Washington, June 16.
President Roosevelt yesterday asked American industry to take the lead in "opening the doors of employment to all local qualified workers regardless of race, national origin, religion or colour."
The President warned that the Government can not tolerate "continued discrimination" against American citizens in defence production.
Mr. Roosevelt's statement was made in a memorandum to the ce-directors of the Office of Production Management, Mr. William S. Knudsen and Mr. Sidney Hillman, The President said he had received complaints that "available and much-needed workers were being barred from defence production solely because of race, religion or national origin discrimination.
Mr. Roosevelt said the situation was one of "grave national importance," pointing out that discrimination against certain workers constituted the very type of totalitarianism against which democracy was fighting.
"No.nation combatting the increasing threat of totalitarianism can afford arbitrarily to exclude large segments of the population from defence industries," the statement declared—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.