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:ir:;:;D:&:lAL WORKS AG:::;nc y
WOill: PROJ.l!iCTS .Al)MI:i:JI sr.rRA'r IOU
For Releas e to Hornin 6 Pape rs
Saturday, February 8 , 1941 .
11 MO:BILIZATIOH
1'0:1
HOME DEFENSE 11
(The followin g address is for delivery by Mrs . Florence
Kerr , Ass istan t Commi ss i on9r, Work Project s Administration , at a
meeting s1Jonsored by the Olclal-ioma State Department of the lunerican
Legion in O'.<:lahoma City, Oklahoma , Friday, Fi3bruary 7, 1941 , at
8 P . M., Central Stanclard Time . )
I am hap;,~r to speak u'.'.1d.er t he aus:9-ices of the American Legion.
I want to tan: about community mobilizatio,n for home defense res ,on~ibilities ,
and I feel that s1)ea1dng under Legion auspices makqs my task so much eas ier .
The American Legion is its elf a s~)ontaneous outgrowth of the sense of ci vie
r esponsibili t y felt so keenly by the vet er ans of th0 last war.
When men-- who
r
are now LegionA-ires- -wero d.emobiliz3d from tho armed forces of the na tion ,
they felt that the patr iotic emo t ions developed during the period. of common
life as so l dier s and. sailors should not be allowed to be Qissipated .
They felt
tha t those ~atriotic emotions should r ,ither be directed into the social channels of natio!l.a l and. community work .
The Legion has been an i nfluence and a
power in the nation and in communi t i es .
I t hns had an importnnt share in the
development of national p olicies , and it has contributed immeasurably to civic
be tterment .
•
youth.
work .
It has helped with the boys l cluts and other work in beho.lf of
It has holpod tho VfPA in accom)lishing much needed community welfare
When service pr ojects of ours have neodod the assistance of a co- sponsor,
the American Legion has often come forward t o give us its support .
Now, with the nE1.tional dofonso :program under way , we lmow that tho
Legion stands ready to give more of such community service .
As a part of our
national defense program, we shall be called upon for many ser vices of this
kind on the homo front .
There will be many oppor t unities to s erve tho nation
right here on the home front .
Thcso servicos--in which the members of t he
Logion and their wives , families and friends can engage- will be in their way
an important part of the defense of our American way of life .
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On this home front there are civic battles to ¼~ge against poverty,
hunger , disease and i gnorance .
These forces of intern~l danger and weakness
have ~een dimi nished in recent years , but have not been finally put to rout .
In our citi es and towns , and out on the farms , t hose forces of inwnrd decay
and destruction still exist .
our A.rneric<1.n civilizati on .
w·e cannot declare a truco with these enemi es of
We cannot relax our vigilance against them.
in that
All of you will be asked to servo - - to keep on serving
struggle .
It is more needful than ever , toda~,, to feed tho hungry, to provide
health protection , to increase educ~tional opportunities for all , and to help
the victims of pover t y to become self- suppor t ing.
In doing those things , we
shall be pr,wtising the domocrn.cy of which we aro rightly proud.
There are many w.'."tys of helping in this work on the homo front .
You cD.n hell) by cooperating with government agencies in providing shelter for
those in need of it , through low- cost housing for low-income groups .
You can
help to feed the hungry by establishing in your communities the use of the
Food Stamp Pl::1,n, by which surplus food 0f all kinds -- foods that w0uld otherwise go to waste
need it .
is mRde available to those families that most desperately
You can holp to feed hungry children by setting up school lunches ,
with WPA assistance , in all schools where theJr are needed.
If you do not
know which schools need such services , you should visit them and find out .
Nalnutrition is due not only to poverty but also to lack of
knowledge .
need.
It is importn.nt to parents to know whnt kind of food children
The WPA has boon tea ching proper dietary hRbits to the two million
school chilc~ren who are being fed uncLer the school lunch program , as well as
to the thouso,nds ,:if mothors whose children of pre-school age are in our WPA
nurser;ir schools .
In connection with our nursery school program th0re is an
auxiliary p:.u-ent education service; and we find that mothers~- and fathers
too -
are anxious to learn 0-b0ut food and nutrition , so that they cnn take
care of their children better .
The final answer to the problem of poverty, of course , is work
8 :,-. d. W[' ,O-ASe
In the comi.ng months ma..YJ.y of your jobless men n.nd women will find
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private employment.
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In the country as a who le we can confidently look: forward
to a great de nl of new emp loyment.
This will be heaviest, of course, in
t h)s e areas in which our defense inc:. ustries n.re centered
0
As you know, this
increasing employment in defense inclustries is not distributed evenly
through-
out the nation, and it cannot ba expected to put an end to unemployment in
all communities.
