Remarks at a Masonic Breakfast.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, and Mr. Speaker:

I am going to make an exception in the Speaker. The people that have been introduced to you this morning are the "Missouri gang." There is not a man at this table or that table, except the Speaker, that I haven't appointed to office. You have had a pretty good look at them, and there are just two Missourians among them: I thought you ought to know that and that they come from all over the United States. People sometimes get some wrong impressions of the setup and the organization that runs the Government of the United States.

The most powerful man in the Government of the United States, except the President himself, is sitting right here: the Speaker of the House. And I have to be polite to him all the time. And that's not hard to do. He and I have been friends ever since I can remember meeting him, a long time ago in Texas, when he was just an ordinary Congressman; he wasn't even a chairman of a committee at that time. And I have been proud to be a friend of his, and have him for a friend of mine ever since.

Now, this breakfast that frank Land gives us once a year is one of the nicest things that happens to the President, for the simple reason that it gives him a chance to be himself, which is not very often.

The President of the United States is charged with being the most powerful Executive in the world. He is the head of the most powerful nation in the world, but the Office of the President of the United States is a public relations office. He doesn't very often exercise the powers that are delegated to him in the Constitution and by the laws which he is sworn to support and defend and protect. He spends most of his time talking kindly and giving lectures to people and begging them to do what they ought to do without being begged. Those are the powers of the President.

Just to give you an example, the chairman introduced the press secretary but didn't tell you what his office was. Mr. Short is the Press Secretary, and he is a native of Mississippi, and he got his public relations education on the Baltimore Sun. And he is a good press secretary, and he succeeded a wonderful one, Charles G. Ross. I went to school with him. He was one of the real Missouri gang, Charlie was. And I saw the other day where the Post-Dispatch had presented a picture and erected a memorial to him in Columbia, Mo., where Charlie was the dean of the School of Journalism. Now that is quite an admission for the great Post-Dispatch to make, because they are not very fond of me.

And the fellow next to Mr. Short is my correspondence secretary, whose title frank Land did not give. And the correspondence secretary is an indispensable man around the White House. He decides on what days to celebrate, and what messages we will send to organizations, such as this, to make them feel that the President has got a personal interest in them. And he is a genius at it-he makes them believe it.

And John Steelman there is The Assistant to the President. He does a lot of things that the President couldn't get done if he had to do them himself. You see, the President's day starts at 5:30 in the morning and it ends about 11 o'clock at night--and then he is not through, he begins doing a lot of things that none of you would believe he has to do.

A counselor for the President is Mr. Murphy. He works with the Attorney General and all the legal lights in the various departments. Every one of these gentlemen here who is chairman of a commission has a counselor. And it is the duty of Mr. Murphy to see that the counselors of these various organizations understand to some extent what the President is trying to do. Most of them do, some of them don't. It is Murphy's job to see that they do understand it.

Then the President has an appointment secretary, who happens to be a native of the great State of Massachusetts. He was a part of the organization that helped the Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program in the Second World War work successfully. He did such a good job there, that when it became necessary for me to take the oath of office as President, I brought him along to the White House to keep the door for me. And he does a remarkable job in doing that. He can make every one of you Masons believe that he is a Mason, and he can make every Knight of Columbus believe that he is a Knight of Columbus, and he can make every Knight of Pythias believe he is a Knight of Pythias. It doesn't make any difference what sort of organization comes there for entrance, Matt knows all about how to treat them, and what to do with them and whether to let them in or not. And "or not" is the most usual answer, for the simple reason that if the President saw everybody that wants to see him, he would work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and wouldn't get anything else done.

And it is the duty of all these gentlemen that I have been talking about, and all these heads of these departments, and the military and naval and air aides, to see that the business of the Government is carried on in a manner that will get the best results. And it is an all day and nearly an all night job. And just between you and me and the gatepost, I like it.

When a man has to work 17 hours a day, there isn't much chance of his getting into devilment, and for that reason you all wonder why I can be gay and healthy after all the bricks and stones and mud and things that are thrown my way. It is because I work all the time, and because I think I am doing something to help the people of this Nation to live better than they otherwise would live, and also because the efforts that are now being put forth are in the hope that eventually we will have a peaceful world.

There isn't any reason why we shouldn't have a peaceful world. There is enough room, enough potential production in the world so that everybody in it could live reasonably well, and could love his neighbor and do to his neighbor as he would be done by himself.

That is the fundamental basis on which I work. I believe in the Sermon on the Mount. I think it is the fundamental basis of free government. We got most of our laws and most of our information on how to live from that old Hebrew Testament, the first five books of Moses. And if you know your Masonic history as you should, you will find that that is the foundation of your organization, those first five books of Moses known as the Law and the Prophets.

There isn't a single degree in this organization that is not founded on some Scriptural basis. You talk about the deep dark secrets of free Masonry, I don't know what they are, and I have had every degree that there is to offer, and I have been the Grand Master of my own State, and if there are any secrets that anybody oughtn't to know. I don't know what they are.

It is merely a manner of living with your neighbor, doing to him as you would be done by yourself.

Now this year is leap year, and it is a most important year in the history of the Government of the United States. I was listening to Sam Rayburn, the Speaker, talk about General Washington, what a grand man he was--and he was a great man. But do you know that when he went out of office, the principal paper in the great city of Philadelphia said that they were getting rid of the worst dictator the country ever had, it was a good thing he was going to retire, and they hoped they would never see him again. They attacked him so bitterly over the Jay Treaty and over Citizen Genet, and one or two other things, that that is the reason he retired instead of running for a third term.

It has taken 150 years to find out what the truth is, and what Jefferson actually believed. They called him a Jacobin, which was the name then for a Communist. And they also called him an atheist, and I don't know what else--which turned out not to be true.

Princeton University has discovered Jefferson, and they are going to work on him. When we get those 52 volumes that Princeton University is putting out, we will probably know the truth--I say probably know the truth about Jefferson.

Lincoln was, I think, about the most thoroughly abused man that ever was in the Presidential Office. I'll bet you could walk down the street--I'll bet you I could ask any half-dozen men in this audience who the principal speaker at Gettysburg was and you can't tell me. When Lincoln made his speech, which lasted about 3½ minutes, the editor of the New York Tribune and the editor of the Chicago Tribune said "the President of the United States also spoke, and made the usual ass out of himself." You didn't know that, but that is a fact.

So, you see, a fellow in this Office, if he is not roundly abused, doesn't do anything. You remember what they said about old Cleveland. He was another that was thoroughly and roundly abused, but after he was out of office for about 15 years, they said they loved him for the enemies he had made.

I hope you will love me for that same reason, when the time comes.

I don't like to make enemies. I like to make friends. I like to do things for people. But I like to do things that I think are right, I don't care whether anybody likes it or not. If I think it is right, I am going to do it.

I appreciate this privilege of meeting you all, and I appreciate frank Land's interest and efforts to put on this grand breakfast once a year. It is one of the things that I look forward to. A President doesn't have time to look forward to very much, not even in an election year.

I hope that you gentlemen who represent an organization that stands for peace and brotherhood will work as hard as you can to help attain a peace in the world that will be lasting, and that will open up for us the greatest age in the history of the world.

We have here the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. If that atomic release is carried to its proper conclusion--and I am sure it will be--we are facing the greatest age in history, not for destruction but for construction.

Let us work to that end, and forget about a lot of petty little things that look big today, but 50 years from now won't be any greater than the principal speaker at Gettysburg.