In reply address not the signer of
this letter, but Bureau of Navigation,

Navy Department, Washington, D, C. NAVY DEPARTMENT
Refer to No.
Nav-1431-FS BUREAU OF NAVIGATION
NC1(420)

WASHINGTON, D. C.

January 12, 1942.

My dear President Malott: ‘

It is the hope of the Navy Department that the students of
all the Universities and Colleges throughout the country will realize
fully the seriousness of the present war and the sacrifice and toil each
must make in order to fashion a total victory from it. It is further
hoped that the men of the Universities will institute among themselves
a regime of self-discipline and conditioning in order to better complete
the immediate job at hand and prepare for the greater tasks to come. It
is sincerely urged that the college officials and faculty members will
support and participate in all such programs.

Today, not tomorrow, the youth of America must undertake the
most colossal task and assume the most terrible responsibility of any
generation in history. This, our country, must be defended with the
last measure of our strength and the. last ounce of our wealth, Only in
democracy and freedom can mankind exist with faith in the future and
confidence in the final fruition of the valiant efforts of the past. It
is our way of life, our creed and our hope. Democracy has long pro-
tected the rights of individuals and the sacredness of personality. It
is now the duty of each individual, in turn, to protect and perpetuate
that order which has now been placed under desperate attack and seige by
totalitarianism, No one can avoid his part in this task, nor retire fron
his responsibility of American citizenship. ©

The Nation has passed through an era of soft living and ram-
pant individualism, Today as a result, there is a tremendous effort
being made in all the armed forces of the Nation to correct the result
of this long period of wasteful existence, The rejection figures for
physical defects released by the Selective Service Commission are stag-
gering. The armed forces are succeeding slowly with the actual train-
ing and mental and physical conditioning of their men. While this is
being done, other young men of the nation should be taking time by the
forelock so that the job will be less weighty for the armed forces when
they join the ranks...

The Navy has underway a tremendous program to make the offic-
ers and the men of the Fleet hardened and physically fit for the fight-
ing job confronting them. Into every Naval training station pours a
cross section of American youth. The Navy trains them with drills,
military science and physical exercise. The Secretary of the Navy has
directed that every provision should be taken to guarantee that Amer-
ican Naval Officers and Bluejackets be second to none in physical fit-
mess,