Address in Detroit at the Celebration of the City's 250th Anniversary.

Mr. Mayor, Governor, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

I am happy to come to this great city of Detroit and to join with you in celebrating its 250th birthday. I do not suppose that Cadillac and his little band of French pioneers would believe their eyes if they could see what has happened on the spot where they built their fort back in 1701.

To them the word Detroit meant a narrow place in the river. In George Washington's time it meant a place of danger, a source of Indian raids and scalping parties. Today the word Detroit is a synonym throughout the world for the industrial greatness of America. Today the word Detroit symbolizes for free men everywhere the productive power which is a foundation stone in world peace.

In the last war, Detroit proved itself as one of the great production centers of the arsenal of democracy. Its tanks and trucks rumbled ashore on every beachhead from Normandy to Okinawa. From Detroit and other great American cities came such an outpouring of the weapons and equipment of war as had never been seen before in all history.

That miracle of production was made possible by American industry in action. It was made possible by the expert management and skilled workers of America. Free men working together here in Detroit made it possible for free men around the world to win the war.

Today, once again, the productive power of Detroit is bringing hope and courage to brave people throughout the world who are determined to defend themselves against aggression. Today, again, the success or failure of the cause of freedom depends on what is done here in your great factories and assembly plants.

The free world is counting on you to build airplanes and tanks, army trucks and weapons. Billions of dollars worth of defense orders have been placed in the Detroit area. Production on some of these orders has already begun, and on others it will soon be starting. Military equipment will flow from Detroit factories in a growing stream.

I know that this means changes for many of you. Thousands of workers in Detroit have already shifted from nondefense to defense jobs, and thousands of others will have to shift to defense jobs. Still others are affected by the cutbacks in civilian production which are necessary to make steel and other scarce materials available for military Use.

But employment in Detroit is higher now than it was even at the peak of World War II. Think of that! Employment in Detroit is higher now than it was even at the peak of World War II. But these cutbacks have resulted in some temporary unemployment. Military needs have forced a reduction in metals available for making passenger cars. This means that men have been laid off, and some of them have not yet found other work.

This is a temporary situation. It is the kind of thing that has always happened in the early part of a big conversion operation. But it is important to keep unemployment and other conversion difficulties to a minimum.

I have directed the defense agencies to review the situation here thoroughly. I told them to be sure that everything possible is done to make the conversion process work smoothly. I don't propose to let the workingmen of Detroit suffer any unemployment that can be avoided. I don't propose to let their know-how, which is one of our greatest national assets, be wasted by unemployment in the middle of this immense defense program.

In working on this problem the defense agencies have been getting a lot of help from some of your able union leaders, who have been making very constructive suggestions. Detroit manufacturers have also offered some first-class ideas. And I want to assure you that Charlie Wilson, and the Department of Defense, and the other defense agencies are just as concerned about this problem as you are, and are doing their best to solve it.

One reason I am sure they are going to keep on doing their best is because of your new Senator, Blair Moody. That fellow is a go-getter, and he bothers nearly everybody in Washington to death, trying to get things for Detroit.

This problem of conversion unemployment will be with us for some months. But we will do all we can to keep it down, while defense production is taking up the slack. Our defense program is going to roll ahead bigger and bigger as we move toward our goals of national security and world peace.

This past year has been a period of challenge. It has tested all we have done since the end of World War II to bring about peace in the world. Aggression in Korea was aimed at the whole idea of the United Nations. It was the purpose of the aggressors to pick off one free nation after another. They intended to create fear in the hearts of the free peoples, and to force them to submit to Communist domination and control.

We could have given up in face of that attack. We could have abandoned the United Nations and torn up the charter. We could have retreated into a hopeless and fearful isolationism, just as we did after the First World War. But this time we didn't do that.

This time we went forward. With our allies, we met the challenge. And today the United Nations is a going concern--stronger than ever. Today the charter means more than it ever did. It has been tested by fire and sword. Today it offers real protection to the free nations of the world. The free nations have made their determination clear. We will not give in to aggression. Our plans for world peace still stand.

We will never quit in the fight for world peace.

The Communists have asked for talks looking toward a settlement of the Korean conflict. Those talks are in progress. We do not yet know whether the Communists really desire peace in Korea or whether they are simply trying to gain by negotiations what they have not been able to gain by conquest. We intend to find that out. The talks can be successful if the Communists are in fact ready to give up aggression in Korea.

