Word Celebrity Blog

QUOTES ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION

“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.” -  Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” -  James Madison

“If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.” - Thurgood Marshall

“The Framers [of the Constitution] knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.” -  Hugo Black

“The right of an individual to conduct intimate relationships in the intimacy of his or her own home seems to me to be the heart of the Constitution's protection of privacy.” - Harry A. Blackmun

“A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman... They are both... lawbreakers, destroyers of constitutional rights and liberties and ultimately destroyers of a free America.” - Lyndon B. Johnson

“It is a measure of the framers' fear that a passing majority might find it expedient to compromise 4th Amendment values that these values were embodied in the Constitution itself.” - Sandra Day O'Conner

“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” -  Benjamin Franklin

“Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.” - Hugo Black

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” - Thomas Jefferson

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” -  Abraham Lincoln

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” - Patrick Henry

“Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators.” - Will Rogers

“All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.” - Felix Frankfurter

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." - John Adams

"The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion." - Billy Graham

"The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree." - Edward Kennedy

"If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility." - Antonin Scalia

"The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government." - William O. Douglas

"To me, that means getting back to the point where our Constitution means that you don't tap people's phones and poke into their e-mail and you don't arrest people and keep them hidden for a year and a half without charging them." - Carol Moseley Braun

“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.” -  Albert Einstein

"Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor - let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and
enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars." - Abraham Lincoln

Many Americans take the many freedoms that we enjoy, for granted.  We believe that we are "entitled".

I am posting the following without any comments. I hope it will always remind us what price others have paid for our freedom.


AMERICA'S WARS - United States Casualties

American Revolution (1775–1783)  
Battle deaths.........................................4,435
Non-mortal woundings............................6,188


War of 1812 (1812–1815)
Battle deaths'..........................................2,260
Non-mortal woundings..............................4,505


Indian Wars (approx. 1817–1898)
Battle deaths estimate ..............................1,000


Mexican War (1846–1848)
Battle deaths.............................................1,733
Other deaths in service (non-theater)..........11,550
Non-mortal woundings.................................4,152


Civil War (1861–1865)
Battle deaths (Union)........................................140,414
Other deaths in service (non-theater) (Union).......224,097
Non-mortal woundings (Union)............................281,881

Battle deaths (Confederacy).................................74,524
Other deaths in service (non-theater) (Conf.)...........59,297
Does not include those who died in Union prisons ..26,000–31,000
Non-mortal woundings (Confederate.)                   unknown


Spanish-American War (1898–1902)
Battle deaths ...........................................385
Other deaths in service (nontheater)..........2,061
Non=mortal woundings ...........................1,662


World War I (1917–1918)
Battle deaths.........................................53,402
Other deaths in service (nontheater).........63,114
Non-mortal woundings...........................204,002


World War II (1940–1945
Battle deaths.......................................,291,557
Other deaths in service (non-theater).......113,842
Non-mortal woundings,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,..,671,846


Korean War (1950–1953)
Battle deaths ............................................33,741
Other deaths in service (theater)....................2,833
Other deaths in service (non-theater)............17,672
Non-mortal woundings...............................103,284


Vietnam War (1964–1975)
Battle deaths .............................................47,424
Other deaths in service (theater)...................10,785
Other deaths in service (non-theater).............32,000
Nonmortal woundings.................................153,303


Gulf War (1990–1991)
Battle deaths...................................................147
Other deaths in service (theater)........................382
Other deaths in service (non-theater)...............1,565
Non-mortal woundings ......................................467


AMERICA'S WARS TOTAL
Battle deaths............................................653,708
Other deaths in service (theater)...................14,560
Other deaths in service (non-theater)............525,930

Not included in the above totals.

Lebanon - Aug. 1982–Feb. 1984.................254
Grenada - Oct.–Nov. 1983............................18
Libya -    April 10–16, 1986............................2
Panama - Dec. 1989–Jan. 1990.....................23
Persian Gulf.-.Jan.16–April 6, 1991................47
Somalia - Dec. 1992–May 1993.....................29
Haiti - Sept. 1994–April 1996...........................4
Former Yugoslavia -1992–2001........................9
Kosovo     March–June 1999............................2
Afghanistan - Oct. 2001–(2)..........................582
Iraq     March 20, 2003– (3)........................4,146

2. A total of 582 Americans have been killed, including 190 noncombat deaths (Aug. 28,  2008). 1,754 have been wounded (Nov. 3, 2007). “Operation Enduring Freedom” deaths cover other Asian regions as well as Afghanistan.

3. A total of 4,152 Americans have been killed, including 768 non-combat deaths (Aug. 28, 2008). 30,568 were wounded (Aug. 28, 2008). Coalition deaths: Britain, 176; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 23; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, 7; Slovakia, 4; El Salvador, 5; Latvia, 3; Thailand, 2; Estonia, 2; The Netherlands, 2; Australia, 2; Romania, 3; Hungary, Kazakhstan, 1 each (Aug. 28, 2008).
Source: U.S. Dept. of Defense, AP, Washington Post.

