Draft Radio Speech of Senator Harry S. Truman

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE RADIO AUDIENCE:- This great country of ours is facing a great emergency, perhaps the most serious in its history. This condition was brought about by factors over which we had no control and which we tried strenuously to avoid. The Dictator countries have brought about a war in the Eastern Hemisphere which has an effect on every person and country on the globe, no matter how remote they may be from the center of the conflict. To show how anxious we are to stay at peace, we enacted a National Act, voluntarily giving up some of our rights for which we had fought bloody E battles. It became necessary for us to amend that Neutrality Act in order to help the Democracies maintain their independence, and finally to declare our- selves the Arsenal of Democracy. We suddenly decided in the Spring of 1940 that we were totally un- prepared to face a world at war and began a frenzied attempt to remedy that appalling situation. We decided to build a two ocean Navy, and to train a million men a year for a period of five years. We have begun to spend money by the billions to accomplish those two purposes. We propose to give all-out aid to Great Britain, Greece and China and are getting ready to spend more the T. ARCHIVES billions to do it. 1.8 F Our National Defense machinery, never adequate nor very strong, has had to he been suddenly expanded to dinay proportions. Contracts for construction, for twentian have al u dental supplies and for munitions have been negotiated in wild haste. Washington has bells prosewing dailing deliver is Ganna been infested with lobbyists, job hunters and contractors as never before in its history. It has become necessary to let enormous contracts for expansion of airplane plants and for the construction of new ones. Munitions plants are being constructed all over the place. Clothing, supplies, munitions, battle- ships, airplanes, land and everything imaginable are being purchased at a rate never before dreamed of except in 1917 and 1918. We have appropriated as much money now as was spent in the whole war of 1918. Some sixteen and one half billions of dollars in appropriations have been authorized and appropriated for defense.f This does not include the appropriation of seven billions for aid to Britain, nor four billions for the Army now pending in the House of Represent-