Evening star., 1944-10-28
By the Associated Press.

FOLLOWING is the tert OF Presi-
: dent Rooseuelt's speech here last
i night:
Today is the anniversary Of tn,
birth of a great fighting American
Theodore Roosevelt.
This day is celebrated every veal
as Navy Day-and I think Theodor,
Roosevelt would be happy and proue
to know that our American fleet nov
Is greater than all the navies of tht
world put together.
And when I say all the navies,
am including what was-until three
days ago-the Japanese fleet.
Since Navy Day year ago oul
armed forces-Army, Navy and All
Forces-have participated in ne
fewer than 27 different D days-2'
different landings In force on enc.
my-held shores.
Every one of these landings has
been an incredibly complicated anc
hazardous undertaking, requiring
months of most careful planning
flawless coordination, and split
second timing in execution. The
larger operations have required
hundreds of warships, thousands OF
smaller craft, thousands of airplanes
and hundreds of thousands of men
Every One a Success.
And every one of these 27 D days
has been a triumphant success.
1t is a remarkable achievement
that within less than five months
we have been able to carry out
major offensive operations In both
Europe and the Philippines-13,000
miles apart from each other.
And speaking of the glorious op-
erations in the Philippines Won
der-whatever became of the sugges-
ton made few weeks ago, that
had failed for political reasons tc
send enough forces or supplies tc
Gen. Macarthur?
I realize that, in this political
campaign, it is considered by some
to be very impolite to mention the
fact that there is war on.
But the war is still on and
II 100000 American fighting men
know it-and so do their families
And in that war I bear a RESPONSE
bility which I can never shirk and
never, for one instant, forget.
For the Constitution of the United
States says-and I hope you will par
don me if I quote it correctly
the President shall be Commander
in Chief of the Army and Navy OF
the United States"
am not supposed to mention that,
either.
But somehow or other, 1t seems to
me that this is matter Of con-
siderable Importance to the Amer
ican people.
Duty of Commander.
1t was due to no accident and no
oversight that the trainers of our
constitution put the command Of
our armed forces under civilian
authority.
It is the duty of the Commander
in Chief to appoint the Secretaries
of War and Navy and the chiefs of
staff-and I feel called upon to offer
no apologies for my selection of
Henry Stimson, the late Frank
Knox and James Forrestal, or of
Admiral Leahy, Gen. Marshall
Admiral King and Gen. Arnold.
Furthermore, the Commander In
Chief has final responsibility for de-
termining how our resources shall
be distributed as between our land
forces, sea forces and air forces, and
as among the different theaters OF
operations, and also what portion
shall be turned over to our Allies
Our teamwork with our Allies in
this war has involved innumerable
intricate problems which could be
settled only around the conference
table by those who had final
authority.
The other day, I am told, a
prominent Republican orator stated
that there are not five civilians
in the entire National Government
who have the confidence and re-
spect of the American people"
In fact, he described your present
administration as "the most specta-
cular collection of incompetent peo-
pie who ever held public office"
News to Most of Us.
Well, now-that is pretty serious
The only conclusion to be drawn
from that is that we are losing the
war, If so, that will be news to
most of us-and it will certainly
be news to the Nazis and the Japs.
The record will show that from
almost the first minute of my ad-
ministration I started to rebuild the
United States Navy which had been
Whitfield down during previous ad-
ministrations. What the Navy suf-
fered from conspicuously during
these Republican administrations
was drastic false economy which
not only scrapped ships but even
prevented adequate target practice,
adequate maneuvers and adequate
supplies. 1t had reached the point
that on some vessels the crews
"chipped in" to buy their own brass
polish to keep the bright work
shining.
The record will show that-when
we were attacked at Pearl Harbor-
we had already made tremendous
progress toward building the great
est war machine the world has ever
known.
Third Fleet as Example.
Take, for example, the ships Of
Admiral Halsey's powerful Sd Fleet
which has just given the Japa-
nese Navy the worst licking in its
history.
Every battleship in that fleet was
authorized between 1888 and 1888.
Construction had begun on all of
those battleships by September,
1940-well over a year before Pearl
Harbor.
All but two of the great force of
cruisers in Admiral Halsey's fleet
were authorized between 1888 and
1910, and construction on all but
one of them had begun before Pearl
Harbor.
All of the aircraft carriers in that