Speech

Address over Short Wave Radio to Poland 19A2 Labor Day (English Translation) (STATEMENT RE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF INVASION OF POLAND BY THE NAZIS) On Labor Day, celebrated the first Monday in September, the American nation honors the effort of those who work in factories, workshops, and fields, and who enrich our nation by hard labor. This year, Labor Day will have far greater significance than in previous years. Our working class became a part of the United Nations army. Our workers produce weapons today. Airplanes, bombers, fighters, tanks and cannon,machine guns and ammunition. Nine months ago, our workers were still producing radios, refrigerators, automobiles and typewriters. This year's Labor Day is exclusively a holiday of war work. For war is today the only problem which interests the entire American population. All thoughts of the American nation, all aims of the American govern- ment, are centered around the war, around the battles fought by our fight- ing forces and around the future victory and peace. As a son of Polish parents, as a citizen of the United States of America, and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C., I am able to speak to you Poles in Poland, the country of ray ancestors, victims today of a crushing storm. I know very well the seriousness of the situation when I raise my voice to speak to you over the microphone. I, here, on free soil am speaking freely to you — you there, in Poland, are listening to my words, risking your lives. And yet, in this so unproportional a relationship between my un- restricted possibilities and your unlimited dangers, may powerful ties draw us together. In the fight with our common enemy, Poland and America have united by becoming allies. This union is not only for the period of war, but also for the time of peace. The union which we have made in order to defeat our common enemies will serve the Polish and American nations to win the war and to win the peace. I have no intention of giving you advice as to how you should behave in our common battle. You have proven with your battles, your actions, your propaganda efforts, that you can carry on this battle on your own. I only wish to assure you that the American nation will not capitulate ever before our common enemy. We will carry on this war until final victory. The American nation understood very well that its own safety lies in the independence and safety of all European nations, enemies of the Third Reich. Poles, endureI

M.S. Szymczak (1941, December 31). Speech. Speeches, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/speech_19420101_szymczak

@misc{wtfs_speech_19420101_szymczak,
  author = {M.S. Szymczak},
  title = {Speech},
  year = {1941},
  month = {Dec},
  howpublished = {Speeches, Federal Reserve},
  url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/speech_19420101_szymczak},
  note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}