The First Lady of Radio (27 page)

An effort will of course be made by the enemy to take us, again, unawares—to raid some city where there is a big defense industry. And when these attempts are made, they will have two objectives: one, to slow up industry and, two, to break civilian morale. Being widely scattered over great stretches of territory is an advantage to us. It also has disadvantages, however, because of the fact that it will be easy to spot a city and to attempt to attack vulnerable points, using the same methods
which they've used so well in the past. People rarely worry about what is happening to them as long as they are not directly hit. But they worry immediately about what may be happening to their families. Therefore, it will be part of the tactics of the attacker to wreck as many workers' homes as possible. There are only a comparatively few people in management. Their homes are not easy to find. But there are a great many workers, and because they live close together, the production can be greatly slowed down if the workers leave their machines to find out what has happened to their families.

It does not mean that we can expect the impossible of people, given an attack. We cannot expect that, if word comes that certain parts of the city are damaged, the people whose families live there will remain at work and not go to their rescue. We can do all that is humanly possible, however, to keep ourselves on the alert and prepare for this type of attack. Our people can know what to do when air-raid warnings sound. If they leave a house where they have little protection, they can find new places of protection nearby which are somewhat more substantial. My friend, Lady [Stella] Reading, writes that night after night she has slept under her heavy dining-room table. And I gather that if you're weary enough, and accustomed enough to air raids, you can even sleep through the noise and confusion of a blitz! The president went on in his speech to point out that this means a complete self-discipline and putting aside of personal interest. Every one of us is going to have, he said, a personal “must.”

Young Captain [Colin] Kelly, who dove his plane onto a Japanese battleship, had no orders to sacrifice his life in that way. It was his own personal “must.” And that is how, in one way or another, all of us are going to meet situations in our work and in our lives. Labor and management were asked for a quick agreement to speed up production. They were told plainly that the war is serious, that we've not won it yet, that
civilization is at stake for the rest of the world as well as for us, and that we have a responsibility to maintain and increase our capacity as the arsenal of the civilized world.

That same obligation rests on every government worker, on every individual carrying on his own job day by day. He must make it a better job so that the community in which he lives will be strengthened thereby. It rests on every housewife of the country to run her home a little better and to meet her difficulties with ingenuity.

We are a very fortunate nation, even at war, because as far as we now see, we will have no shortage of food or of clothes. To be sure, we may not have the variety we've had, and I should not be surprised to see great standardization go into effect on many things. But we will have the wherewithal to keep ourselves warm in winter, [not] like the German people who have been asked to sacrifice all warm clothes for the Army. We will have shelter. We will have all the real essentials of living. Many people in other parts of the world will go without these essentials or have them rapidly and drastically curtailed. As individuals, we will hope to remember the Chinese proverb which the president quoted to the gentlemen in industry and labor: “Lord reform thy world, beginning with me.”

Last Wednesday afternoon, when I faced the students of many South and Central American countries and a few European countries, I was strangely moved at the thought of what these young people are facing at this Christmas season. And as we approach this Christmastime in a world racked with war, I'd like to remind you again to make your donation to the American Red Cross. This great organization is making a drive for $50 million to carry on the tasks which they know the next year must bring. Their job will not be easy, so do your part by making a substantial contribution. Make it as your Christmas gift to a suffering and bewildered world, for I think that you will agree with me, the Red Cross, more than any other group, lives and works by the simple words
that have come down from the first Christmas: Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men.

Somehow it's difficult to think, or to really have much Christmas spirit this year. And yet, in the deeper sense, we should all of us try to emphasize the spiritual values which have made this celebration live through the dark ages. In a world where “Love Thy Neighbor” seems to have lost its real meaning, and where consideration for little children is as academic as learning a dead language, we must still remember that everything we fight for today is typified in the Christmas story. And that though we may not have a merry Christmas, we must still have a hopeful one. And someday this present orgy of hate and war will come to an end. And then there must be somewhere in the world a flame of love, burning brightly enough to give the people of the world confidence to fight for a new order, in which peace, and goodwill, will be permanent.

32.

“Enemy Aliens and Women in War Work”

Over Our Coffee Cups
, sponsored by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau

Sunday, February 15, 1942

ER: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. There are several subjects in particular which I would like very much to discuss with you this evening: The problem of what we call “enemy aliens,” the question of women in war work, and the problem of national carelessness.

Concerning the first subject, I think it is unfortunate, indeed, that we have to use a phrase because it is traditional—namely, “enemy alien”—when we talk about the people in our midst who are not citizens and who came to us from other lands. We know that we have enemy aliens, and we want them apprehended and put where they can do no harm, but we also know that we have innumerable friends who are aliens, who have taken refuge in the United States and whose whole hope for the future lies in the justice and the freedom which this country offers.

It is obvious that many people who are friendly aliens may have to suffer temporarily in order to ensure the safety of the vital interests of this country while at war. It is well, I think, to tell the Japanese and our own people some facts: namely, that the government agencies are in control of the situation; that the Army and Justice Department are fully cooperating; and that it is most important to stabilize employment conditions in West Coast industries.

I want to point out here that private vigilante activities, while they may be inspired by the highest sense of patriotism, may jeopardize the national security and bring retribution against thousands of American nationals in the Far East. It is much wiser and safer to leave this whole situation in the hands of legally constituted agencies, reporting to them anything which seems suspicious.

