White House Press Release, Address of President Harry S. Truman

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President to be delivered from the White House is for automatic release at 10:30 p.m., E.S.T., April 8, 1952. No portion, synopsis, or intimation may be published or broadcast before that time. 407.14 PLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE PUBLICATION OR ANNOUNCEMENT. JOSEPH SHORT Secretary to the President Retail DOLS My fellow Americans: allodd Tonight, our country faces a grave danger. We are faced by the possibility that at midnight tonight our steel industry will be shut down. This must not happen. Steel is our key industry. It is vital to our defense effort. It is vital to peace. We do not have a stockpile of the kinds of steel we need for defense. Steel is flowing directly from the plants that make it into defense production. If steel production stops, we will have to stop making the shells and bombs that are going directly to our soldiers at the front in Korea. If steel production stops, we will have to cut down and delay our atomic energy program. If steel production stops, it won't be long before we have to stop making engines for our Air Force planes. These would be the immediate effects if the steel mills close down. A prolonged shutdown would bring our defense production to a halt and throw our domestic economy into chaos. These are not normal times. These are times of crisis. We have been working and fighting to prevent the outbreak of world war. So far we have succeeded. The most important element in this success- ful struggle has been our defense program. If that is stopped, the situation can change overnight. All around the world, we face the threat of military action by the forces of aggression. Our growing strength is holding these forces in check. If our strength fails, these forces may break out in renewed violence and bloodshed. Our national security and our chances for peace depend on our defense production. Our defense production depends on steel. As your President, I have to think about the effects that a steel shutdown here would have all over the world. I have to think about our soldiers in Korea, facing the Chinese communists, and about our soldiers and allies in Europe, con- fronted by the military power massed behind the Iron Curtain. I have to think of the danger to our security if we are forced, for lack of steel, to cut down on our atomic energy program. I have no doubt that if our defense program fails, the danger of war, the possibility of hostile attack, grows that much greater. I would not be faithful to my responsibilities as President if I did not use every effort to keep this from happening. Draft filed PAT (OVER)