Speech of Senator Harry S. Truman Before the Meeting of the National Association of Accident and Health Underwriters at St. Louis, Missouri
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OCR Page 1 of 10SPEECH OF SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN
BEFORE THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ACCIDENT
AND HEALTH UNDERWRITERS, DESOTA
HOTEL, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, JUNE
22, 1944, AT 7:30 P.M.
RELEASE ON DELIVERY
RELEASE ON DELIVERY
Mr. Chairman, members of the Association and distinguished guests,
I am happy to have the opportunity to be with you today. It may be of interest
to you to discuss some of the purposes of the Legislative Branch of our Government,
War endangers the very existence of the nation and of the principles
for which it stands. To insure success, it is necessary to concentrate all the
resources of the nation on the winning of the war. We had to stop entirely the
production of many civilian items and to curtail the production of others; we had
to begin manufacturing thousands of new items, many of them in quantities never
previously considered; we had to raise and supply an immense Army and Navy; and,
at the same time, we had to feed ourselves and increase our food supplies and
share them with our allies. In other words, as a result of war, our needs auto-
matically exceeded our ability to supply them.
This necessarily disrupted civilian activities and business, and re-
quired a large amount of government by administrators. The Government had to
determine which things were most important, and had to allocate our limited
supplies in such a way as to insure the winning of the war as soon as possible
with a minimum loss of life, and at a minimum cost. This meant that our citizens
were told what they could do and what they could not do.
In one sense, this curtailment of liberties during war time by
self-imposed restrictions is a regimentation which we voluntarily inflict
upon ourselves, so that the war may be won and our liberties guaranteed.
It is very like the payment of insurance premiums. We pay those premiums,
KUUMAN
CO
NARA
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