Letter to the Federal Works Administrator in Response to a Report on Fire Prevention.
My dear General Fleming:
I am happy to receive the report of the Continuing Committee which clearly shows the progress made in fire prevention during the past year. It is indeed gratifying that so many organizations and individuals gave such wholehearted support to this cause. Please express my appreciation to all of your co-workers.
Though this is a final report of the Continuing Committee, I personally feel that our battle against fire and fire hazards has only begun. As long as fire kills and injures so many people and destroys such vast amounts of property each year, we must all strive for better fire prevention and fire protection.
Therefore, I am asking you and the members of your committees not to consider your work completed. Wherever possible I trust that all of you will continue to play an active role in supporting the programs which you helped our states and communities launch. We must carry forward the program of education to show our people the constant need for fire prevention in their homes, schools, factories and offices.
Only by these means can we hope to achieve the full objectives adopted at the conference last May.
HARRY S. TRUMAN
[Major General Philip B. Fleming, Administrator, Federal Works Agency, Washington, D.C.]
Note: A summary of the report was released with the President's letter. It stated that notable progress in the development of a national fire prevention program had been achieved in the past year, and that State and local programs had also advanced. It added that a model statute had been prepared and was ready for submission to State legislatures. The statute would permit adoption by reference of existing fire prevention codes, thereby enabling smaller communities to obtain effective codes without having to undergo heavy drafting and advertising costs. In conclusion the summary stated that the National Education Association had undertaken a program of fire safety education in the Nation's school system.
Harry S Truman, Letter to the Federal Works Administrator in Response to a Report on Fire Prevention. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232333