QUOTATIONS BY MAHATMA GANDHI

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.
   
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.


I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.


When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it -- always.

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

QUOTATIONS BY WINSTON CHURCHILL

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it

I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.


It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

 Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.


I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.'

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt... We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.

A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward.

Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

QUOTATIONS BY CLARANCE DARROW

“I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary notices I have read with pleasure”

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.

Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?

Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

Chase after truth like hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat-tails.

At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he knows he can't.


 As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.

You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free.

Quotations by Mark Twain

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.


Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.

I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.


I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.

I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't.

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don't know.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.



In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.


It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.


Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.

Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.

Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

The universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.

There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry.

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.

Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.


There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read.

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

When you cannot get a compliment any other way pay yourself one.

When in doubt, tell the truth.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.

He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.

Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.

The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you: the one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you.

Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.

July 30, 1965

PRESIDENT TRUMAN.

Thank you very much. I am glad you like the President. I like him too. He is one of the finest men I ever ran across.

Mr. President, Mrs. Johnson, distinguished guests:

You have done me a great honor in coming here today, and you have made me a very, very happy man.

This is an important hour for the Nation, for those of our citizens who have completed their tour of duty and have moved to the sidelines. These are the days that we are trying to celebrate for them. These people are our prideful responsibility and they are entitled, among other benefits, to the best medical protection available.

Not one of these, our citizens, should ever be abandoned to the indignity of charity. Charity is indignity when you have to have it. But we don't want these people to have anything to do with charity and we don't want them to have any idea of hopeless despair.

Mr. President, I am glad to have lived this long and to witness today the signing of the Medicare bill which puts this Nation right where it needs to be, to be right. Your inspired leadership and a responsive forward-looking Congress have made it historically possible for this day to come about.

Thank all of you most highly for coming here. It is an honor I haven't had for, well, quite awhile, I'll say that to you, but here it is:

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.


PRESIDENT JOHNSON

President and Mrs. Truman, Secretary Celebrezze, Senator Mansfield, Senator Symington, Senator Long, Governor Hearnes, Senator Anderson and Congressman King of the Anderson-King team, Congressman Mills and Senator Long of the Mills-Long team, our beloved Vice President who worked in the vineyard many years to see this day come to pass, and all of my dear friends in the Congress--both Democrats and Republicans:

The people of the United States love and voted for Harry Truman, not because he gave them hell - but because he gave them hope.

I believe today that all America shares my joy that he is present now when the hope that he offered becomes a reality for millions of our fellow citizens.

I am so proud that this has come to pass in the Johnson administration. But it was really Harry Truman of Missouri who planted the seeds of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for the sick, and serenity for the fearful.

Many men can make many proposals. Many men can draft many laws. But few have the piercing and humane eye which can see beyond the words to the people that they touch. Few can see past the speeches and the political battles to the doctor over there that is tending the infirm, and to the hospital that is receiving those in anguish, or feel in their heart painful wrath at the injustice which denies the miracle of healing to the old and to the poor. And fewer still have the courage to stake reputation, and position, and the effort of a lifetime upon such a cause when there are so few that share it.

But it is just such men who illuminate the life and the history of a nation. And so, President Harry Truman, it is in tribute not to you, but to the America that you represent, that we have come here to pay our love and our respects to you today. For a country can be known by the quality of the men it honors. By praising you, and by carrying forward your dreams, we really reaffirm the greatness of America.

It was a generation ago that Harry Truman said, and I quote him: "Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and to enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. And the time has now arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and to help them get that protection."

Well, today, Mr. President, and my fellow Americans, we are taking such action--20 years later. And we are doing that under the great leadership of men like John McCormack, our Speaker; Carl Albert, our majority leader; our very able and beloved majority leader of the Senate, Mike Mansfield; and distinguished Members of the Ways and Means and Finance Committees of the House and Senate - of both parties, Democratic and Republican.

Because the need for this action is plain; and it is so clear indeed that we marvel not simply at the passage of this bill, but what we marvel at is that it took so many years to pass it. And I am so glad that Aime Forand is here to see it finally passed and signed -- one of the first authors.

There are more than 18 million Americans over the age of 65. Most of them have low incomes. Most of them are threatened by illness and medical expenses that they cannot afford.

And through this new law, Mr. President, every citizen will be able, in his productive years when he is earning, to insure himself against the ravages of illness in his old age.

This insurance will help pay for care in hospitals, in skilled nursing homes, or in the home. And under a separate plan it will help meet the fees of the doctors.

Now here is how the plan will affect you.

During your working years, the people of America - you - will contribute through the social security program a small amount each payday for hospital insurance protection. For example, the average worker in 1966 will contribute about $1.50 per month. The employer will contribute a similar amount. And this will provide the funds to pay up to 90 days of hospital care for each illness, plus diagnostic care, and up to 100 home health visits after you are 65. And beginning in 1967, you will also be covered for up to 100 days of care in a skilled nursing home after a period of hospital care.

And under a separate plan, when you are 65 - that the Congress originated itself, in its own good judgment - you may be covered for medical and surgical fees whether you are in or out of the hospital. You will pay $3 per month after you are 65 and your Government will contribute an equal amount.

