Roose

The program originally scheduled for this time will be heard immediately after the special broadcast which follows. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. My fellow Americans, I am speaking tonight to the American people, and in particular to those of our citizens who are coal miners.

Tonight this country faces a serious crisis. We are engaged in a war on the successful outcome of which will depend the whole future of our country. This war has reached a new critical phase. After the years that we have spent in preparation, we have moved into active and continuing battle with our enemies.

We are pouring into the worldwide conflict everything that we have, our young men, and vast resources of our nation. I have just returned from a two weeks tour of inspection on which I saw our men being trained and our war materials made. My trip took me through 20 states. I saw thousands of workers on the production line making

airplanes and guns and ammunition. Everywhere I found great eagerness to get on with the war. Men and women are working long hours at difficult jobs and living under difficult conditions without complaint. Along thousands of miles of crack, I saw countless acres of newly plowed fields. The farmers of this country are planting the crops that are

are needed to feed our armed forces, our civilian population, and our allies. Those crops will be harvested. On my trip I saw hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Young men who were green recruits last autumn have matured into self-assured and hardened fighting men. They are in splendid physical condition. They are mastering the superior weapons that we are pouring out of