Address at the Iowa State Fair at Des Moines

Governor Beardsley, President Hoover, distinguished guests, and my friends :

Before I shall try to communicate to you the thoughts that crowd my mind, I want to straighten out one little announcement of which I thought, on the way out here. I saw in a squib in the paper that there was some anxiety, if not irritation, because it was said I was not going to pay my fifty cents to get into the Fair. Now, on behalf of a former President of the United States and myself, I hereby tender to Governor Beardsley one dollar, and hope that he will pass it on to the proper authorities. [Laughter]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the very first time in my life that I ever paid anything for the privilege of making a speech. [Laughter] But today I am so honored to do so that it would be worth many times the price.

I truly feel a deep sense of distinction in being privileged to meet with this gathering. I know of some of the statistics that are quoted by Iowans to prove that their State is the greatest of all. I have two very special reasons. First, it is the native State of one of the truly great Americans, Mr. Hoover. And, very important to me, it is the native State of Mamie Doud Eisenhower. And if I should have failed to say that, I don't think I should have gone home this evening.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, in this day and time, when our hearts are troubled about incidents that daily appear in our press, there are a thousand subjects of which I could speak briefly to you. And in doing so, I might be able to impart to you something of the urgency your Government feels in dealing with the problems that are so important to all of us.

I think I shall talk for just a few moments about the world in which we live: about foreign things. Now, I know that primarily, and from an economic standpoint, Iowa is interested, first of all, in agriculture. So is all the United States. All of us well know without a prosperous agriculture there is no prosperity in America. And you also know that without a prosperous America there is no prosperity for the farmer. And from this kind of reasoning, and this observation, it takes no mental leap at all to understand that without very close and proper relations with a great portion of the world there is no prosperity for any of us. Because, not only do we need imports from other nations, in order that we may have tractors, all of our steel--rubber--tin--and many other things, but we must export. We must export to them the surpluses which keep our economy sound, progressive, and expanding. And from those people we must buy the things with which they can pay for these exports.

Now, I am not going to talk about that particular phase of our foreign relations, the trade and economic phases. I merely want to talk about this: the absolute, utter necessity of every American taking thought about our relations with the world.

Why do we have friends? We are strong, and we are mighty. We are rich. With 6 percent of the world's population, we have so much of the world's resources, our industries, our agriculture is so productive, that we astonish the world.

Why, then, must we have friends? We know that today the central core of the great world problem is the aggressive intent of international communism. If the free world does not hang together, then the unity of communism, achieved by force, by the use of the police outside your door and the spy inside your home, that unity will take one nation at a time, beginning with the most exposed, and subdue it. If this process should be continued, and we made no effort to stop it, eventually the American continent, the American hemisphere--finally, possibly, North America, would be an isolated island of freedom in a sea of communism. Such a picture does not have to be long held up in front of us, before we understand that we must never let it occur.

We shall not let it occur.

Now, in the conduct of foreign affairs for this great nation of 160 million people, there are successes and there are setbacks. The Iranian oil dispute that has been settled sufficiently so that that country is again oriented toward the West, and marching with us. This great portion of the oil reserves of the world no longer seems in weekly danger of falling to our enemies and excluding us from it.

Incidentally, I should like to pay a tribute to the son of President Hoover, for his great success as a diplomat in handling the American end of that difficult negotiation. I might say I have been lucky enough, also, to recruit him for service.

Another place where we have had a success is in the Suez Canal. There, a situation that looked as if it could cause us a great difficulty-all the free world--seems to be amicably settled, and with the protection of all the interests of the Western World.

The first open, specific attempt of international communism to establish a beachhead on this continent has been repulsed by the majority of the people of Guatemala, and proving again that people who have tasted freedom will not willingly submit to the regimentation of the Red dictatorship.

We have had our setbacks. One of the major setbacks was reported in your papers today: the rejection by the French parliament of the French proposition to establish in Europe the European Defense Community. This was a device, my friends, whereby the free world could establish, without indulging in the traditional fights among themselves in Western Europe, security from any threat from without. This proposal was established to allow Germany--Western Germany--to enter into defensive alliances without any danger whatsoever that it would be in position to start a war or, indeed, to engage in any kind of aggression.

Because of these characteristics of this plan, the United States, Great Britain, and all the Western nations stood for it, and approved this great French plan. Now, there is no disguising the fact that this is a serious setback. But what I want to say to you people is this: the free world is still overwhelmingly strong as compared to the Iron Curtain countries, in the people we have, in their levels of intelligence and understanding, in their skills, in agriculture, and in industry; in their free adherence to a cause, rather than in regimented adherence to a government. Finally, in their tremendous productivity; and indeed, in sum total, in their military might.

All that this world needs--this free world needs to be safe, is a united approach to the problem of security and defense.

Now this does not mean that we expect every nation--every friend-to agree with us, no more than in any one family everybody is always in perfect agreement. We do not expect, always, to agree with them, because this is a characteristic of free life--a free family--a free city--a free State--a free world, as to arguments. But we do adhere to basic principles.

America is strong because we believe in the dignity of man. We believe in the federated plan of forty-eight States. We believe in free enterprise. We are strong because we believe in basic things. Then we argue with all our might about the details, and about the methods. It is in that sense that the free world must be strong.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the reason that every American has a duty, a duty to himself and to his country: to study these other nations-their cultures, their histories, their aspirations, their fears, their hopes. In this great field there can be no such thing in America as partisanship. There can be nothing except an American attitude, an attitude that preserves continuity, because it represents the hearts and minds of the American people.

Let us not speak of labels.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I find, in talking to many Americans on an individual basis, that they say to me: yes, I know that this job of foreign relations is probably the most important thing facing this great country. We want no more war. We are thankful to our God that after all these 20 years, at least the sounds of battlefields are stilled everywhere. We don't want to send our sons to war--our brothers--our husbands.

But what can I do?

I say: grasp enough of this problem that you know the basic principles to which you are adhering, that freedom cannot be divided. If we will be free ourselves, we must be ready to help defend the freedom of those who want to remain free. It is not divisible. We must be united.

Remind yourselves of the strength of America. Think of her spiritual strength that we have inherited, not only from our parents at their knees as we said our prayers, but we inherited from our Founding Fathers the system they gave to us. Remember our schools, our industries, our productivity, the great strength that 160 million people can generate.

When we have our setbacks we are disappointed. But we must not be discouraged.

America has never quit in something that was good for herself, and the world.

We will not quit now. We shall never do so.

In this atomic age, we have tried our best to share with all the world certain of the secrets that we thought, in such sharing, would bring to all the world an understanding that this new science can be devoted to the good of the world, as well as to the destruction of humanity.

We shall continue to try. In this, as in all other things, we cannot, we must not, admit defeat. In this new age, the thing we must hold before us is this: with American faith, with American brief, with American know-how, with our readiness to understand our fellow man and work with him, it can open before the world a true golden age of our civilization.

We need not despair. We must not.

And so, the opportunity to say some of these things to you this evening, at the very moment when this one setback has occurred, makes me feel better.

You inspire me, I assure you--because when I see America represented like this, how can you be fainthearted? It can't be done.

Now, my friends, Mr. Hoover and I have a very important date with a few finny comrades up in the high Rockies, and it is about time we were getting along.

If I have held you here too long, my apologies; but I repeat: for myself and my party this has been a very great honor, one all of us shall long remember.

Good night.