Speech
'·
We are
~aking today the same fight that we
t
ugh t and won over
150 years ago. Then as now it was a bitter, des erate struggle to prove
that men have dignity; that they have t he right to be free.
Americans in the 18th i•t•(J Century f 0ught for freedom. B.y '
courage and sacrifice they won that first battle. But this fight for
freedom never ends. In 1952 our battlefield is' the whole world.
The re is another similarity between 1776 and 1952. Not only is
the cause the same but you hear the same pro hets of gloom; men of little
faith in the
es ~ ential · strength
'
and vigor of our country.
They whine that we can't afford to make this fight. They say we
must let the rest of the world go hang.
I suggest these men read American history. Th"nk back to 1776.
General Washington led a beaten
ar~;
men were deserting and heading for
I
home; in the cities you heard that the fight was lost.
I
Here are the 1rords that shamed the md:tt quitters and • inspired
the believers in 1776:
11
These are times that try men' s· souls. The summer soldier and the
sunshine patriot will, _in this crieis, shrink from the service of their
country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and
t
woman. Tyranny, like hell, i
not easily conquered; yet we have this
consolation wi th us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the
triumph. What we obta\n too cheap, we esteem to o lightly; it is dearness
only that gi es everything its value. 11
Remember this to. When we stood
nd fought for
fr~edom
in 1776
men lllu: from all over Euro.p e, who ~ loved freedom, came to fight on our
side. ·Now history repea ts itself, They knew then, as we are convinced now, that
•
freedom must eventually be world-wide or our own freedom cannot survive. · /
more
•
Page2
Let us see what we face today:
First and foremost there is the ksmcW.xtx immediate threat
•
presented by
i~tit
the military power of the Soviet Union. To answer this
we need planes and tanks , and md:to soldiers. This mobilizati on bni.ldup
requires taxes from all of us; increased work from others, and life itself
from some.
This is a holding action. When PresidentTrumhn
courageously decided to halt
~··Communist
aggressi n in
~
Euro~e
we
made it clear to the free world that we are in this struggle for freedom
to stay. ThiS made it clear to Europe and to Asia that .United States backs
up its words
M. th positive action.
In Europe we have created a defense force ixmmxtt. ----
~he
North Atlantic Treaty OrgAnization. This is gradually but definitely
~providing
the military guarantee that Jwmrp•M•• Europeans need.
i.Ix
The prophets of gloom in this country tell us that
dragging its feet; that .._e should pull
I
Europe is
out.xb~u
•
This is untrue. Europe is
x doing
its share. Let me tell
you of the progress they have made there. And it is not easy to wartorn
countries , rebuild them, and at the
s~e
time contipue sacrificing for
the common defense. The progress in Western European unity; the
I
Sch~
plan; the European army , make it clear that progress is being made.
This you must never forget: democracy is not only the
right system for the free, human spirit, it is also the strongest. In the
long pull the free people will outstrip the totalitarian lands --- in
production, in vigor.
~
Time is on our side if we us e it wisely. So far
..
we have.
There is more to this-whole problem than the military
buildup. Throughout th e
world . today there is a great revolution taking
pl ace. You can see this in India, in the Near East:' in Africa, in Latin
more
I
Page 3
/
America, in Asia, in Europe. The ordinary man, the simple farmer or
~
orker , is
demandi ng what is riPhtfully his. He wants freedom; dignity and decenC?y; an
/
o portunity to work and raise a family; schools for his children; a right to
make his o .,D, decisions.
This is the same fight we made in 1776. ThiS revolution
.s exists today because men , no matter what their color , their race, their
nationality, their way of work, want dignity. They want to be free.
The Communists, financed and directed, disciplined and ·
ruthless , seek t o exploit this rev
~utionary ferme~t.
Make no
~stake
there is nothing revolutionary about the Communi stJ. That is the great
I
1 i e of the 20th Century. Tbat is the fraud we must expos e.
We must take hold of this great revolutionary movement
that is s eeping the wo~1 d and channel it along the way to vard fre!'
}
institutions.
This is why Point Four is such a vital part of our foreign
What must we do? We have to shsre our great technical and
s cientific resources with these nations ,
thes~
peoples who are struggling
upwards t o a life of dignified, free men.
First we mu t use our 'technical help t o r ais e t he heal th
standards of these people.