We are going to move the Japanese population out of strategic areas on the West Coast as soon as possible, but it is going to be done so that they will not waste their skills. They must not be allowed to plant their gardens and then have to leave them, because those gardens are not only a source of subsistence to them, but they supply many people in the United States with vegetables. They should plant gardens where they are to be moved in order that we do not have an unnecessary economic strain upon the country.

This is just one incident, but there must be many others, and all of them must be dealt with on the community level. So, it is important that you and I, in our communities, study the problem of the alien, the citizen born in another country, or the citizen born here but of foreign parents, and try to deal with this problem with all due regard to the safety of the nation—never forgetting, however, that the things for which we fight, such as freedom and justice, must be guaranteed to all people and not to just a select few.

Now for the question of women in war work. Today saw the starting of the registration of older men up to forty-five under the Selective
Service Act. I am sure there are many men for whom useful and necessary occupations will develop in the course of our war effort, which will take them out of the work which they are doing at present. I do regret, however, that women are not being registered at the same time as men. I feel quite certain that if the war lasts long enough, we will register women and we will use them in many ways, as England has done. I think it would save time if we registered women now and analyzed their capabilities and decided in advance where they could be used, if they are needed and as the need develops.

We are trusting, of course, that women will volunteer wherever they can find useful occupations, but this seems to me to be a rather wasteful method. If Selective Service is of value where men are concerned, it should certainly be equally valuable where women are concerned. I have already received many letters, from high school girls on up to great-grandmothers, who recognize the fact that they can find or make jobs for themselves in various fields of service and that they can go on performing the service which is most important at all times—running a home to the best of their ability when they have one. But many people have none. They are the ones who most vociferously are demanding that the government list them and evaluate their capacities and put them where they can be of most value.

People who have trained themselves or who have a gift along certain lines can always be used to advantage in their specific field. Some are likely to neglect this consideration in their desire to be of service and volunteer to do some work where their previous training will be of little value. This is wasteful, and we should eliminate the waste if we possibly can.

It may be possible, of course, to get a very good picture of the woman-power of the nation, if this is available in the volunteer offices established under the local defense councils. However, this will never be as complete as a government tabulation of the type undertaken in the mobilization of manpower.

Incidentally, I was reminded very forcibly the other day of the need for more women in the nursing profession. My third son was on leave from his ship in order to have his appendix removed. He came through his operation successfully, so there was no cause for anxiety. But when I visited this child of mine in the hospital, I went through some of the wards with the doctors and realized how urgent a problem is the recruiting of more women for the nursing profession. For we are using so many more nurses now in the Army and Navy that the Red Cross has made an appeal for girls to take up this profession. Even during their period of training, they will be making a contribution to the winning of the war. Whether they continue in the profession after the war or not, this training will be of value in their homes and in their community life.

Again I would like to make the suggestion that people who cannot see their way clear to giving full time to training in the nursing profession, can still give time enough perhaps to become a nurses' aide. The Red Cross course for nurse's aides requires a given number of hours of academic and practical work, and at the completion of the course a number of hours of volunteer service in a hospital. And this will give women and girls who can give three or four hours a day, every day, a chance to become a nurse's aide. These nurse's aides will relieve the trained nurses of many minor duties and make it possible for them to give the skilled care which makes so much difference in the recovery of the patient. Nurse's aides also can do much of the watching of patients, which is very valuable in critical cases, and yet they will allow regular nurses to go about their duties with a much freer mind, for they know that someone with a certain amount of training is watching at the bedside of a patient who might need emergency care.

There is also, of course, the field covered by the regular Red Cross workers who have long provided a much-needed hospital service by writing letters for the men and by intelligently contributing to their entertainment, and thus making their convalescent period more cheerful.
These ladies are a link with the families who cannot be at the hospital because of distance or their financial situation.

Now, as to the great problem of our national carelessness. The burning of the [ocean liner]
Normandie
this week and its final capsizing [in New York Harbor]—in spite of all the efforts made to minimize the fire damage—probably will be celebrated as a victory in the Axis countries. Whether this fire was caused by sabotage or not is perhaps unprofitable to discuss. But I think there is a serious lesson for all of us in this fire, and the fire which will delay the finishing of the Hotel Statler in Washington. That lesson is one of taking great care about little things. We, as a nation, are apt to be careless. We throw our matches down without making sure they are out. We drop cigarette ashes without paying attention to whether a living spark still burns. We do not always grind out our cigarette stubs. Every one of these little careless habits may bring us a fire, and once a fire starts, it is hard to say how much damage will occur. We are all familiar with the fact that we lose thousands of dollars' worth of trees every year because of the carelessness of hunters and campers and passing motorists. Let us resolve, as a measure which will help us to win the war, to be careful of little things, as this has a bearing on our national habit of waste.

We're going to need things not only for ourselves but for the benefit of our allies all over the world—food and clothing and vital war materials of every kind. It will astound any family if they start to save in little ways, how much it will amount to in a week or a month. The delay in the use of the
Normandie
is important for all of us, because our production can be speeded up to the nth degree in this country. But it achieves its maximum value only if we distribute what we produce throughout the world. So the protection of convoys and the sliding-down-the-ways of merchant ships are as important as the production of the things which we use for the protection of the United States.