The benefits under the law are as varied and broad as the marvelous modern medicine itself. If it has a few defects - such as the method of payment of certain specialists - then I am confident those can be quickly remedied and I hope they will be.

No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine. No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years. No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes, eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral obligations to their parents, and to their uncles, and their aunts.

And no longer will this Nation refuse the hand of justice to those who have given a lifetime of service and wisdom and labor to the progress of this progressive country.

And this bill, Mr. President, is even broader than that. It will increase social security benefits for all of our older Americans. It will improve a wide range of health and medical services for Americans of all ages.

In 1935 when the man that both of us loved so much, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signed the Social Security Act, he said it was, and I quote him, "a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but it is by no means complete."

Well, perhaps no single act in the entire administration of the beloved Franklin D. Roosevelt really did more to win him the illustrious place in history that he has as did the laying of that cornerstone. And I am so happy that his oldest son Jimmy could be here to share with us the joy that is ours today. And those who share this day will also be remembered for making the most important addition to that structure, and you are making it in this bill, the most important addition that has been made in three decades.

History shapes men, but it is a necessary faith of leadership that men can help shape history. There are many who led us to this historic day. Not out of courtesy or deference, but from the gratitude and remembrance which is our country's debt, if I may be pardoned for taking a moment, I want to call a part of the honor roll: it is the able leadership in both Houses of the Congress.

Congressman Celler, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced the hospital insurance in 1952. Aime Forand from Rhode Island, then Congressman, introduced it in the House. Senator Clinton Anderson from New Mexico fought for Medicare through the years in the Senate. Congressman Cecil King of California carried on the battle in the House. The legislative genius of the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Wilbur Mills, and the effective and able work of Senator Russell Long, together transformed this desire into victory.

And those devoted public servants, former Secretary, Senator Ribicoff; present Secretary, Tony Celebrezze; Under Secretary Wilbur Cohen; the Democratic whip of the House, Hale Boggs on the Ways and Means Committee; and really the White House's best legislator, Larry O'Brien, gave not just endless days and months and, yes, years of patience--but they gave their hearts--to passing this bill.

Let us also remember those who sadly cannot share this time for triumph. For it is their triumph too. It is the victory of great Members of Congress that are not with us, like John Dingell, Sr., and Robert Wagner, late a Member of the Senate, and James Murray of Montana.

And there is also John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who fought in the Senate and took his case to the people, and never yielded in pursuit, but was not spared to see the final concourse of the forces that he had helped to loose.

But it all started really with the man from Independence. And so, as it is fitting that we should, we have come back here to his home to complete what he began.

President Harry Truman, as any President must, made many decisions of great moment; although he always made them frankly and with a courage and a clarity that few men have ever shared. The immense and the intricate questions of freedom and survival were caught up many times in the web of Harry Truman's judgment. And this is in the tradition of leadership.

But there is another tradition that we share today. It calls upon us never to be indifferent toward despair. It commands us never to turn away from helplessness. It directs us never to ignore or to spurn those who suffer untended in a land that is bursting with abundance.

I said to Senator Smathers, the whip of the Democrats in the Senate, who worked with us in the Finance Committee on this legislation -- I said, the highest traditions of the medical profession are really directed to the ends that we are trying to serve. And it was only yesterday, at the request of some of my friends, I met with the leaders of the American Medical Association to seek their assistance in advancing the cause of one of the greatest professions of all--the medical profession -- in helping us to maintain and to improve the health of all Americans.

More Than Fifty years ago – on May 3, 1958 – former President Harry S Truman delivered remarks at a luncheon following the enrollment ceremonies for those who had passed The Missouri Bar examination, along with their guests, members of the judiciary, and other officials. Those remarks, were originally printed in the June 1958 issue of the Journal of The Missouri Bar.
I do not consider myself adequately equipped to make a full and complete discussion of the Constitution, but I have been interested in it for many a long day. You can read it every day, and a hundred times besides, and you will always find something you haven’t seen in it before. You know, it took the Supreme Court of the United States 150 years to find the word “welfare” in the Constitution. And if it takes the Supreme Court that long to discover something in it, what chance does the average man have?

The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are now assembled in one place for display and safekeeping. We venerate these documents not because they are old, not because they are valuable historical relics, but because they still have meaning for us. It was about 166 years ago that the Bill of Rights was ratified, but it is still pointing the way to greater freedom and greater opportunities for human happiness. So long as we govern our nation by the letter and by the spirit of the Bill of Rights, we can be sure that our nation will grow in strength and wisdom and freedom.

Everyone who holds office in the Federal government or in the government of our states takes an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. I have taken such an oath many times, including the two times I took the special oath required of the President of the United States.

It actually says “to support and defend” the Constitution. Every lawyer subscribes to that oath when he is admitted to the Bar.

This oath we take has a deep significance. Its simple words compress a lot of our history and a lot of our philosophy of government into one small space. In many countries, men swear to be loyal to their king, or to their nation. Here we promise to uphold and defend a document.

