Address at the Jefferson Day Dinner.

Mr. Speaker--to me you will always be Mr. Speaker--fellow Democrats:

Our meeting together this evening carries forward an old party custom. In this annual tribute to the memory of Thomas Jefferson, we, who are members of the party he founded--the Democratic Party--take great pride and feel deep satisfaction.

We know that as long as we remain free, the spirit of Thomas Jefferson lives in America. His spirit is the spirit of freedom. We are heartened by the knowledge that the light he kindled a century and a half ago shines today, in the United States. It shines even more strongly and steadily than in his time. What was then an untried faith is now a living reality.

But we know that no class, no party, no nation, has a monopoly on Jefferson's principles- Out of the silence of oppressed peoples, out of the despair of those who have lost freedom, there comes to us an expression of longing. Repeated again and again, in many tongues, from many directions, it is a plea of men, women, and children for the freedom that Thomas Jefferson proclaimed as an inalienable right.

When we hear the cry for freedom arising from the shores beyond our own, we can take heart from the words of Thomas Jefferson. In his letter to President Monroe, urging the adoption of what we now know as the Monroe Doctrine, he wrote:

"Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers of declaring our protest against the atrocious violations of the rights of nations by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of another."

We, like Jefferson, have witnessed atrocious violations of the rights of nations.

We, too, have regarded them as occasions not to be slighted.

We, too, have declared our protest.

We must make that protest effective by aiding those peoples whose freedoms are endangered by foreign pressures.

We must take a positive stand. It is no longer enough merely to say "we don't want war." We must act in time--ahead of time--to stamp out the smoldering beginnings of any conflict that may threaten to spread over the world.

We know how the fire starts. We have seen it before--aggression by the strong against the weak, openly by the use of armed force and secretly by infiltration. We know how the fire spreads. And we know how it ends.

Let us not underestimate the task before us. The burden of our responsibility today is greater, even considering the size and resources of our expanded Nation, than it was in the time of Jefferson and Monroe. For the peril to man's freedom that existed then exists now on a much smaller earth--an earth whose broad oceans have shrunk and whose natural protections have been taken away by new weapons of destruction.

What is the responsibility that we must assume ?

Our responsibility is to stand guard before the edifice of lasting peace which, after so long a time, is at last being built.

That edifice is the United Nations.

The function of the United Nations is to quench the flames wherever they may break out; to watch throughout the world and extinguish every spark that comes from a difference between governments; to do this, if possible, through the machinery of peaceful arbitration, but to do it in any case. This is so, even if armed conflict must be prevented by the use of an international police force.

We believe that formula is sound and workable. Our faith in it is strong and resolute. The United Nations is man's hope of putting out, and keeping out, the fires of war for all time. In supporting the United Nations we must, when necessary, supplement its activities. By aiding free nations to maintain their freedom we strengthen the United Nations in the performance of its functions.

The foreign policy of this country transcends in importance any other question confronting us. It would be fatal if it were to become the subject of narrow political consideration.

Our foreign policy must not be wrecked on the rocks of partisanship.

United support of a policy that serves the interests of the Nation as a whole must be our aim.

I wish to commend the efforts of those members of both parties who have worked, side by side, to achieve this goal.

To meet the responsibilities placed upon us today this Nation must be strong. A strong United States means a country that maintains a military power commensurate with its responsibilities. It means a country of sound domestic economy. It means a country that holds its place in the forefront of industrial production and continues its leadership in creating the techniques of abundance. It means, most of all, a strong, united, confident people, clear in the knowledge of their country's destiny, unshaken and unshakable in their resolve to live in a world of free peoples at peace.

No matter how great our military potential may be, military potential alone is not enough. It is necessary that we maintain sufficient military strength to convince the world that we intend to meet our responsibilities.

Now, what of our domestic economy? How strong are we at home?

As we appraise our domestic scene--our mighty array of factories, mines, farms, producing at or near capacity, and with employment at an all time high--our doubts, if we had any, are put at rest. We are viewing a panorama of prosperity--such prosperity as no generation of Americans before us ever experienced.

You may recall hearing dire predictions, in the last year and a half--predictions that the United States was heading into an economic crackup, predictions of glutted markets, of a great deflationary plunge. It is significant that the most pessimistic cries of calamity came from men who had little confidence in our American system of free enterprise.

They were wrong in their predictions. They were wrong because they do not understand the strength of our system of free competitive enterprise. Under that system, each man is free to go where he likes, to follow the calling of his choice, and to be rewarded in proportion to the productivity of the effort or the property he contributes. Insofar as we insure that each individual has the opportunity and inducement to make the largest contribution he can to this country's total production, we not only strengthen our Nation against any possible encroachments, but we also set an example to all other peoples of the desirability of free government in the economic as well as the political sense.

Our country's financial stamina was tested in the recent war as it had never been tested before. But in spite of the tremendous cost of the war, we emerged with our financial leadership in the economic world greater than ever before. Beyond making our best effort to eliminate waste in the conduct of the war, the cost of the war was not a matter within our power to control. We emerged bearing a burden of debt, representing that cost, and what we do with that burden is a question of tremendous import, but fortunately it is a question that we have the power to decide for ourselves.

The first decision that we made was to reduce Federal Government spending as quickly as possible.

