State of the Union AddressesRoosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano)
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State of the Union Addresses
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
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 unprecedented--and 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 smallest--from the huge automobile
industry to the village machine shop.
Production for war is based on men and women--the 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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