"Through letters from many individuals, wide editorial comment from the nation's press and direct expressions from the country's Army, Navy and political leaders, it has been made clear that the public wants The Greatest Show on Earth to carry on during war time. Everyone can not shoulder a gun, nor is everyone expected to. Many millions must work at home, in factory, field and office to supply and maintain our armies and our fleets. These millions must have diversion when released from their labors, and so far it has been our duty and privilege to help in providing such diversion ...Hard and trying days are ahead for all of us, but such prospects have never before chilled American spirit or stopped American initiative, and we feel that as long as these two qualities are alive the American Circus, too, will roll on -- on to provide entertainment for the public, employment for our own kind, and an example of cooperation, skill and imagination which is unique in the field of entertainment, and of which all of us who are part of it may well be proud.
And so our Policy: -- Advance planning and preparation to make next year's show Bigger and Better than Ever in Quality and Spirit, if not in size. And our hope that our Circus will continue just as our American Way of Life certainly will!"
-- John and Henry Ringling North
from the Circus Route Book of 1942
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