Evening star., 1944-01-11

| Inc rlSnt 10 earn enough 10
provide adequate food and cloth
ing and recreation;
impartially, We cannot escape the
fact that in our past we have not
always forgotten individual and
selfish and partisan interests in time
of war-we have not always been
united in purpose and direction. We
cannot overlook the serious dissen-
sions and the lack of unity in our
War of the Revolution, in our War
of 1912 or in our War Between the
States, when the survival of the
Union itself was at stake.
In the first World War we came
closer to national unity than in any
previous war. But that war lasted
only a year and half, and increas-
ing signs of disunity began to appear
during the final months of the con-
fiict.
All Groups Interdependent.
| In this war we have been COM
PEELED to learn how interdependent
upon each other are all groups and
sections of the population of
| America.
Increased food costs. for example
will bring new demands for wage
| increases from all war workers,
which will in turn raise all prices of
all things, including those things
which the farmers themselves have
to buy. Increased wages or prices
will each in turn produce the same
results. They all have a particu-
larly disastrous result on all fixed
income groups.
| And hope you will remember that
all of us in this Government repre-
sent the fiXed-income group just as
much as we represent business own
ers. workers and farmers This group
of fixed-income people include teach
ers, clergy, policemen, firemen
widows and minors on fixed incomes
wives and dependents of our SOL
diers and sailors, and old-age pen
| sloners. They and their families add
up to one e-quarter Of our l30, ,00O, 600
people. They have few or no high
pressure representatives at the Cap
itol. In period of gross imitation
they would be the worst sufferers.
If ever there was a time to sub
ordinate individual or group selfish
ness to the national good, that time
is now. Disunity at home-bicker-
lngs, self-seeking partisanship, stop
pages of work. imitation, business as
usual, politics as usual, luxury as
usual - these are the influences
which can undermine the morale of
the brave men ready to die at the
front for us here.
Overconfidence, Complaceney.
Those who are doing most of the
complaining are not deliberately
striving to sabotage the national
war effort. They are laboring under
the delusion that the time is past
when We must make prodigious
sacri1ces-that the war is already
won and we can begin to slacken of
But the dangerous folly OF that
point of view can be measured by
the distance that separates our
troops from their ultimate objec-
tives in Berlin and Tokio-and by
the sum of all the perils that lie
along the way.
Overconfidence and complacencv
are among our deadliest enemies
Last spring-after notable victories
at Stalingrad and in Tunisia and
against the U-boats on the high
seas-overconfldence became so
pronounced that war production fell
of. In two months, June and July,
ls43, more than a thousand air
planes that could have been made
and should have been made were
not made. Those who failed to
make them were not on strike. They
were merely saying, The wars in
the bag-So let's relax"
That attitude on the part of any
one-Government, or management,
or labor-can lengthen this war. 1t
can kill American boys.
Let us remember the lessons of
1918. In the summer of that year
the tide turned In favor of the
Allies. But this Government did not
relax. In fact, our national effort
was stepped up. In August, 1918, the
draft age limits were broadened
from 2l-3l to l8-45. The President
called for force to the utmost" and
his call was needed And in Novem-
ber, only three months later, Ger
many surrendered.
Five-Point Program.
That is the way to fight and win q
war-all out-and not with half ar
eye on the battle fronts abroad ano
the other eve and a half on per-
sonal, selfish or political interests
here at home.
Therefore, in order to concentrate
all our energies and resources or
winning the war, and to maintain 6
fair and stable economy at home
l recommend that the Congress.
adopt:
! % A realistic tax law-which will
tax all unreasonable profits, botf
individual and corporate, and re-
duce the ultimate cost of the wal
to our sons and daughters. The ia.
bill now under consideration by the
Congress does not begin to meet this
test.
20 A continuatio of the law fol
the renegotiation of war contracts
which will prevent exorbitant profits
and assure fair prices to the Gov.
ernment. For two long years I have
pleaded with the Congress to take
! ,lrdY1n yaynf3tc ont oF