This is because the document sets forth our idea of government. And beyond this, with the Declaration of Independence, it expresses our idea of man and his place in the world. We believe that man should be free. And these documents establish a system under which man can be free and set up a framework to protect and expand this freedom.

The longer I live, the more I am impressed by the significance of our simple official oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Perhaps it takes a lifetime of experience to understand how much the Constitution means in our national life.

You can read about the Constitution, and you can study it in books, but the Constitution is not merely words. The Constitution’s a living force – and it is a growing thing.
The Constitution belongs to no one group of people and to no single branch of the government. We acknowledge our judges as the interpreters of the Constitution, but our Executive branch and our Legislative branch alike operate within its framework and must apply it and its principles in all that they do.

The Constitution expresses an idea that belongs to the people – the idea of the free man. What this idea means may vary from time to time. There was a time when people believed the Constitution meant that men could not be prevented from exploiting child labor or paying sweatshop wages. We no longer believe these things. We have discovered that the Constitution does not prevent us from correcting social injustice, or advancing the general welfare.
As we look toward the future we must be sure that what we honor and venerate in these documents is not their words alone, but the ideas of liberty which they express.

We have treated these documents themselves with the utmost respect. We have used every device that modern science has invented to protect and preserve them. But we must face the fact that all this pomp and circumstance could be the exact opposite of what we intend. If the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were enshrined in the Archives Building, but nowhere else, they would be dead. They would be just so many papers in a glass case.

The Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration can live only as long as they are enshrined in our hearts and our minds. If they are not so enshrined, they would be no better than mummies, and they could in time become idols whose worship would be a grim mockery of the true faith. Only as these documents are reflected in the thoughts and acts of Americans can they remain symbols of a power that can move the world.
Today, the ideals which these three documents express are having to struggle for survival throughout the world. When we sealed the Declaration and the Constitution in the Library of Congress, I had something to say about the threat of totalitarianism and communism. That threat still menaces freedom. The struggle against communism is just as crucial, just as demanding as it was then.

We are uniting the strength of free men against this threat. We are resisting communist aggression, and we will continue to resist the communist threat with all of our will and with all of our strength.

But the idea of freedom is in danger from others as well as the communists. There are some who hate communism, but who, at the same time, are unwilling to acknowledge the ideals of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. And that is going on right now in some parts of this country.

They are people who believe it is too dangerous to proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. What these people really believe is that the Preamble of the Constitution ought to be changed from “We, the people” to read “Some of us – some of the people of the United States, but not including those we disapprove of or disagree with – do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

Thank God, that is not what it says. It says, “We, the people” for the welfare of the whole population, and not just one segment of it.

Whether they know it or not, those people who believe in special privilege are enclosing the spirit, as well as the letter, of the original Constitution in a glass case, and sealed off from the living nation. They are turning it into a mummy, as dead as some old Pharaoh of Egypt, and in so doing they are giving aid and comfort to the enemies of democracy.

The First Article of the Bill of Rights provides that Congress shall make no law respecting freedom of worship or abridging freedom of opinion. There are some among us who seem to feel that this provision goes too far, even for the purpose of preventing tyranny over the mind of man. Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and in freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous; it is absolutely fatal to liberty. The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.
Invasion and conquest by communist armies would be a horror beyond our capacity to imagine. But invasion and conquest by communist ideas of right and wrong would be just as bad.
For us to embrace the methods and morals of communism in order to defeat communist aggression would be moral disaster worse than any physical catastrophe. If that should come to pass, then the Constitution and the Declaration would be utterly dead. But I do not believe it will come to pass. On the contrary, I believe that every day every one of us is re-dedicating himself to the ideals of liberty.

Since 1789 we have learned much about controlling the physical world around us. Perhaps our progress in learning the art of government has not been spectacular, but I, for one, believe it has been just as certain. I believe the great experiment that we call the United States of America has taught much to mankind. We know more than our forefathers did about the maintenance of popular liberty. Hence, it should be easier, not harder, for us to preserve the spirit of the Republic, not in a marble shrine, but in human hearts. We have the knowledge; the question is, have we the will to apply it.

We cannot talk too much about liberty. It costs too much to get, and you cannot get it by asking for it. It takes blood and sweat and tears, as Sir Winston Churchill used to say, to get it, and it takes that to maintain it.

Whether we will preserve and extend popular liberty is a very serious question, but, after all, it is a very old question. The men who signed the Declaration faced it. So did those who wrote the Constitution. Each succeeding generation has faced it, and so far each succeeding generation has answered yes. I am sure that our generation will give the same answer.

Given on Thursday, January 19, 1953

Good Evening, My Fellow Americans:

Next Tuesday, General Eisenhower will be inaugurated as President of the United States. I will be on a train on my way home to Independence, Missouri, to become a plain citizen. Inauguration Day will be a great demonstration of the Democratic Process. I am glad to be a part of the peaceful transfer of the vast power of the Presidency from my hands to his. There is no job like it on the face of the Earth. I want you all to realize how hard it is and to give Ike all the help he will need. The Cold War and the “hot war” in Korea will be great tests of his strength.