The extent of retrenchments by the Government is shown by the record.

In the fiscal year 1945 the Federal Government spent $100 billion. In 1946 we cut expenditures to $64 billion. In 1947 we have further reduced expenditures to an estimated figure of $42 billion. The budget for the next fiscal year, which I have sent to the Congress, totals $37.5 billion.

Not only have we greatly reduced expenditures, but we have made tremendous progress toward the elimination of deficits.

In the fiscal year 1945, the Federal Government had a deficit of over $53 billion. In the fiscal year 1946 it was in the red about $21 billion. But now we have worked our way into the black, and I am happy to be able to say tonight that for the present fiscal year 1947 we shall balance the budget and we shall have a surplus. That was done without any Republican help!

I am determined that stringent economy shall govern all peacetime operations of the Government.

When the several departments and agencies were called upon, a few months ago, to submit their requests for funds for the coming fiscal year, they were told of my determination.

They responded by eliminating many of their former activities. This was not enough. When the estimates were in, I went over them, making further substantial reductions. When I finished, these department estimates had been reduced by a total of some $7 billion under their original level.

I was warned by some that I was going too far. I was aware of the risk. But I was aware, too, of the greater risk of a weakened postwar financial structure. I knew that in the public interest, sacrifices of some Government services had to be made.

The result was a budget of $37.5 billion. That figure marked the borderline beyond which we could not reduce the activities of our Government without entering the area of false economy. In other words, further so-called "economies" would not have been economies at all. They would merely have meant curtailment of services that would cost our taxpayers--all taxpayers--more than the reduction in cost that appeared on the surface.

You, my fellow citizens, are properly cautious of false economy in your daily lives. If the foundation of your house needs repair, or if the roof leaks, you know that you are wasting money, not saving it, by failing to make that repair.

So with Government. If we abandon our work of reclamation, of soil conservation, of preserving our forests, of developing our water resources, we are wasting money, not saving it. If we cease our vigilance along the borders of our country and at our ports of entry, we are wasting money, not saving it. If we falsely economize by reducing the staff of men and women who audit tax returns, or who increase the country's productivity by settling labor disputes, we are wasting money, not saving it. If we cut down the effectiveness of our Armed Forces, we run the risk of wasting both money and lives.

Any substantial reduction of the 1948 Federal budget, as submitted to the Congress, must be clearly understood by the American people as a venture into false economy. To the extent that we countenance any such reduction, we shall weaken our own house by our refusal to keep it in basic repair. At best, this is poor judgment. At worst, it is an invitation to disaster.

The second decision we must make, affecting the strength and health of our economy, concerns the public debt. We must resolve to begin the long process of reducing that debt, which represents a large part of the cost of winning World War II. That debt amounts to almost $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

In deciding whether we shall start substantial payment on the debt, or whether we shall reduce taxes instead, we are deciding a question which will affect the future of every one of us. Our decision will affect the number of jobs in the future, the wages men and women will earn, what those wages will buy, and how much our savings, our insurance, and our bonds will be worth.

We, as a Nation, are now having prosperous years. This is the time when we must start paying off the debt in earnest. When a man is earning good wages, and at the same time owes a lot of money, he is wise if he uses his excess income to pay off his debts. He would be shortsighted if he cut his income just because he was not spending it all at the moment. When the people, through their Government, owe a lot of money--as we do today--it is the course of wisdom to make payment on our debt. It would be extremely shortsighted to cut down the Federal revenue without making a real effort toward debt reduction.

I recognize, frankly, that the present burden of taxation on our people is too heavy to be considered as permanent, and at a proper time I will support tax reduction and tax readjustment designed to reduce the burden and to adjust that burden to the needs of a peacetime economy.

In further evaluating the strength of our domestic economy, I must express to you my deep concern over the level of prices prevailing today. A system of free enterprise does not automatically work out its own adjustments without our giving thought to the process.

The main factor that can weaken our economy at this time is our own selfishness-the kind of selfishness which is now expressed in the form of unnecessarily high prices for many commodities and for many manufactured articles. These prices must be brought down if our entire economy is not to suffer.

With the exception of a very few items, all price controls have been removed. But freedom from such controls, like other freedoms, cannot be abused with impunity. A profound moral responsibility rests upon those citizens whose decisions have widespread effect on our markets--to put it simply, the responsibility of playing fair, of not going whole hog for profits. The alternative is inflation, industry priced out of the market and, eventually, men priced out of their jobs.

The world today looks to us for leadership.

The force of events makes it necessary that we assume that role.

This is a critical period of our national life. The process of adapting ourselves to the new concept of our world responsibility is naturally a difficult and painful one. The cost is necessarily great.

It is not our nature to shirk our obligations. We have a heritage that constitutes the greatest resource of this Nation. I call it the spirit and character of the American people.

We are the people who gave the world George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

We are a people who not only cherish freedom and defend it, if need be with our lives, but we also recognize the right of other men and other nations to share it.

While the struggle for the rights of man goes forward in other parts of the world, the free people of America cannot look on with easy detachment, with indifference to the outcome.

In our effort to make permanent the peace of the world, we have much to preserve-much to improve--and much to pioneer.

As we strive to reach the fulfillment of our quest we will do well to recall the words of Thomas Jefferson:

"I have sworn, upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."