But whatever happens in Korea, we must not make the mistake of jumping to the conclusion that the Soviet rulers have given up their ideas of world conquest. They may talk about peace, but it is action that counts.

What they have been doing is quite clear. They are putting themselves in a position where they can commit new acts of aggression at any time. Why right now, for example, the armed forces of the Soviet satellites are rapidly being brought to a peak of military readiness.

In the last several months the satellite countries in Eastern Europe have been forced by the Kremlin to reorganize their armies. The size of these armies has been increased, and modern Russian equipment is being furnished to them in large quantities.

We know that Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary now have armed forces far greater than those allowed under the peace treaties they signed in 1947. That is one of our difficulties in dealing with Soviets of any kind, they have no respect for signed treaties or their given word.

We know also that Rumania recently ordered the inhabitants moved out of a stretch of land 30 miles wide, along the Yugoslav border. Bulgaria and Hungary have done the same thing. Military preparations have been going on in those zones along the border. Actions like these are certainly no indication of peaceful intentions.

In the Far East the situation is much the same. The North Koreans and the Chinese Communists--so-called volunteers--are getting a steady flow of new equipment from the Soviet Union for ground and air use.

The Russians themselves have more than 4 million men under arms in Europe and the Far East. There are heavy concentrations of Soviet air, land, and sea forces in the Russian provinces along the Manchurian border, across from Japan, and across from Alaska.

As your President, I am telling you that the dangers in other parts of the world are just as great as they are in Korea. Every day reports come to my desk about Soviet military preparations around the world. If every one of you could see these reports and receive this same information, you would give up any thought that danger is over. You would be just as anxious as I am to see that this country builds up its armed forces, equips them with the most modern weapons, and helps to arm our allies.

Don't let anyone confuse you about this. We cannot let down our guard, no matter what happens in Korea.

The free world must have armed strength--the free world must have it now-not in reserve, not later, but now. We must have men, ships, planes, tanks, and bombs-on hand--ready for any emergency. And if we have them, we won't have to use them.

We hope and believe that we will not have to use the armed strength we are building up. Our aim is to put an end to war. But we know that unless we have armed strength we cannot put out the fires of aggression that threaten the peace of the world at this time.

The aim of this administration is world peace. My term in office is dedicated to bringing us closer to that goal. Our great chance lies in building up such strength and unity among the free nations that the Kremlin will have to drop its plans of aggression and subversion. When we reach that point, there can be peace between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world, They can have peace any time they want it.

I know of only two alternatives to this policy, and the American people have rejected both of them. One is to start a world war now, with all its horrible and unforeseeable consequences. Some people would like to do that. The other is to withdraw and isolate ourselves. That means surrendering the rest of the world to Soviet communism. Neither of these alternatives could possibly lead to peace.

Peace is the purpose of our defense program. Peace is what this great production job is all about.

We have the resources, the morale, the economic strength, to do this job. And we are going to do it!

We have this great strength because the people and the Government have been working together for the welfare of all Americans. We have this strength because we have been working for equality of opportunity and economic security for all our citizens. We have helped our farmers and our workers to reach higher and higher living standards; we have developed our natural resources for everybody's benefit. And because the welfare of the people has been our first concern, our business and industry have grown and expanded tremendously.

That is our record. That is why we stand before the world as the strongest of the free nations. That is why we have the opportunity to lead mankind to peace.

There are a lot of people in this country, however, who are trying to shake our confidence in ourselves. They want us to see ourselves not as we really are, but as they see us through their own dark glasses of fear and lack of faith. They say we cannot do the job we have set out to do.

Those people tell us we can't afford to build up our defenses because it will cost too much. They say we will go bankrupt if we carry out our program. They say we will ruin our economy.

Of course, all these howls about bankruptcy are old stuff. We have heard them time and time again. Those who are saying we cannot afford our peace program and aid to our allies abroad, are the very same ones who have been saying all along that we couldn't afford to do anything for the American people here at home.

They said we couldn't afford social security and unemployment compensation. They said we couldn't afford aid to agriculture. They said we couldn't afford TVA, and the Grand Coulee Dam, and rural electrification.

They say, today, that we can't afford housing for low-income families and veterans and defense workers.

They say we can't afford dams and reservoirs to produce electric power for defense and to prevent flood disasters. They say we can't afford the St. Lawrence Seaway to open the Great Lakes to the ocean shipping and to bring new iron ore to the steel mills in the Middle West. There never was a project in the history of the country more badly needed than the St. Lawrence Seaway.

