| But we know that modern methods of warfare
make it a task, not only of shooting and fighting,
but an even more urgent one of working and
producing.
Victory requires the actual weapons of
war and the means of transporting them to
a dozen points of combat.
It will not be sufficient for us and the
other United Nations to produce a slightly
superior supply of munitions to that of
Germany, Japan, Italy, and the stolen industries
in the countries which they have overrun.
The superiority of the United Nations in
munitions and ships must be overwhelmingso
overwhelming that the Axis Nations can never
hope to catch up with it. And so, in order
to attain this overwhelming superiority
the United States must build planes and
tanks and guns and ships to the utmost limit
of our national capacity. We have the ability
and capacity to produce arms not only for
our own forces, but also for the armies,
navies, and air forces fighting on our side.
And our overwhelming superiority of armament
must be adequate to put weapons of war at
the proper time into the hands of those
men in the conquered Nations who stand ready
to seize the first opportunity to revolt
against their German and Japanese oppressors,
and against the traitors in their own ranks,
known by the already infamous name of "Quislings."
And I think that it is a fair prophecy to
say that, as we get guns to the patriots
in those lands, they too will fire shots
heard 'round the world.
This production of ours in the United States
must be raised far above present levels,
even though it will mean the dislocation
of the lives and occupations of millions
of our own people. We must raise our sights
all along the production line. Let no man
say it cannot be done. It must be doneand
we have undertaken to do it.
I have just sent a letter of directive
to the appropriate departments and agencies
of our Government, ordering that immediate
steps be taken:
First, to increase our production rate
of airplanes so rapidly that in this year,
1942, we shall produce 60,000 planes, 10,000
more than the goal that we set a year and
a half ago. This includes 45,000 combat
planes- bombers, dive bombers, pursuit planes.
The rate of increase will be maintained
and continued so that next year, 1943, we
shall produce 125,000 airplanes, including
100,000 combat planes.
Second, to increase our production rate
of tanks so rapidly that in this year, 1942,
we shall produce 45,000 tanks; and to continue
that increase so that next year, 1943, we
shall produce 75,000 tanks.
Third, to increase our production rate
of anti-aircraft guns so rapidly that in
this year, 1942, we shall produce 20,000
of them; and to continue that increase so
that next year, 1943, we shall produce 35,000
anti-aircraft guns.
And fourth, to increase our production
rate of merchant ships so rapidly that in
this year, 1942, we shall build 6,000,000
deadweight tons as compared with a 1941
completed production of 1,100,000. And finally,
we shall continue that increase so that
next year, 1943, we shall build 10,000,000
tons of shipping.
These figures and similar figures for a
multitude of other implements of war will
give the Japanese and the Nazis a little
idea of just what they accomplished in the
attack at Pearl Harbor.
And I rather hope that all these figures
which I have given will become common knowledge
in Germany and Japan.
Our task is hard- our task is unprecedentedand
the time is short. We must strain every
existing armament-producing facility to
the utmost. We must convert every available
plant and tool to war production. That goes
all the way from the greatest plants to
the smallestfrom the huge automobile
industry to the village machine shop.
Production for war is based on men and
womenthe human hands and brains which
collectively we call Labor. Our workers
stand ready to work long hours; to turn
out more in a day's work; to keep the wheels
turning and the fires burning twenty-four
hours a day, and seven days a week. They
realize well that on the speed and efficiency
of their work depend the lives of their
sons and their brothers on the fighting
fronts.
Production for war is based on metals and
raw materials-steel, copper, rubber, aluminum,
zinc, tin. Greater and greater quantities
of them will have to be diverted to war
purposes. Civilian use of them will have
to be cut further and still further and,
in many cases, completely eliminated.
War costs money. So far, we have hardly
even begun to pay for it. We have devoted
only 15 percent of our national income to
national defense. As will appear in my Budget
Message tomorrow, our war program for the
coming fiscal year will cost 56 billion
dollars or, in other words, more than half
of the estimated annual national income.
That means taxes and bonds and bonds and
taxes. It means cutting luxuries and other
non-essentials. In a word, it means an "all-out"
war by individual effort and family effort
in a united country.
Only this all-out scale of production will
hasten the ultimate all-out victory. Speed
will count. Lost ground can always be regained-
lost time never. Speed will save lives;
speed will save this Nation which is in
peril; speed will save our freedom and our
civilizationand slowness has never
been an American characteristic.
As the United States goes into its full
stride, we must always be on guard against
misconceptions which will arise, some of
them naturally, or which will be planted
among us by our enemies.
We must guard against complacency. We must
not underrate the enemy. He is powerful
and cunningand cruel and ruthless.
He will stop at nothing that gives him a
chance to kill and to destroy. He has trained
his people to believe that their highest
perfection is achieved by waging war. For
many years he has prepared for this very
conflict- planning, and plotting, and training,
arming, and fighting. We have already tasted
defeat. We may suffer further setbacks.
We must face the fact of a hard war, a long
war, a bloody war, a costly war.
We must, on the other hand, guard against
defeatism. That has been one of the chief
weapons of Hitler's propaganda machineused
time and again with deadly results. It will
not be used successfully on the American
people.
We must guard against divisions among ourselves
and among all the other United Nations.
We must be particularly vigilant against
racial discrimination in any of its ugly
forms. Hitler will try again to breed mistrust
and suspicion between one individual and
another, one group and another, one race
and another, one Government and another.
He will try to use the same technique of
falsehood and rumor-mongering with which
he divided France from Britain. He is trying
to do this with us even now. But he will
find a unity of will and purpose against
him, which will persevere until the destruction
of all his black designs upon the freedom
and safety of the people of the world.
We cannot wage this war in a defensive
spirit. As our power and our resources are
fully mobilized, we shall carry the attack
against the enemywe shall hit him
and hit him again wherever and whenever
we can reach him.
We must keep him far from our shores, for
we intend to bring this battle to him on
his own home grounds.
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