How will the Cold War end? It will end…someday…because of the great weakness of the Communist system. I have not a doubt in the world that a great change will occur. I have a deep and abiding faith in the destiny of free men. With strength and courage, we shall, someday, overcome.

When Franklin Roosevelt died, I thought there must be a million men more qualified than I to take up the Presidential task. But the work was mine to do. But always, I knew that I was not alone. I knew that you were working with me. And now, the time has come for me to say goodnight and God bless you all. 

Address at the Constitution Day Ceremonies at the Library of Congress.

September 17, 1951

by Harry S Truman

Location: District of Columbia, Washington

Note: The President spoke at 10:32 a.m. at the Library of Congress. His opening words referred to Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States, Senator Theodore Francis Green of Rhode Island, and Luther H. Evans, Librarian of Congress.

(The address was broadcast.)

Mr. Chief Justice of the United States, Senator Green, Doctor Evans, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

We have met here this morning to put some pieces of parchment away in specially sealed cases, in order to preserve them from physical and chemical change. And I can't help but be impressed with this magnificent collection of all the ancient, medieval, and modern documents that are in this library.

I think always of the terrible destruction of the Alexandrian Library in the Middle Ages. And this library, the British Museum, and the Louvre, are our modern replicas of that great Alexandrian Library.

The documents which we are putting away today are written in a style of handwriting which are no longer familiar to us. If they were only historical relics, it might seem strange that we should make a ceremony out of this occasion of sealing them up.

But the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are more than historical relics. They are a living force in our life today.

We may have some difficulty in preserving the parchment on which these two documents have been written, but the ideas they set forth will never perish. These documents express the highest principles of political life: That all men have certain unalienable rights, that governments are set up to provide for the welfare of the people, and that the role of law stands above government and citizen alike.

These ideas have a life of their own. They have been a dynamic force in the history of our Nation. They have inspired men, all around the world, to create new and independent governments, and to improve the conditions under which they live.

These are very explosive documents, Dr. Evans. We may think we have them safely bottled up, but the ideas they express will go on forever. They will continue to give energy and hope to new generations of men, here and in other countries, in the long struggle to create a better society on earth.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, when they were written, were revolutionary documents. But they were revolutionary in a very unusual sense.

Many--I might say most--revolutions are simply a resort to force and violence to impose a new despotism upon the people. But these documents were for a very different purpose; their aim was to make despotism impossible. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution seek to make the rule of law and the concepts of justice the dominating factors in government. To a large extent they have succeeded.

The struggle against the use of naked force as an instrument of government was an old one even before these two documents were written. Our forefathers created a new nation, but they based it upon the long experience of the English people in maintaining human freedom.

The right to trial by jury, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, the right of habeas corpus, the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, the guarantees of freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion--all these were basic concepts in the days of our Revolution. They were concepts for which men had worked and even given up their lives for centuries.

But they never had been made the foundation stones of a government until they were put in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the United States and its first 10 amendments--the Bill of Rights--which are just as fundamental a part of our basic law as the original version of the Constitution that we are sealing up here today.

I hope that these first 10 amendments will be put on parchment and sealed up and placed alongside the original document. In my opinion they are the most important parts of the Constitution.

These rights have become so well established in this country that we take them for granted. They are so much a part of our lives that they may seem dry and uninteresting. But the history of other countries in recent years has shown us how vital and important they are. Recent history has demonstrated that the unrestrained use of force by government is just as great a danger to human progress now as it was in ages gone by. It has demonstrated that unless citizens have rights against the government, no one can be safe or secure.

In our own lifetime we have learned anew the human misery that an absolute, powered government can create. We have seen it in the brief history of the Fascist and Nazi tyrannies. We are witnessing it today in the tyranny of Soviet communism.

A constitution is not just a matter of words. There are other constitutions which may read as well as ours. Just take, for example, the constitution of the Soviet Union. That constitution has a lot of fine language in it--a lot of beautiful and meaningful words. That constitution of the Soviet Union says that Soviet citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. I wonder what would happen to a citizen of the Soviet Union if he tried to exercise any of those freedoms? It professes to guarantee that citizens of the Soviet Union shall be secure in their persons and in their homes. And in addition, it purports to guarantee equality, the right to work, the right to an education, the right to rest and leisure, freedom of religion, and a lot of other fine things.

But these good words in the Soviet constitution mean less than nothing. They are empty promises, because the citizens of the Soviet Union have no way of enforcing their fights against the state.

In the Soviet Union the power of the state is above all fights. The government does not have to obey the law. As a result the citizens of the Soviet Union enjoy none of the freedoms which are guaranteed in their constitution. They do not have freedom of speech or freedom of the press. They may be arrested without cause; their homes may be invaded without a search warrant; they may be executed or exiled without a fair trial and without appeal.

Their constitutional guarantees are just as false as their treaty agreements. A Bolshevik agreement is not worth the paper it's written on. It is only a scrap of paper.

