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Show WASHINGTON NtAVS ' i FROM OUR CONGRESSMAN W. K- GRANGER fXITED STATES DECLARES WAR Moving with unprecedented speed, to answer the Japanese assault upon this Nation's Pacific Pa-cific possessions. Congress, on tlie 8th day of December, 1941, voted to declare war on Japan. The vote war 82 to 0 in the senate and 3S8 to 1 in the house. The President spoke only 6 minutes and 30 seconds, compared com-pared with Woodrow Wilson's 29 piinutes and 34 seconds. Congress Con-gress approved the resolution in fhe record time of 33 minutes after President Roosevelt bitterly denounced Japanese aggression. The President ' personally delivered deliver-ed his message to a joint session ses-sion of the House and Senate. Debate, such as was had between April 2, 1917, when President Wilson requested war against Germany, Ger-many, and April 6, when a declaration dec-laration of war was approved by Congress, was missing at this tim& And oh December 11; 1941, the Congress declared war on the other axis powers. The Senate acted first, approving the German resolution recognizing existence of hostilities by a vote of 88 to 0 and the Italian, 90 to 0. The House votes were 393 to 0 and 399 to 0, respectively, on the German and Italian resolutions. President Roosevelt did not personally per-sonally appear at the Capitol to deliver his second message, but it arrived by special messenger, was received by the Congress at 12:24 p.m., and adopted by 1:04 p.m. As with one voice, the Congress has proclaimed to the world at large that this war was none of our seeking, but that, since it has come, we shall see it through to the last resource of our strength in men, money, material equipment and in moral courage. 1 - The- time for debate is over the time to act is here. Responsibility Respon-sibility for the fateful decision has' been taken out of our hands. While Japanese diplomacy was' pretending to seek peace, Japanese militarism was calmly and carefully preparing the blows that fell on our naval and military mili-tary bases. Decent young American Ameri-can soldiers and sailors have been shot down by representatives representa-tives of a nation they had no reason to take for an enemy-The enemy-The roar of bombs exploding on Hawaii and the Philippines has rules to remember in event of an air raid: Keep cool keep your head don't listen to rumors. Don't follow any excited person per-son who may be screaming. He may be trying to create a panic. - Keep off the streets during the raid. If you're more than five minutes min-utes from home when an air raid comes, lie down under shelter otherwise go home and stay there. Put out the lights if the planes come over. The lights that are out will never guide an enemy bomber. Don't wait for the last warning. warn-ing. Keep all unnecessary lights drowned out every cry of partisanship par-tisanship or political strife in the United States. Today we know but one duty to stand together as Americans under the leadership of our President. We may be certain that from this point on, nothing will be permitted per-mitted to impede American production pro-duction or to delay for a single moment the full flow of our great strength into this battle for survival. In this hour of crisis, every man, woman and child in the United Slates should act with courage, quiet strength and a magnificant display of national unity. WHAT TO DO IN AN AIR RAID Remember! Every locality in which is located an instrumentality instrumental-ity useful for defense, such as: defense airports, munition plants, and supply depots, will come under un-der the catgory of military objectives ob-jectives and are, under the rules of international law, subject to enemy attack. If you live in such a communiy, then you should know some of the fundamental out anyway. In case of a raid, lie down indoors, in-doors, away from windows. Fix a refuge room in your home or apartment the room with the least glass. Put curtains or drapes, portieres, or blankets, or any light-proof material over the windows. Take the things you need-eyeglasses, need-eyeglasses, magazines, food, drinking water, toilet facilities, a screen, a table with good stout legs and a mattress for each member of the family into this room. Lie down on the mattress. Wait until it's over. If you- have a portable radio take it into the refuge room. Use it to listen for official announcements. announ-cements. Cooperate with your air-raid warden he's your friend he'll help you. Choose one member of the family to be the home family air-raid warden who will remember all of these rules mother is the best. Stay away from windows. By night or by day it is dangerous for you and it helps the enemy if you peer out THE CALL TO THE COLORS ' The call to arms is ringing in the ears of every single American Ameri-can in this land. To men to women, to youngsters and oldsters old-sters alike each one of us has his part to do. Winning a war isn't just loading a gun and firing a bullet-it goes much farther and deeper than that It starts with every tiny detail of our daily lives. We must be more watchful, less wasteful, not only of big things but of little things as well. Soon we will be called upon for even greater conservation of material; greater contributions to public welfare; greater cooperation coopera-tion in buying Defense bonds and other measures that will be inaugurated to win the war Save paper, rags and other materials ways that, appear to be small but which on the whole are extremely ex-tremely important contribution! tostead of burning them. Cooper ate in a great many of these toward a saving of time, monej and material so vital m winning the war. |