WAGING WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22478, 13 January 1943, Page 5

WAGING WAR

Huge Cost To U.S.A.

A Record Budget President’s Address To Congress British Official Wireless RUGBY, January 11. President Roosevelt to-day sent to Congress his 190,000,000,000 dollar (£25,000,000,000) Budget, the largest in United States history for the fiscal year July 1, 1943, to June 30, 1944. The President said that last year tie had called the Budget an instrument for transforming a peace economy into a war economy. This Budget presented the maximum programme for waging war. "We wage total war because our very existence is threatened," said Mr Roosevelt. "Without that supreme effort we cannot hope to retain the freedom and self-respect which gives life its value. Total war is a grim reality. It means the dedication of our lives and resources to a single objective, victory. The huge and expanding rate of war expenditure shows our determination to equip our fighting forces and those of our Allies with the instruments of war needed for victory. Monthly Expenditure "The monthly expenditures for war purposes amounted to 2,000,000,000 dollars just after Pearl Harbour. They now exceed 6,000,000,000 dollars, and they will average more than 8,000,000,000 monthly during the fiscal year 1944. For the whole current fiscal year the total war expenditures are now estimated at 77,000,000,000 dollars and for the next fiscal year 100,000,000,000 dollars. “Victory cannot be bought with any amount of money, however large. It is achieved by the blood of soldiers, the sweat of working men and women and sacrifices by all the people. “But the 100,000,000,000 dollars expenditure programme does reflect a national effort of gigantic magnitude. It calls for vision on the part of those in charge of war production, ingenuity of management and skill, devotion and tenacity of the men on farms and In factories. It makes passible the expansion of our armed forces which is necessary to offensive operations, the production of aeroplanes and munitions to provide unquestioned superiority and the construction of ships which will make It possible to strike at the enemy wherever he be. It reflects the determination of the civilians to pass the ammunition." Some people, continued the President, might believe that such a programme as fantastic, but his reply was that it was feasible if the nation’s man power and resources were fully harnessed. He was confident that the objective of this programme could be reached.

Increase in Armed Forces

Marked progress, he said, had been made in mobilising manpower and, in spite of the increase in the armed services, industrial production rose by 45 per cent, and agricultural production by 15 per cent., between 1940 and 1943. More than 10,000,000 people had been added to the employed or the armed forces since the summer of 1940, 7,000,000 of whom were unemployed and more than 3,000,000 who were an addition to the nation’s labour and armed forces. During 1943 approximately 6,000,000 people would be needed above the present requirements for the armed services and war production. Mr Roosevelt said that his recommendations contemplated that in the fiscal year 1944, 96 cents of every dollar expended by the Federal Government would be used to pay war costs and interest on the public debt, and only four cents for non-war purposes. He would strive to collect not less than 16,000,000,000 dollars in additional funds by taxation and savings or both during 1944. Mr Roosevelt concluded by saying that freedom from want for everybody, everywhere, was no longer a Utopian dream. It could be translated Into action when fear and aggression had been removed by victory. The soldiers of the fighting forces and the workmen engaged on military production wanted to be assured that they would return to a life of opportunity and security in the society of free men.