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
our factories.
The American people have accomplished a miracle.
However, all of our massed effort is none too great to meet the
demands of this war. We shall need everything that we have and
everything that our Allies have to defeat the Nazis and the
Fascists in the coming battles on the continent of Europe, and the
Japanese on the continent of Asia and in the islands of the
Pacific.
This tremendous forward movement of the United States and the
United Nations cannot be stopped by our enemies.
And equally, it must not be hampered by any one individual or by
the leaders of any one group here back home.
I want to make it clear that every American coal miner who has
stopped mining coal--no matter how sincere his motives, no matter
how legitimate he may believe his grievances to be--every idle
miner directly and individually is obstructing our war effort. We
have not yet won this war. We will win this war only as we produce
and deliver our total American effort on the high seas and on the
battle fronts. And that requires unrelenting, uninterrupted effort
here on the home front.
A stopping of the coal supply, even for a short time, would involve
a gamble with the lives of American soldiers and sailors and the
future security of our whole people.
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