Secondly we mnst employr our great scientific knowledge
to i mprove the agricultural output. This science at our disposal has
done v.Qnders in this c01mtry ·-
,
it can do the same for the rest of the
world.
Then , we must take the many steps necessary to bring
i
n1s triel ctvtttaactouc development in and raise the productivity.
You know, in many ways , this is a simple business prcposi tion.
All the areas which Point Four will assist send us raw
more
m~ter ial s
of one
Page4
kind or another. Malaya,
-
fo~
instance,
vides tin.
'
On- t he other hand our busy f ctories will need mar kets in
back~ard ,
the years t o come. It is easy to see t hat a
agricultural oountry
can not buy many refri gerat ors. However , if we produce an i ndus trial
development then their abi lity to absorb manufactured -goods , particularly
ill be i mmense. Thi
consumer goods , fr m this country
in which we c an
re~establish
i s the only way
world tr de and end wha t the econ mists call
•
the doll r gap.
I
But the technical
~d
i ndust ri al help we prov de will no t
eri c
be the onlyc<tcme answer t o t e probl em. We mus t deal in i d as .
~
must expo rt i ts most precious prod ct --- the belief in the i po t ance of
:1 i ndividual dignity. Thi
i
simply tha t each humanb
be ng ' s life is
wor thwhile .
I do not mean t hat t is is propaganda, or the Voice of
I
t hese are
A.meri ca--- a1 tho
heri tage of Americ
in every way
es ee ~tial.
e canno t export the p ecious
by r adio or by printed docu:nents.
e can --- by the way we do thi
s in th
we say publicity; by our de l i ngs with the e people in
a Point Four techn ' cian in
in the way he
,
the fine
~
I ndia ~
must be
pos~tive
Ve must denon. trate
country; by wh t
e~ery
way. For instance,
argument for freedom;
talks , a nd lives eftd worka he must be a proof Xkxt of
urds we use i n spe~ches .
Unl e ss we do thi s the tragedy is t
the tractors an
the Communists will
~rovide
t we ' ll provi de the seeds and
the ideas . 'I t will take
ore
than guns to provide the will to figh t; t here must be ideas.
You hear t oday from many politicians ---- t he
afts, the
Hoovers , the Mac rthurs --- that we canno t afford the foreign
olicy
~e
have agreed on. They talk of our economic !rld: and mi.li tary aid to
the Western Wo rld as if we were providing a sort of ·a dole f or these countries.
more
This isnnus.n
abs0lutely untrue. The simple f ct is· that
this is the biggest bargain in a foreign policy that any nation every had.
We spend about 8
mtxx
bi l lion dollars, it is true. What do we get in xaxt
'
resources in· materials and men of the
returnt We draw on the tremendous
free world.
We are getting human resources; economic resources in
e are also gaining
raw material-s and produc tive strength of Europe; and
strategic location
~
to protect ourselves.
If we had .not arranged
be 20, 000 , 000 men to
adeq~~tely
th~se
alliances our army would have to
protect ourself; our military budget
would
I
be several times as high; attd W!3 WOuld be in a world without allies.
I
The argument of Senator Taft seems to be t ha t we could
just cut down a little, then a little more, and finally give prahtically
no aid. He adopts the position that you can always reduce the heli>- --that
the count ries involved will
~
somehow make the necessary effort. I would
remind him bf Senator Vandenberg's point that it makes a lot of difference
to a drowning man if you throw him a 15
~o
t rope when he is 30 feet from
shore •
•
-,
I J
If you want to s ee why Point Four is
imp or t~t
j ust t ake a
look at t he electi on in Iran. The Communis t Party there has a siW,pl e platform :
to end all United States influenc e. They particu larly wan t to halt the
$23 million dollar Point Four program t hat we have
ju~t
S%X1 started there.
That should make i t clear. The Communis ts kno w what damage Point Eour will do
' to thBm.
AME ICANS FOR DEruOC F~T IC ACTIO•
1740 K Street, N. W.
·;rashin gton 6, D. C.
FOR RELEASE AT 7 P.
Thurs., Januar
2!~ ,
~.
1952
Humphrey Speaks at Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (Democra tic-Farmer -Labor
Party, rlinnesota ) sryoke to the annual Roosevelt Day Dinner of the Pittsburgh
Chapter of Ameri cans for Democrati c Action at the Hotel Schenley on Thursday,
January
24.