There will still remn.in an unemployment problem, and a need
for providing public work for j obless worlrers in many localities.
Both in the construction field, and in thnt of community service,
the WPA progrcE hns been coordinated with, and subordinated to, the defense
needs of the nationo
Som0 WPA work will be of direct value to nationnl defense-
as for example in work: on airports , at .Army posts ·n.nd cantonments, on access
2'.
r oads to military sites, and in mapping and other technical projects .
WPA work will be along what I have termed the
11
home front."
Other
Such work with
its civic benefits, is recognized as being a fundamental contribution to
national dof onse .
Herc, in holping to plan useful WPA projects for the unemployed
in your c '.:lmrrru.nitios , you will hnve an opportunity to be of service to tho
nation on tho home fr ont .
your cormrrunitics.
You co.,n help to p lan wisely to moet the needs of
You ce.n help to make sure th.':.t t ho se :projects are the right
projects and the best projects.
Comrnuni ty needs change from time to timG: comnuni ty resources vary
from year to Jrear ; and. the t ypes of 18.bor and skill that are availab l e for
employment on
w~A
Drojcct s change also .
Those are the considerations that
should. govern the comrrruni t;;~ in its dee is ion as to whether , for exa.'11ple, to
make uso of WPA help in constructi ng, enlnrging and improving public hos1-:iito..l
f a cilities, or , inste~d, to use WPA help in providing additiona l services in
ordGr to mnk:e existing hospital facilities available ton l arger number of
poop le.
Thero arc matters of ci vie plmming to which you can give your atten-
tion, your study, your careful thought .
These are civic matters upon which
your consider ed judgment will be welcomed by community officials .
A.'ld. in thus
helping to get the best WPA projects for your community, and in making the best
use of idle nan power -- and. woman power -
in ~~our locn.lity, you will be doing
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a double service on the home fr ont .
Education is another and very im::_:, ortant part of our home front
campaign.
Just as food is necessary for our bodily strength, so is knowledge
necess ary for our mental strength
0
Undernouri shed minds , as well as under-
nourishe d -bod.iGs , weaken our na tional strength.
free public 'scnool system.
We have in .America a splendid
But we realize that it doe s not meet all the ed-
ucational needs of the Ame rican people .
It is not designed to meet t ho noeds
of those adults who have for any reason been unable to get their schooling
when they were of school age .
It is not dosi 6 ned to meet the needs of adult
forei 6-"Il- born men and women , who may req_uire both elementary teaching in our
lartguage and in the principles which und.orlie our democratic institut ions .
This important field of adult education is being usefully served by WPA projects,
I look for ward to the time when adult education -- yes , and nurs ery schoo l s ,
too -
will boa part of our re gular public schoo l system.
In tho meantime the
WPA education projects are doing useful work which would not otherwise be
done at a ll in our co:mmunities .
And you , who in so many communities have given
your practical assistance to this kind of WP.A work, can judge whether and to
what extent it is still needed .
I think you will agroo that in time s like
these such work is more needed t han ever before .
Ther e is anothGr res pe ct in which our public schoo l system does not
yet meet our g-rowing neea.s .
This is in tho matt 0r of vocational education .
It
is true that this typo of educationa l service is being gradually extended to
young people in our American schools .
Eut it is not a nation wide school
service , and it is not prepared to meet the needs of adult work:t:,rs , who , as
we now find , need special training , and often re- training, to be available for
jobs in our def+3nse industri es and similar employment .
Ther e is a very groat
need for such training and re-training of our workers .
Here , again, the Federal government is showing what crui. be done .
Under a joint progrrun of the United States Office of Educntion and the WPA,
many workers -- including fifty thousand WPA workers -
a:.·e being trained or
re-trained for specialized jobs in the defense industri es .
This is a good.
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but it is only a beginning.
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Such training and retrainin~, if it
is to moet the nation ' s need.s , must bo cnrri od . on in every community.
In this groat campaign tho American Le gion hns already enlisted
its services .
I applRud tho recent ctecision of tho Logion to engage in t his
work , as a part of its m,tion- wide effort to p l ace all available skilled labor
into the defense jobs where they are needed .
The Legion 1 s nRtional emplo~1'Jllent
c ommitt ee , meeting in Washington with govornment officials just recently_
0
recognized thn.t training and re- training nre essontio1.l to the t ask.
Such a program is needed not only for t he old.or workers who cnn
thus be made available for defense employment -- it is needed also for brge
~
numb ers of untrained young peop l e in every community.
continuing need for years to como,.
This noed will boa
We are now do i ng t h is work in an er:iereency
fas h ion ; but in the end it nms t becone a pnr t of our educri.tionnl s:rstom.
