AMERICA IN SEPTEMBER: 

franklin d. roosevelt, 32nd president of the United states (1933-1945)

september 1, 1941 labor day radio address (excerpts)

"On this day - this American holiday - we are celebrating the rights of free laboring men and women.” 


 “There has never been a moment in our history when Americans were not ready to stand up as free men and fight for their rights. In times of national emergency, one fact is brought home to us, clearly and decisively—the fact that all of our rights are interdependent. The right of freedom of worship would mean nothing without freedom of speech. And the rights of free labor as we know them today could not survive without the rights of free enterprise. That is the indestructible bond that is between us between all of us Americans: interdependence of interests, privileges, opportunities, responsibilities—the interdependence of rights. That is what unites us—men and women of all sections, of all races, of all faiths, of all occupations, of all political beliefs. That is why we have been able to defy and frustrate the enemies who believed that they could divide us and conquer us from within.” 


 “May it be said on some future Labor Day by some future President of the United States that we did our work faithfully and well."


Franklin D. Roosevelt, Labor Day Radio Address. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.