Evening star., 1942-11-26

to you tonight, not to plead for
help for Mr.. Stain. or help for the
Union Of Socialist Soviet Republics.
I ask you, as men and women, to
give aid to the men and women
of Russia.
We are here to honor and to help
brave people who are our allies.
For however much men may dis
agree with Russia's political econ
omy, all men must recognize the
superb fight her people have made
IN defense of their homeland.
Answer to Communism.
Many among the Democracies
have feared and mistrusted Soviet
Russia. They have dreaded the in
roads of an economic order that
would be destructive of their own.
Such fear is weakness. Russia is
neither going to eat us nor seduce
us. That is-and this is something
for us to think about-that is, unless
our democratic institutions and our
free economy become so frail
through abuse and failure in prac-
tice as to make us soft and weak.
The best answer to communism
Is a living, vibrant, fearless democ-
racy-economic and social and poll
tical. All we need to do is to stand
up and perform according to our
professed ideals. Then those ideals
will be safe.
No, we do not need to fear Russia,
We need to learn to work with her
against our common enemy. Hitler.
We need to learn to work with her
IL the world after the war. For
Russia is dynamic country, vital
new society, force that cannot be
by-passed in any future world.
But today, she needs our help. Five
million Russians have been killed,
wounded or are missing. The great
fertile farm lands of Southwestern
Russia are largely in Nazi hands,
Their products are now feeding the
enemy and their men and women
are forced to be his slaves. Thou
sands of RuSsia's villages have been
destroyed and their people are home
less. Her transportation system is
overloaded; her factories, producing
to the very limit, require the full
output of her remaining oil fields
and coal mines.
Privation Lies Ahead.
Food in Russia this winter will be
scarce-perhaps worse than scarce.
Fuel will be little known this winter
in Russian homes. Even when I was
in Moscow, women and children
were gathering wood from so miles
around to make a little warmth
against the coming cold. Clothing,
except for the army and essential
war workers, is nearly gone
Many vital medical supplies just
don't exist. Russian women by the
millions, side by side with their chill
dren, some of them as young as or
10, are manning war machines and
running farms. Every able bodied
man is in the army or giving the
maximum hours of hard work in
war factories.
Such is Russia today, with the bit
ter long winter just ahead. We can
help by sending food there this
winter to fill shrinking stomachs. !
We can help by sending medical
supplies to ease pain and suffering
We can help by sending clothes to
cover shivering bodies. We can
show through our giving the warm
admiration we feel for such gallant
fighters. That, too. will help.
The Russian people are turning to |
the democracies of the west for hope
and aid. We must not fail them. For |
Just as the African front is Russias |
front, so Stalingrad and Moscow are
our fronts And the Russian people |
behind those fronts, who are our
allies today, must be our friends
tomorrow.
1t is with them that we must
work to make this war what their
leader has called it: "A great war
of liberation"