Excerpt from a Christmas message by Vice President Gallatin at a rally for War Bonds.
...While there is no immediate relief to our struggle at home - nor to the struggle that our brave men, and the men of Britain, France, Russia (and now many other nations as well), face in the battlefields of the world - I take comfort in the courage of our men and the tenacity of our generals. The war is changing, and in a good way.
It is not an easy task, not as another year of fighting comes to an end. Another year of fathers who aren't home again, sons who will never be home again, blood, sweat, and exhaustion. It is even harder in battered Moscow, war torn Serbia, occupied France. We can offer support - both domestically with legislation to take care of our soldiers, and abroad with what aid and strategies we can use to take the pressure off of our allies - but we cannot offer relief. In a time of giving, we find little to give.
But the war is changing. We are giving what we have, and I thank my countrymen for their support and diligent work in the war effort. I thank those soldiers in far off lands, who are giving their best in our recent offensives. I thank the Russians in Moscow, and all our other allies around the world who are holding strong against the armies of fascism. We have little to give, but it is the gift of freedom - not from a time of riches and idleness, but the from the darkest hour of our modern world. We have little to give, but with every effort the forces of liberty press ever closer to ending this war once and for all...
...While there is no immediate relief to our struggle at home - nor to the struggle that our brave men, and the men of Britain, France, Russia (and now many other nations as well), face in the battlefields of the world - I take comfort in the courage of our men and the tenacity of our generals. The war is changing, and in a good way.
It is not an easy task, not as another year of fighting comes to an end. Another year of fathers who aren't home again, sons who will never be home again, blood, sweat, and exhaustion. It is even harder in battered Moscow, war torn Serbia, occupied France. We can offer support - both domestically with legislation to take care of our soldiers, and abroad with what aid and strategies we can use to take the pressure off of our allies - but we cannot offer relief. In a time of giving, we find little to give.
But the war is changing. We are giving what we have, and I thank my countrymen for their support and diligent work in the war effort. I thank those soldiers in far off lands, who are giving their best in our recent offensives. I thank the Russians in Moscow, and all our other allies around the world who are holding strong against the armies of fascism. We have little to give, but it is the gift of freedom - not from a time of riches and idleness, but the from the darkest hour of our modern world. We have little to give, but with every effort the forces of liberty press ever closer to ending this war once and for all...