Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Pennsylvania and Ohio

[1.] PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA (From the Freedom Train, 6:25 p.m.)

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:

This is indeed a surprise to me. I started this train off in Washington just about a year ago; and I'm happy to be present in Pittsburgh on its anniversary.

I am informed that it has been in something over 300 towns and that something like 2,700,000 people have been through it. It's an education in itself and I want to advise everyone who has not seen it to go through it and get an education on the history of the United States. It has documents in it that w-ill convince you that your Government is the greatest and the best Government in the world, if you don't already believe that way.

There is the original document of the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, the Constitution of the United States, and many others, too numerous for me to mention this evening.

I certainly do appreciate this privilege. This stands for real Americanism, real patriotism. You can't help but be a happy person after you walk through this train and see what all our interests have been-the welfare and the right of the individual, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.

We have a system in which we believe that the Government is for the benefit of the individual. There are other systems which make the individual subject to the whims of the Government. We've been fighting for that ever since 1776, for the welfare and the benefit of the individual.

We have the greatest Government in the world. We have the greatest country in the world. We have the most powerful country in the world. Let's live up to our ideals and keep working for that peace which all of us want so badly. We want peace in the world and justice to every individual in every nation in the world. That's what we fought two world wars for. I'm hoping, and I've always been hopeful, that we would eventually reach that ideal condition where the United Nations would represent the world as the United States represents the Government of the United States.

Thank you very much.

[2.] CRESTLINE, OHIO (Rear platform, 10:30 p.m.)

Thank you very much, Mr. Congressman. I hope you will be the next Congressman from this district.

I have just received a confirmation of a very sad incident. The United Nations Mediator in Palestine was assassinated today.

It is a pleasure to be with you tonight. It is a great deal of 'pleasure to me to visit with you people tonight in this lovely, peaceful American city--especially true tonight after what I have just told you. This is the first opportunity I have had to speak since I received the official confirmation of the tragic death of Count Bernadotte, the Mediator of the United Nations in Palestine. I am saddened and shocked. His death emphasizes again the difficulties in our efforts to secure liberties under law to all the peoples in the world. We know that through orderly world organization we must seek liberties like those we hold precious in towns such as this beautiful city in Ohio. Tonight in Crestline we take courage for our continuing efforts to reach such liberties everywhere.

My faith remains unshaken that we shall achieve a peaceful settlement of the problems in the Middle East. And I am hopeful that we will be successful in the peaceful settlement of the problems in all the rest of the world.

You know, we have fought two long, bitter wars to establish liberties in the world, which we enjoy here as a matter of right, and about which we think very little. Most of us are not appreciative of the Government under which we live until a tragedy such as that which took place today brings it home to us that what we have is liberty of the individual. We have a peaceful country in which to live. We have rights, which protect us from the infringement of the Government on those rights. That is what we fought two great world wars to attain in the world.

It was my duty, immediately after I was sworn in as President of the United States on April 12, 1945, to decide whether the conference to organize the United Nations should go forward in San Francisco or not, on the 25th of April. That was the first decision I had to make. I made the decision and the United Nations was organized as a going concern. We must implement the principle set out in the Charter of the United Nations so that we can have world peace, and so that we can maintain world peace.

In order to maintain that peace we must continue to be a strong nation, and that is what I have advocated ever since I have been President of the United States.

I want to thank you most sincerely for this wonderful turnout. I appreciate it most highly. This is the second time within a short time that I have been in your wonderful city, and I hope it won't be the last time. Thank you very much.