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                                PAPER IV

". . . The dangers that confront the future of mankind as a whole are 
greater to the world and therefore to us than the dangers which confront 
the people of the United States by and in themselves alone." 

Address on Armistice Day, Arlington National Cemetery, Fort Myer, Va., 
   November 11, 1935

Friends and fellow Americans: 

The living memory of the World War is close to each and every one of us 
today. Our thoughts return to great objectives of the past, even as the 
minds of older men go back to their boyhood's ideals. 

We Americans were so placed in those days that we gained a perspective 
of the great world conflict that was perhaps clearer than that of our 
fellow men who were closer to the scene of battle. For most of the first 
three years of the conflict we were not participants; but during the 
final phase we ourselves engaged on many fronts. 

For that reason perhaps we understood, as well as any, the cries that 
went up-that the world conflict should be made a war to end wars. We 
were not invaded, nor were we threatened with invasion then or later; 
but the very distance of our view led us to perceive the dire results of 
war through days of following peace. 

The primary purpose of the United States of America is to avoid being 
drawn into war. We seek also in every practicable way to promote peace 
and to discourage war. Except for those few who have placed or who place 
temporary, selfish gain ahead of national and world peace, the 
overwhelming mass of American citizens are in hearty accord with these 
basic policies of our Government, as they are also entirely sympathetic 
with the efforts of other Nations to avoid and to end war. 

That is why we too have striven with great consistency to approve steps 
to remove the causes of war and to disapprove steps taken by others to 
commit acts of aggression. We have either led or performed our full part 
in every important attempt to limit and to reduce world armaments. We 
have sought by definite act and solemn commitment to establish the 
United States as a good neighbor among Nations. We are acting to 
simplify definitions and facts by calling war "War" when armed invasion 
and a resulting killing of human beings take place. 

But though our course is consistent and clear, it is with disappointment 
and sorrow that most Americans confess that the world's gain thus far 
has been small. 

I would not be frank with you if I did not tell you that the dangers 
that confront the future of mankind as a whole are greater to the 

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world and therefore to us than the dangers which confront the people of 
the United States by and in themselves alone. 

Jealousies between Nations continue; armaments increase; national 
ambitions that disturb the world's peace are thrust forward. Most 
serious of all, international confidence in the sacredness of 
international contracts is on the wane. 

The memory of our hopes of 1917 and 1918 dies with the death of those of 
us who took part. It is, therefore, your sacred obligation and mine, by 
conscious, definite effort, to pass that memory on to succeeding 
generations. A new generation, even in its cradle or still unborn, is 
coming to the fore. The children in our schools, the young men and women 
passing through our colleges into productive life have, unlike us, no 
direct knowledge of the meaning of war. They are not immune to the 
glamour of war, to the opportunities to escape from the drabness and 
worry of hard times at home in the glory and heroism of the arms factory 
and the battlefield. Fortunately, there is evidence on every hand that 
the youth of America, as a whole, is not trapped by that delusion. They 
know that elation and prosperity which may come from a new war must 
lead-for those who survive it-to economic and social collapse more 
sweeping than any we have experienced in the past. While, therefore, we 
cannot and must not hide our concern for grave world dangers, and while, 
at the same time, we cannot and must not build walls around ourselves 
and hide our heads in the sand, we must go forward with all our strength 
to stress and strive for international peace. 

In this effort America must and will protect herself. Under no 
circumstances will this policy of self-protection go to lengths beyond 
self-protection. Aggression on the part of the United States is an 
impossibility in so far as the present Administration of your Government 
is concerned. Defense against aggression by others-adequate defense on 
land, on sea and in air-is our accepted policy; and the measure of that 
defense is and will be solely the amount necessary to safeguard us 
against the armaments of others. The more greatly they decrease their 
armaments, the more quickly and surely shall we decrease ours. 

In many other fields, by word and by deed, we are giving example to the 
world by removing or lowering barriers which impede friendly 
intercourse. Our soldier and sailor dead call to us across the years to 
make our lives effective in building constructively for peace. It is 
fitting that on this Armistice Day, seventeen years later, I am 
privileged to tell you that between us and a great neighbor another act 
cementing our historic friendship has been agreed upon and is being 
consummated. Between Canada and the United States exists a 
neighborliness, a genuine friendship which for over a century has 
dispelled every passing rift. 

Our two peoples, each independent, are closely knit by ties of blood and 
a common heritage; our standards of life are substantially the same; our 
commerce and our economic conditions rest upon the same foundations. 
Between two such peoples, if we would build constructively for peace and 
progress, the flow of intercourse should be mutually beneficial and not 
unduly hampered. Each has much to gain by material profit, by spiritual 
profit, by increased employment through the means of enlarged trade, one 
with the other. 

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I am, therefore, happy to be able to tell you almost in celebration of 
this Armistice Day that the Canadian Prime Minister and I, after 
thoughtful discussion of our national problems, have reached a definite 
agreement which will eliminate disagreements and unreasonable 
restrictions, and thus work to the advantage of both Canada and the 
United States. 

I hope that this good example will reach around the world some day, for 
the power of good example is the strongest force in the world. It 
surpasses preachments; it excels good resolutions; it is far better than 
agreements unfulfilled. 

If we as a Nation, by our good example, can contribute to the peaceful 
well-being of the fellowship of Nations, our course through the years 
will not have been in vain. 

We who survive have profited by the good example of our fellow Americans 
who gave their lives in war. On these surrounding hills of Virginia they 
rest-thousands upon thousands-in the last bivouac of the dead. Below us, 
across the river, we see a great capital of a great Nation. 

The past and the present unite in prayer that America will ever seek the 
ways of peace, and by her example at home and abroad speed the return of 
good-will among men.