The Soviet citizen lives in fear. His society is a jungle through which the naked power of the government prowls like a beast of prey, making all men afraid.

The Communists claim that they have to use the weapons of tyranny in order to improve the conditions of the people. That just isn't true. That is a rejection of the long experience of mankind. By resorting to the worst evils of ancient tyranny, the Soviet rulers have held their citizens in terror and bondage, while freedom is growing in the rest of the world.

The evils which the Communists brought back into the world--the evils of political persecution and unrestrained state power-have grown and flourished and become much more terrible than they ever were before. Modern inventions, modern means of communication, modern methods of propaganda make the power of the state more formidable than it was in the days of the stage coach and the muzzle-loading rifle. The power of the Kremlin is more effective, more violent, more far reaching than the power of the bloodiest of the czars, or the power of Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Louis XIV, Charles V of Spain, or the power of any other of the tyrants of the past.

Today, the tyrant can uproot and liquidate whole classes of people and entire nations. The death camps of Hitler Germany or of modern Siberia demonstrate that the unrestrained power of the government can be a greater evil in our modern civilization than it ever was in ancient times.

The only guarantee against such a society of fear and cruelty is the principle that the government is not above the law. Our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution proclaim that the Government is subject to the fundamental law.

The Constitution sets up a system of internal checks and balances which may seem cumbersome to us at times, but which succeeds in preventing any part of the Government from having absolute power. Under our Constitution it is not only the citizens who are made to conform to the principles of justice, but the Government itself has to conform. And the citizen has the power to enforce his rights against the Government. The rule of law is made supreme.

Our Constitution protects us from the evils of tyranny. But this is not all our Constitution does. If it were, it would not be enough.

A constitution must do more than provide restraints against the illegal use of power. It must give the people a means of dealing with their day-to-day problems of continually correcting the injustices that spring up in human society. A constitution that is not adaptable -- that prevents the government from acting for the general welfare of the people -- will not survive. It will become a mere historical curiosity, as has the Soviet constitution.

Ours is not such a constitution. We have discovered, over the years, that it offers the means for correcting present evils without throwing away past gains.

There are always those who oppose necessary reforms. Such people often turn to the Constitution to justify their position. But our Constitution has seldom proved to be a barrier to changes which were needed for the welfare of all the people. Our Constitution has not set up an aristocracy of wealth or privilege. It does not serve the privileged few at the expense of the great majority of the people.

The great advances we have made in recent years in legislation to improve the condition of labor, to bring economic security to the farmer, to provide aid for the needy, to develop the resources of the country for the benefit of all, to improve the health, the education, and the housing of the average family - all these advances have been opposed in the name of the Constitution of the United States. But it never was the purpose of the Constitution to bar such advances. On the contrary, the Constitution provides the means for carrying into effect the fundamental ideas of justice and liberty and human progress on which our Government is founded.

Acting under our Constitution we have been able to solve the problems which have driven other countries into revolution. We have been able to make necessary reforms without overthrowing the ancient guarantees of our liberty. Building on the experience of the past we have opened the way to a brighter future.

On this occasion we ought to pray to Almighty God that the American people will remain faithful to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We should ask that they be ever mindful of the great wisdom and truth that are embodied in these two documents, and through them, in our form of government.

The wisdom of our form of government is that no men, no matter how good they may appear to be, may be entrusted with absolute power. The great achievement of our form of government is that it has enabled us to meet the changing needs of the people while providing a rule of law that restrains all men, even the most powerful. The glory of our form of government lies in the fact that it has held us faithful to the concept that the aims of government are human betterment and human freedom.

If the American people remember these things and understand them well, this Nation will move forward in the future as it has in the past. And these documents, which we are today sealing against physical decay, will always be remembered and cherished, finding new life in each new generation of Americans.

Speech Explaining the Firing of MacArthur
April 13, 1951

by Harry S. Truman


. . . In the simplest of terms, what we are doing in Korea is this: We are trying to prevent a third world war.

I think most people in this country recognized that fact last June. And they warmly supported the decision of the Government to help the Republic of Korea against the Communist aggressors. Now, many persons, even some who applauded our decision to defend Korea, have forgotten the basic reason for our action.

It is right for us to be in Korea. It was right last June. It is right today…

The question we have had to face is whether the Communist plan of conquest can be stopped without general war. Our Government and other countries associated with us in the United Nations believe that the best chance of stopping it without general war is to meet the attack in Korea and defeat it there.

That is what we have been doing. It is a difficult and bitter task. But so far it has been successful…

So far, by fighting a limited war in Korea, we have prevented aggression from succeeding, and bringing on a general war. And the ability of the whole free world to resist Communist aggression has been greatly improved.

We have taught the enemy a lesson. He has found out that aggression is not cheap or easy. Moreover, men all over the world who want to remain free have been given new courage and new hope. They know now that the champions of freedom can stand up and fight and that they will stand up and fight…

We do not want to see the conflict in Korea extended. We are trying to prevent a world war—not to start one. The best way to do that is to make it plain that we and the other free countries will continue to resist the attack.

