The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-07

ito rich and poor, management and labor, farmer adn city dweller alike. And we are determined to keep the cost of living at a stable level. All this has required much information. The forms and ques" tionnaires represent an honest and sincere attempt by honest and sim cere officials to obtain this information.
 We have learned by the mis- takes taht have been made.
 Our experience will enable us during the coming year to im- prove the necessary mechanisms of wartime economic controls, and to simplify administrative pro- celures. But we do not intend to leave things SO lax that loopholes will be left for cheaters, for chislers, or fo- the manipulators of the black market.
 Of course, there have been in- conveniences and disturbances and even hardships. And there will be many, many more before we finally win. Yes, 1943, will not be an easy year for us on the home front. We shall feel in many ways in our daily lives the sharp pinch of total war.
 Fortunately, there are only @ few Americans who place appe- tite above patriotism. The over- whelming majority realize that the food we send abroad is for essential military purposes, for our own and Allied fighting forces, and for necessary help in areas that we occupy.
 We Americans intend to do this great job together. In our com- mon labors we must build and fortify the very foundation of na- tional unity-confidence in one another.
 It is often amusing, and 1t is sometimes politically profitable, to picture the City of Washington as a mad-house, with the Congress and the administration disrupted with confusion and indecision and general incompetence.
 However-what matters most in war is results. And the one per- tinent fact is that after only few years Of preparation and only one year of warfare, we are able to engage, spiritually as well as physically, in the total waging of total war.
 Washington may be a mad-house but only in the sense that it is the capital city of a nation which is fighting mad. And I think that Berlin and Rome and Tokyo, which had such contempt for the obsolete methods of democracy, would now gladly use all they could get of that same brand of madness.
 Production Achievements
 We must not forget that our achievements in production have been relatively no greater than those of the Russians and British and Chinese who have developed their war industries under the ia- credible difficulties of battle con- ditions. They have had to con- tjnue work through bombings and blackouts. They have never quit.
 We Americans are in good, brave company, in this war, and we are playing our own, honorable part in the vast common effort.
 As Spokesmen for the United States government, you and I take of our hats to those responsible for our American productior1-to the owners, managers and super visors, to the draftsmen and engi- neers, to the workers-men and women-in factories and arsenals and Shipyards and mines and mills and forests and railroads and highways.
 We take of our hats to the farmers who have faced an un- precedented task of feeding not only & great nation but great part of the world.
 We take off our hats to all the loyal, anonymous, untiring men and women who have worked in private employment and in gov- ernment and who have endured rationing and other stringencies with good humor and goodwill.
 We take of our hats to all Americans who have contributed magnificently to our common cause.
 I have sought to emphasize a sense of proportion in this review of the events of the war and the needs of the war.
 We should never forget the things we are fighting for. But. at this critical period of the war, we should confine ourselves to the larger objectiveS and not get bog ged down in nNargument over meth- ods and details.
 We, and all the United Nations, want 8 deoent peace and a dur able peace. In the years between the end of the first World War and the beginning of the second World War. we were not living under a decent or a durable peace.
 I have reason to know that our boys at the front are concerned with two broad aims beyond the winning of the war: and their thinking and their opinions coin- eide with what most Americans