The manpower problem

During World War II, the military took 22 percent of the prewar labor force. But supplying the military meant that production of food and industrial materials had to grow. That meant that the people left on the “home front” had to work harder and be organized as efficiently as possible. In this radio address, delivered in October 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt explained to the American people why it was important to organize and ration manpower (and womanpower) and how they must change the way they worked.