But you may ask, why can’t we take other steps to punish the aggressor. Why don’t we bomb Manchuria and China itself? Why don’t we assist Chinese Nationalist troops to land on the mainland of China?

If we were to do these things we would be running a very grave risk of starting a general war. If that were to happen, we would have brought about the exact situation we are trying to prevent.

If we were to do these things, we would become entangled in a vast conflict on the continent of Asia and our task would become immeasurably more difficult all over the world.

What would suit the ambitions of the Kremlin better than for our military forces to be committed to a full-scale war with Red China? […]

I believe that we must try to limit the war in Korea for these vital reasons: to make sure that the precious lives of our fighting men are not wasted; to see that the security of our country and the free world is not jeopardized; and to prevent a third world war.

A number of events have made it evident that General MacArthur did not agree with that policy. I have therefore considered it essential to relieve General MacArthur so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to the real purpose and aim of our policy.

It was with the deepest personal regret that I found myself compelled to take this action. General MacArthur is one of our greatest military commanders. But the cause of world peace is more important than any individual.

The change in commands in the Far East means no change whatever in the policy of the United States. We will carry on the fight in Korea with vigor and determination in an effort to bring the war to a speedy and successful conclusion.

We are ready, at any time, to negotiate for a restoration of peace in the area. But we will not engage in appeasement. We are only interested in real peace…

In the hard fighting in Korea, we are proving that collective action among nations is not only a high principle but a workable means of resisting aggression. Defeat of aggression in Korea may be the turning point in the world’s search for a practical way of achieving peace and security.

The struggle of the United Nations in Korea is a struggle for peace. The free nations have united their strength in an effort to prevent a third world war.

That war can come if the Communist rulers want it to come. But this Nation and its allies will not be responsible for its coming.

We do not want to widen the conflict. We will use every effort to prevent that disaster. And, in so doing, we know that we are following the great principles of peace, freedom, and justice.

INAUGURAL SPEECH

January 20, 1949

by Harry S Truman

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, fellow citizens:

I accept with humility the honor which the American people have conferred upon me. I accept it with a resolve to do all that I can for the welfare of this Nation and for the peace of the world.

In performing the duties of my office, I need the help and the prayers of every one of you. I ask for your encouragement and for your support. The tasks we face are difficult. We can accomplish them only if we work together.

Each period of our national history has had its special challenges. Those that confront us now are as momentous as any in the past. Today marks the beginning not only of a new administration, but of a period that will be eventful, perhaps decisive, for us and for the world.

It may be our lot to experience, and in a large measure bring about, a major turning point in the long history of the human race. The first half of this century has been marked by unprecedented and brutal attacks on the rights of man, and by the two most frightful wars in history. The supreme need of our time is for men to learn to live together in peace and harmony.

The peoples of the earth face the future with grave uncertainty, composed almost equally of great hopes and great fears. In this time of doubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will, strength, and wise leadership.

It is fitting, therefore, that we take this occasion to proclaim to the world the essential principles of the faith by which we live, and to declare our aims to all peoples.

The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this Nation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right to equal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good. We believe that all men have a right to freedom of thought and expression. We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God.

From this faith we will not be moved.

The American people desire, and are determined to work for, a world in which all nations and all peoples are free to govern themselves as they see fit, and to achieve a decent and satisfying life. Above all else, our people desire, and are determined to work for, peace on earth--a just and lasting peace -- based on genuine agreement freely arrived at by equals.

In the pursuit of these aims, the United States and other like-minded nations find themselves directly opposed by a regime with contrary aims and a totally different concept of life.

That regime adheres to a false philosophy which purports to offer freedom, security, and greater opportunity to mankind. Misled by that philosophy, many peoples have sacrificed their liberties only to learn to their sorrow that deceit and mockery, poverty and tyranny, are their reward.

That false philosophy is communism.

Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is able to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters.

Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.

Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state. It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think.

Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of those abilities of his.

Communism maintains that social wrongs can be corrected only by violence.

Democracy has proved that social justice can be achieved through peaceful change.

Communism holds that the world is so widely divided into opposing classes that war is inevitable.

Democracy holds that free nations can settle differences justly and maintain a lasting peace.

These differences between communism and democracy do not concern the United States alone. People everywhere are coming to realize that what is involved is material well-being, human dignity, and the right to believe in and worship God.

I state these differences, not to draw issues of belief as such, but because the actions resulting from the Communist philosophy are a threat to the efforts of free nations to bring about world recovery and lasting peace.

Since the end of hostilities, the United States has invested its substance and its energy in a great constructive effort to restore peace, stability, and freedom to the world.

We have sought no territory. We have imposed our will on none. We have asked for no privileges we would not extend to others.

We have constantly and vigorously supported the United Nations and related agencies as a means of applying democratic principles to international relations. We have consistently advocated and relied upon peaceful settlement of disputes among nations.

We have made every effort to secure agreement on effective international control of our most powerful weapon, and we have worked steadily for the limitation and control of all armaments.

We have encouraged, by precept and example, the expansion of world trade on a sound and fair basis.

