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Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 1882-1945

"The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt"


When, at the end of this great struggle we shall have saved our
free way of life, we shall have made no "sacrifice."
The price for civilization must be paid in hard work and sorrow and
blood. The price is not too high. If you doubt it, ask those
millions who live today under the tyranny of Hitlerism.
Ask the workers of France and Norway and the Netherlands, whipped
to labor by the lash, whether the stabilization of wages is too
great a "sacrifice."
Ask the farmers of Poland and Denmark, of Czechoslovakia and
France, looted of their livestock, starving while their own crops
are stolen from their land, ask them whether "parity" prices are
too great a "sacrifice."
Ask the businessmen of Europe, whose enterprises have been stolen
from their owners, whether the limitation of profits and personal
incomes is too great a "sacrifice."
Ask the women and children whom Hitler is starving whether the
rationing of tires and gasoline and sugar is too great a
"sacrifice."
We do not have to ask them. They have already given us their
agonized answers.
This great war effort must be carried through to its victorious
conclusion by the indomitable will and determination of the people
as one great whole.
It must not be impeded by the faint of heart.
It must not be impeded by those who put their own selfish interests
above the interests of the nation.


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