I shoul d like to er.1:phasize also , in this connection , tha t the
training of handicnJ)J.) Gd peopl0 for work i :1 which the y can become self- su:oporting is a very valuable ki nd. of cor:imuni ty service .
I know th;:i,t the .i1.ri1oric£1n
Legion has always interested itself in this t;ype of trnining.
Many of its
own members have been , as a r esult of w.'.1r injuries , a::iong tho handicapped ,
and their needs require no explaining.
Legion pos ts hnvo of ten acted as co-
sponsors for projects operating under our widospre~d WPA program for t he handicap1Jed.
Many of tho handicap1)ed people so
ployment -
r(itrainod have found useful em-
sometimes in positions of large ros:ponsibility.
I i:tm sure that
you wi l l fool that such work as this should continue .
The recreational needs of the corzJunity are closel~r allio d to its
educational needs .
ourselves -
Through r ecroation we do far more than rest and refresh
though th~t is of gre[tt import~nco .
par t of ourselves thRt needs or;iression.
zons
and, if
\'!O
Wo live out in rocre~tion a
We are bot tor workers , better ci ti-
aro children, be t tor and heal thicr and happier childxcn -
when we h[tve opportunities for healthful recreation.
Such opportunities have been l~cking in many Anerican cor,:i.~tL~itios .
In recent yen.rs we have done much to provide proper recreation facilities Digitized by
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parks, p l a;{5T0unds , swir:mi ng pools , and comr.runity cen t ers -
and in providing
t he tr a i nod leader ship no c esso,r y to nake t he uos t 0f t hose opportunitie s .
Most of t Ms has "boon done with t he a i d of '\v.PA proj ec t s .
We are now f2,cod
with nn unusunl c onc entr ation of people in v e.ri ous c orn:;uni ti os , be c ause of
t he r nj_0 i d development of defe nse i rnlus tries .
Moro r ecrention fc,,cilities nnd
services will be needed in such p l nces , and. also in cor.J<'luniti es nei 6 hboring
u p on tho centers of milit [lry and nn.val trai ni ng.
Th e Aneric an Legio::1 , I an
g l ad t o s ay , has always r ecognized the i mpo rt ance of r e cr eati on .
Lot L1e say t h:1.,t I wn.s rmc1'.l i npr essed t he ot110r dt.\'/ with tho
activiti es of one of the Logi on :pos ts, in Washingt on ; D.
c.
The r o t he
,Legi onn::tires have ore;ani zcd entcrtainnent tr oupes or units , t ~1[\. t go about to
t he v ai·i ous local chn.r itable i ns tituti ons and. hospitn.ls , and bring j oy t o the
shut-ins with t he ir li voly pr ogr ar:1s of r:ms ic
tha t i t is t aking t hese effor t s
11
c orn:ru.ni ty sorvice . 11
1.1
ll.lld.
d.r <1;:1a.
Pcr hci.ps you r.my f ee l
little t oo so l c;·.m.l y t o r efer t o thOLi as
I t h ink t ho r:1orJb ers who give t hose services would say
t hat t hey ge t a lot of fun out of it t ho!:1se lves.
I an sure the~f do ,,_ but it
is servic e ju~ t the sane , gi ven i n t ho true c onr.ru.nity spirit .
J,.nothor kind of conr:ru.n ity servi ce is in fir st- aid tr aining.
Tho
.Anerican Red Cross , I under s tand., is p r cpa.ring to extend its traini ng .pr ogr o.r.1
co nsiderably.
With volunte e r a i d fro n peop l e trair:od as leaders in such wor k ,
t he scope of t h is firs t-aid pro gran can be r.1ade v er y wi de .
why ever yb ody in t he country should not
oe
Ther e is no reason
p repared t o gi ve first-aid servic es .
I have tried t o gi ve you a few sugges tions as t o ho w people not of
age f or n ili tnr ~r trninin g can g i ve t o t ho coa1JU.ni t y servic e s which are we ll
within our power s and yet of i nportance to t he nation .
I hope tha t I have
co nveyed to you ny own feeling , thn t thes e services nre not of a tr a.ns it ory
natur e , but of per r.1anent inp ortance
t he goal of our Anerican a_enocrncy :
a part of our long struggle t o reach
a bett er life for all .
In prepnr i ng to
defend our denocracy, we are defe nding n ot only our groat pas t, out our even
greater future .
We are defending not only what we have a c hieved t hus far , but
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defending also t he drean of t }1ose who f oun.d. ed t h is 1·0:9ublic and fought to
preserve it -- t he dr oai.1 of an .rl.r.1erica which shall be over nore glo1~ious and
r.ioro ha:p:;:iy t hrough all t he years to cono .
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