Almost a year ago, in company with 16 free nations of Europe, we launched the greatest cooperative economic program in history. The purpose of that unprecedented effort is to invigorate and strengthen democracy in Europe, so that the free people of that continent can resume their rightful place in the forefront of civilization and can contribute once more to the security and welfare of the world.

Our efforts have brought new hope to all mankind. We have beaten back despair and defeatism. We have saved a number of countries from losing their liberty. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world now agree with us, that we need not have war--that we can have peace.

The initiative is ours.

We are moving on with other nations to build an even stronger structure of international order and justice. We shall have as our partners countries which, no longer solely concerned with the problem of national survival, are now working to improve the standards of living of all their people. We are ready to undertake new projects to strengthen a free world.

In the coming years, our program for peace and freedom will emphasize four major courses of action.

First, we will continue to give unfaltering support to the United Nations and related agencies, and we will continue to search for ways to strengthen their authority and increase their effectiveness. We believe that the United Nations will be strengthened by the new nations which are being formed in lands now advancing toward self-government under democratic principles.

Second, we will continue our programs for world economic recovery.

This means, first of all, that we must keep our full weight behind the European recovery program. We are confident of the success of this major venture in world recovery. We believe that our partners in this effort will achieve the status of self-supporting nations once again.

In addition, we must carry out our plans for reducing the barriers to world trade and increasing its volume. Economic recovery and peace itself depend on increased world trade.

Third, we will strengthen freedom-loving nations against the dangers of aggression.

We are now working out with a number of countries a joint agreement designed to strengthen the security of the North Atlantic area. Such an agreement would take the form of a collective defense arrangement within the terms of the United Nations Charter.

We have already established such a defense pact for the Western Hemisphere by the treaty of Rio de Janeiro.

The primary purpose of these agreements is to provide unmistakable proof of the joint determination of the free countries to resist armed attack from any quarter. Every country participating in these arrangements must contribute all it can to the common defense.

If we can make it sufficiently clear, in advance, that any armed attack affecting our national security would be met with overwhelming force, the armed attack might never occur.

I hope soon to send to the Senate a treaty respecting the North Atlantic security plan.

In addition, we will provide military advice and equipment to free nations which will cooperate with us in the maintenance of peace and security.

Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.

More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims of disease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas.

For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve suffering of these people.

The United States is pre-eminent among nations in the development of industrial and scientific techniques. The material resources which we can afford to use for assistance of other peoples are limited. But our imponderable resources in technical knowledge are constantly growing and are inexhaustible.

I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation with other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing development.

Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens.

We invite other countries to pool their technological resources in this undertaking. Their contributions will be warmly welcomed. This should be a cooperative enterprise in which all nations work together through the United Nations and its specialized agencies whenever practicable. It must be a worldwide effort for the achievement of peace, plenty, and freedom.

With the cooperation of business, private capital, agriculture, and labor in this country, this program can greatly increase the industrial activity in other nations and can raise substantially their standards of living.

Such new economic developments must be devised and controlled to the benefit of the peoples of the areas in which they are established. Guarantees to the investor must be balanced by guarantees in the interest of the people whose resources and whose labor go into these developments.

The old imperialism--exploitation for foreign profit--has no place in our plans. What we envisage is a program of development based on the concepts of democratic fair-dealing.

All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from a constructive program for the better use of the world's human and natural resources. Experience shows that our commerce with other countries expands as they progress industrially and economically.

Greater production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key to greater production is a wider and more vigorous application of modern scientific and technical knowledge.

Only by helping the least fortunate of its members to help themselves can the human family achieve the decent, satisfying life that is the right of all people.

Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoples of the world into triumphant action, not only against their human oppressors, but also against their ancient enemies--hunger, misery, and despair.

On the basis of these four major courses of action we hope to help create the conditions that will lead eventually to personal freedom and happiness for all mankind.

If we are to be successful in carrying out these policies, it is clear that we must have continued prosperity in this country and we must keep ourselves strong.

Slowly but surely we are weaving a world fabric of international security and growing prosperity.

We are aided by all who wish to live in freedom from fear -- ven by those who live today in fear under their own governments.

We are aided by all who want relief from lies and propaganda -- those who desire truth and sincerity.

We are aided by all who desire self-government and a voice in deciding their own affairs.

We are aided by all who long for economic security--for the security and abundance that men in free societies can enjoy.

We are aided by all who desire freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom to live their own lives for useful ends.

Our allies are the millions who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

In due time, as our stability becomes manifest, as more and more nations come to know the benefits of democracy and to participate in growing abundance, I believe that those countries which now oppose us will abandon their delusions and join with the free nations of the world in a just settlement of international differences.

Events have brought our American democracy to new influence and new responsibilities. They will test our courage, our devotion to duty, and our concept of liberty.

But I say to all men, what we have achieved in liberty, we will surpass in greater liberty.

Steadfast in our faith in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world where man's freedom is secure.

To that end we will devote our strength, our resources, and our firmness of resolve. With God's help, the future of mankind will be assured in a world of justice, harmony, and peace.