Remarks in Kansas City at the Dedication of the Organized Reserve Corps Armory.

General Groves, Monsignor Tiernan, privates, sergeants, and colonels and generals:

It is a pleasure indeed for me to be here this afternoon for this occasion. I have had some interest in the military since 1905-that is before most of you can remember. But, you know, in a country such as ours, the civilian background for the military is absolutely essential.

I was a lieutenant in the National Guard of Missouri when the First World War started, after having been a private and a corporal and a sergeant. I never was a second lieutenant, much to my regret. When I was promoted from the rear rank to the front rank, and when I got my warrant as a corporal, I think that was the proudest day I ever spent in the military. I can't very well appreciate this high honor that has come to me as President of the United States and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. I try to exercise it as I would ideally hope a civilian would.

You know, the original greatness of Rome depended upon her citizen soldiery. When Rome's support became mercenary, and when the emperors controlled the military as military organizations to keep the Republic from functioning, then Rome was on the road to ruin and its downfall.

In this day of ours we believe in the citizen as the support of the Government, and it is the duty of every citizen in times of emergency to support his Government in any place that the Government feels that is necessary.

In the military we believe that there should be a trained civilian force to back up the regular army, the regular navy, and the regular air force, and to fill in those organizations at the proper time for the salvation of the Republic. That is the way we have handled it ever since the Republic was born.

In 1792 General Washington asked for a military training program and it looks as if in 1951, we may get it. That is really moving along! But it is a step in the right direction, and I know that it will be a great contributor in the salvation of this Republic.

I want to see this Republic continue for all time, for this reason, that we are founded on a principle that no other country in the history of the world has been founded on. We are founded on the ideal that the Government is the servant of the individual, and that it is not the master of the individual.

That is what we are fighting for now. That is what the cold war is for. That is what I was talking about in San Francisco on Monday night.

I hope you will take that to heart; and I hope you young men, who are willing to spend some time studying the military in your off hours from your regular jobs, will continue to do just that.

After the First World War, in 1920, I called together 75 Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine former officers in World War I, at an eating place on Baltimore Avenue known as Morton's. You couldn't even find the place where it was now, unless you knew at that time where it was. We organized the first Reserve Officers Association of the United States. And from that Reserve association grew associations all over the country, and the organization of regiments, and companies, and battalion reserves.

Now, the National Guard serves one purpose in the civilian army, and the Reserves another, but they are coordinated and they work together, as I hope all the military will from this time on.

That was the first unification program, in the year 1920. It was my privilege to implement the real unification program years and years after that, when I became President of the United States.

It is a pleasure for me to be here this afternoon, to take part in the dedication of this training center for citizen soldiers. I am happy to have been invited to do it.

Thank you very much.