Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes more about President Roosevelt’s Labor Day speech in 1941 with the nation on the verge of WWII. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue with my look back at Labor Day on 1 September 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a radio address to the nation calling on American workers to faithfully fulfill their mission and build armaments:
“…I know that I speak the conscience and determination of the American people when I say that we shall do everything in our power to crush Hitler and his Nazi forces.”
In an earlier radio address, on 29 December 1940, Roosevelt had referred to the power of American labor to build the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
Before the Unites States entered World War II it was contributing significant military supplies to its allies – all made by American workers.
In support of Roosevelt’s 1941 Labor Day message, the Detroit News published a pollical cartoon with the heading: “Enjoy the Honor and Remember the Responsibility.”
In an editorial accompanying this cartoon, the Detroit News concludes:
The theme of this Labor Day appeal is to keep clear the vision of citizenship responsibility. Let every citizen, whatever his [or her] task, find pride in saying this day: “I am an American!” And let him [or her] feel that this declaration will be meaningless unless it carries with it a willingness to get on the job early and stick late until the national defense program is completed.
Worker – Soldier of Democracy
Here is an example of an advertisement campaign to ignite workers across America.
The photo caption reads:
I Am Labor. I stand before you on this, my day, free and proud. I am the incarnation of Work, and Work is the foundation of modern civilization.
Before the silvery bombers can take the air, my skilled fingers have fashioned and serviced them. The shining shell, the precise rifle, the intricate clockwork of tank and ship, these grew beneath the trained and intelligent hands with which I get my living.
Because the things I do are basic and necessary, I yield my dignity to no man. Because of that dignity, I prize my manhood and my freedom. I shall defend it. To those who would degrade me to an automaton, make me a slave, I return loud and scornful laughter. Here in my United States I am more than a Worker, more than a Laborer, I am a Man.
This manhood, this freedom, on my own Labor Day of 1941, I do not propose to yield.
Below is an image from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum that is part of a collection representing the call to America’s automakers to help build and supply wartime equipment to our allies fighting in Europe. The manufacturing of military tanks, trucks, guns and munitions would come from industries like Chrysler Corporation. This image also appears in the video Automakers and the Arsenal of Democracy.
WWII Sends Record Number of Women to Work
While women were busy prior to the United States entering the war, their numbers increased when labor shortages hit with so many men signing up to fight.
According to oral histories of Lowell, Massachusetts, sisters such as Claire Contardo and Doris Poisson filled the men’s positions and began earning higher wages. Defense companies like Remington Arms, General Electric, and U.S. Rubber offered women decent wages and working conditions, and the chance to learn new skills. Women flocked to the new jobs.
Labor Pledges to Help in All-Out War on Nazis
This article describes how American labor rallied to President Roosevelt’s call.
This article reports:
American workers, 40,000,000 strong, joined with President Roosevelt on Labor Day Monday in pledging single-mindedness and sacrifice in the production of weapons to destroy Hitlerism.
From coast to coast and from the Canadian to the Mexican borders, speakers, both labor and non-labor, enlarged upon the theme voiced by Mr. Roosevelt at Hyde Park – that the wheels of industry must roar faster and faster to make the United States the arsenal of democracy.
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Note on the header image: “Four Freedoms and Arsenal of Democracy” poster displayed in Defense Square, Washington, D.C., for a month beginning 7 November 1941. The panels were designed for the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) by Jean Carlu, eminent poster artist. They were shown first in New York and, after the Washington, D.C., showing, went on a tour of many large cities throughout the country. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
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