great.
 I speak of American Labor be- cause know the working people Of Connecticut. Here, in our state, those who work for wages have never once faltered ln seFv- ing our great cause. Here in Con- necllcut. our workers fulfilled, be- yond the most hopeful expectation 0g all, almost incredible tasks of production. Here, ln this arsenal for world democracy, not once since the war for ns began, has organized labor gone out 0n strike because of any grievance. Here, in oir state, laaoF ~ax Aha first to manrnndar