You all know what this sort of false economizing means. It means economic stagnation and depression and ruin. It means suffering and loss for thousands of families.

Those people who are forever saying that we can't do anything because it will bankrupt us, are looking at the future through the wrong end of the telescope. If we had listened to them in the past we would never have developed the strong America we have today.

If we listen to them now, and cramp our defense program, we will not be able to defend our country, or have peace in the world.

Strong defenses are not going to bankrupt us, any more than domestic progress has bankrupted us. We can well afford to pay the price of peace.

The only alternative is to pay the terrible cost of war.

The doubters and defeatists have now taken up another battle cry. They are now saying that Americans cannot trust each other. They are trying to stir up trouble and suspicion between the people and their Government.

They are using the smear and the big lie for personal publicity and partisan advantage, heedless of the damage they do to the country. Never, not even in the bitterest political campaigns--and I have been through many a one--have I seen such a flood of lies and slander as is now pouring forth over the country.

Now, listen to this one: this malicious propaganda has gone so far that on the Fourth of July, over in Madison, Wis., people were afraid to say they believed in the Declaration of Independence. A hundred and twelve people were asked to sign a petition that contained nothing except quotations from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. One hundred and eleven of these people refused to sign that paper-many of them because they were afraid it was some kind of subversive document and that they would lose their jobs or be called Communists.

Can you imagine!--finding a hundred and eleven people in the capital of Wisconsin that didn't know what the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights provided ? I can't imagine it.

Think of it, in the capital of the State of Wisconsin, on the Fourth of July this year 1951, good Americans were afraid to sign their names to the language of the Declaration of Independence. Think of that, in the home State of two of America's greatest liberal and progressive Senators, Robert M. LaFollette, and Robert, Junior.

Now that's what comes of all these lies, and smears and fear campaigns. That's what comes when people are told they can't trust their own government.

But I say to you that people can trust their Government. This Government is working for the people in foreign affairs just as it has always worked for the people in domestic affairs. Our foreign policy and our defense effort are guided by one great purpose--to protect the welfare of the American people, now and in the future. That's what your Government has been doing here at home. That's what we are doing now in every move we make, not only at home, but all over the world.

Don't let yourselves be confused by the smearers and the slanderers. There are three things I want you to remember:

First, this country is on the right track in foreign affairs. We have a goal--and that is peace in the world. We have a way to reach that goal--and that is the middle way between world war on one side and surrender to communism on the other.

Second, we are making progress toward that goal. The growing defenses of this country, the increasing strength and unity of the free nations, the set-back to aggression in Korea--all these show the progress we are making.

Third, we cannot reach that goal of peace if we falter now. We must not let up because we have made some progress. We must not be turned back by cries of bankruptcy, or by efforts to create fear and suspicion among American citizens. We are going right ahead and do what we set out to do. The people of the United States are going forward to peace.

Now, I wish some of these doubters and defeatists would come out here to Detroit and take a look around. I would like them to look at these great factories, and this industrial power, and see here the answer of a free people to tyranny in any shape or form. And I would like to ask them to look beyond the machines of Detroit--to the people who make up this great city.

Here are the men and women from every part of our country, and from dozens of nations throughout the world, working together as only free people can work together. In this great American city, the ultimate power lies with the people. The political power lies with the people and the economic power lies with the people.

This is America, and in America working men and women have a voice in their destinies-in their conditions of work and in the course their country shall follow.

There are many of you who trace your origins to Poland or Hungary or other countries now behind the Iron Curtain. You know how the people of those countries are suffering today. You know what has happened to their churches, their schools, their trade unions, and to their homes and their farms.

You can be sure that you are remembered in those countries now under the yoke of slavery. You can be sure that the people there look to you--and to all of us--as examples of what freedom means, and as a source of hope for better lives for themselves.

Here in this city, throughout America, we have a great task to perform. It is up to us, acting together as free men, to build up our defenses against aggression, to inspire and help other free men to defend themselves against tyranny, to give hope and courage to those who are now oppressed, to open the way to a better day for the world-a day of peace and security and freedom.

On this anniversary of the beginning of one of the greatest American cities, let us all pledge ourselves anew to carry out this task, with determination, with faith in God who alone can give us the will and courage to see it through.