Senator Humphrey, former National Chairman of ADA , is now a National
Vice-Chai rman of ADA.
The Pittsbur gh din11er, markin g the anniversa ry of the late President
Fran l<lin Delano Roosevelt , is one of a series of celebrati ons s onsored by ADA
all over t he nation.
"The United States must
ex~ort
its most precious heritage- -the belief
in the illllportance of the individua l," Senator Hnrn:?hrey declared .
this VIe 1 ll
"Unl ess "e do
rovide the tractors and the seeds and the Communists will !;)rovide
the ideas."
:r\1·
e cannot export this American tr dition b:y propagand a .
·.ve must dem-
onst r ate it in every possible way--by the way e do t hings at home; by what we
say nublicly ; in our dealings with th e peoples of the world."
Senator Humphrey emphasize d that India today provides the "perfect
test" of what the United States must do.
He
said :
11
Ve can help the Indian neople
solve their tremendou s economic and social proolems 1'1 i th technical aid and finan cial help.
But we must n ever for get thi s--the heart of the Point IV program is
that we help people to help themselve s."
The Senator pointed out that "when
flood or earthquak e or the ravages of war the
have 'adopt ed' forei gn communiti es.
forei~
p eo~le
citi es have suffered from
of American cities or towns
TI1en we aided t hese peopl e in far off lands
back to health through gifts in kind and in cash. "
"This has been done already in the Point IV program," he said .
Holmes , a f ormer county agent from Tennessee ,
district how to double their
heat crop .
sh ~fed
f ar mers in India 's Etawah
Then a farmer from there, named Amar
Singh, ca rne to live in Carroll County, Geo r gia .
hat
"Horace
It is in this way t hat
e sho
ood neighbors we truly can be. 11
"Think of t he illl11act on the mind of Asia i f corrmuniti es all over the
United States ado_ ted foreign towns and aided them to solve their many problems? "
"You can be certain of this: the Communists kn ow ho · powerful Point Four
is .
Th e Communist Party in Iran
hd.
~
made t heir big
the Point Four program in that country ,
campai~1
issue the ending of
The Communists r ealize ' hat damage Point
Four can do to them."
MORE
- 2 -
forei gn polic y
Sena tor Humphrey expre ssed conf i dence that Ameri can
i n his recen t trip to Europ e,
i s makin g progr ess. He stres s ed that he had seen,
coop eratio n ere making
t hat the Schumann Plan , the Nato army, and economic
Europ e stron g.
"This is n ot a time for desp air," he said.
"Thro ughou t our histo ry
we could not meet the
there have been men of littl e faith who cried out that
test.
This was true in 1776 and it is true today .
today . This is
"Ther e is a great revol ution takin g place in the world
they have a righ t to indiv idual
the deman d by men of all color s and all races that
this great ferm ent. What
dign ity and freed om. The Communists hope to explo it
revol ution into free institution~
we must do is guide and lead this great world -wide
ary and economic
Sena tor Humphrey emph asized that the program of milit
polic y that any natio n
aid to our allie s is the "bigg est barga in in a fo r eign
ever had."
men
"We draw on the treme ndous resou rces of mate rials and
no allie s we
free world . This means human resou rces for if we had
in raw mate rials
arm,y of perha ps 20 milli on men; economic resou rces
·
can
ainta in our milit ary
we/m
that
so
ions
locat
egic
strat
and,
;
stren gth
of the entir e
ould need an
and produ ctive
guard posts
all over the globe ."
reduc e the amount
The Repu blica ns would have us belie ve that you can
like t o warn t hem t hat it's no
of our aid and still get t he same resul t. I would
if he's 30 f eet from shore ,"
use to throw a fifte en-fo ot rope to a drow nin g man
becau se "in t he
Sena tor Humphrey stres sed that optim ism is j ustif i ed
e must have the coura ge to
lon g run Democracy is supe rior to Total itaria nism .
11
wage the long fi ght."
ancl
" e are making today the same struggle th at "!e fou ght
Americans t hen fought for f reedom,
on in 1776 .
But this f ight for freed o m neve r ends for
freed om must be world -wi de or we canno t survi ve.
the whole worl d."
JJ
JJ.
If iT
#
In
1952 our battl egrou nd is
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