Speech of Senator Harry S. Truman Before the Colorado Mining Association at Denver, Colorado

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is ADDRESS TO BE DELIVERED BY SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN "INATIONAL RECURDSN ADMIN of the BEFORE THE COLORADO MINING ASSOCIATION, DENVER, COLORADO Ess. GOVE January 30, 1943. It is a privilege to address the Colorado Mining Association. You are producing the metals America needs to win the war. Today you are holding a war conference with the patriotic purpose of doing even more to increase your contri- bution to America's might. You are here to discuss the problems of your industry and to seek solutions in the democratic way. We do not need dictators or bureau- crats to tell us what to do in this Country. We do need and we do want the right to discuss our problems together, and to oooperate in doing our job. Your work is of paramount importance. In time of war you are rightly leaving no stone unturned in the quest for metals. Without your lead and copper, without your zinc, your gold and silver, and iron ores and steel production, and your other strategic metals, this Country could not have become a great nation. There is no such thing as a base metal today. All metals are precious. All are needed to do the job. The men who dig our mines are digging the foundations of all our war plants. You can't make bricks without straw. There is no point in building a factory until you have the raw materials to feed it. The Special Committee of the United States Senate to Investigate the National Defense Program, of which I have the honor to be Chairman, early recog- nized that we would have to face serious shortages of metals. We insisted that the production of minerals must be increased. We are still fighting that battle. Our Committee was organized early in 1941 to investigate the war program and was directed by the United States Senate to investigate the operation of the program for procurement and construction of all supplies, materials, munitions, vehicles, aircraft, vessels, plants, camps and other articles and facilities connected with the war program. The Committee was directed to examine into the