Remarks to the 63d Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Madam President, and members and friends of this great typically American Society:

It is a tremendous honor that you accord me by inviting me to appear before you, even though very informally and briefly. My first message is from Mrs. Eisenhower who, for once in a long lifetime, bowed to my wishes and remained at her little place of rest down in Georgia while I came to bring you greetings from the family.

I want to talk to you for a few moments from the standpoint of the application of the great principles for which this Society stands, which this Society supports, the application of those principles to today's life.

I think we would not have to go to any great length to describe what we mean by those basic principles. Our Founding Fathers in writing the Declaration of Independence put it in a nutshell when they said, "We hold that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain rights."

In that one phrase was created a political system which demands and requires that all men have equality of right before the law, that they are not treated differently merely because of social distinction, of money, of economic standing, indeed of intelligence of intellectual capacity, or anything else.

It acknowledges that man has a soul, and for that reason is equal to every other man, and that is the system, that is the principle--that is the cornerstone of what we call the American system.

There are, of course, dozens of auxiliary principles that go along with this one, but rip out this one and you have destroyed America, while many others could be at least revised, studied, and considered without necessarily damaging our whole governmental and political structure.

Now, how do we apply such a system in a world where there is present one great power complex that stands for the exact opposite? Remember, in the phrase I quoted to you, "Men are endowed by their Creator." Our system demands the Supreme Being. There is no question about the American system being the translation into the political world of a deeply felt religious faith.

The system that challenges us today is the atheistic. It is self-admitted as an atheistic document. They believe in a materialistic dialectic. In other words, there are no values except material values. It challenges us today in every corner of the globe.

Now, how do we approach Indochina, or debt management, or taxes, or France, or any other problem that looms up as important to us, in a world where no nation may live alone? How do we oppose the idea of the equality of men, which means group action by cooperation among men, as against this dictatorial, atheistic policy that treats men merely as an agent, as a pawn, as an atom, to be used according to the dictates of the ruler? That is the problem of today.

It would be interesting if we could have the counsel of Washington, of Madison, or of Jefferson, or of Franklin today, after all this span of almost two centuries, if they could sit with us and counsel with us on these problems. They cannot do it. We find, like all other generations, we have our problems. I hold they are not insoluble. America can do it.

But remember, among equals, group action is done to the greatest extent possible by cooperation. You are a free individual. The general limits of your freedom are merely these: that you do not trespass upon, the equal rights of others.

In the same way, in a free society of nations, we don't dictate to one of our friends what they must do. And we certainly won't tolerate any attempt of theirs to dictate to us what to do.

We are a society of equals, both nationally and internationally. And that is the problem. How do we marshal the great intellectual, scientific, economic, financial, spiritual resources of such a great aggregation of equals against a single dictatorial, ruthless enemy that threatens, through every possible type of aggression, the peace of the world?

Now, those are the problems. And I want to say several things. First--I think possibly I am talking about the reasons that I venerate and admire the Daughters of the American Revolution, because the very fact that you preserve this Society means that you do venerate the system that was established by our forefathers. Your lives, or at least this part of your lives, your public service, is dedicated to the preservation of those principles. If we are then united in spirit, we develop a power that is unknown to regimentation.

Woodrow Wilson said, in far better words than could I, something of what I am trying to get at. He said, "The highest form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people."

What I am trying to talk about is the great power, the great force, that is developed by people who believe in certain causes, or a certain principle, with their whole heart and soul.

You know, there was an old feeling among people that you could not have great elan, great esprit, in a service and at the same time an iron discipline. People that believe that ought to read the story of Cromwell's Ironsides. They had not only stern discipline but a great elan, because they believed in something. They went into battle singing hymns.

I sometimes wish that as we approach a concentration, a mobilization of ourselves, of the powers of which we are capable, that we would meet in the idea of singing, whether it's America the Beautiful, or something else, but coming together in the idea that here is a spirit, a belief, a determination that can't be whipped by anything in the world. And that's all we need.

If any of you would follow your imagination to travel around the world, you would find that still in the control of that part of the world we call independent, outside the Iron Curtain, there is a great preponderance of the world's material resources, a great preponderance of human beings, a great intellectual capacity, particularly in certain centers, a great culture, great scientific advancement; in the aggregate resources so overwhelming as compared to the Iron Curtain countries that you sometimes wonder why we grow tense, we grow fearful.

And that brings me back again to my one single theme. It is because we instinctively fear a power that is in the hands of a single dictatorial group or person. How do we combat that power? Again I say, by a spiritual unity among ourselves that is indestructible, among ourselves as individuals, among the nations that we are proud to call friends.

Now, that is a rough chart, as I see it, of the way we will win the cold war, and prevent a hot war, because we will bring to bear in this search and quest for peace all the great spiritual, intellectual, and material values which the free world can concentrate to this one purpose.

Underneath it all must lie this common understanding, this common purpose: the love of liberty, the belief in the dignity of man, and in that to brush aside all minor problems as unimportant, the determination to press forward in that quest.

Now, the kind of unity of which I speak, my friends, is not regimentation. By no means do I believe that democracy can live if each person is compelled to think the same thoughts and agree on all the multitudinous details that go to make up the legislative history of a land. But I do say this: we must be bound together in common devotion to great ideals, in common readiness to sacrifice for the attainment of those ideals, and in a common comprehension of our situation in the world, where we are living, how we are living, and what in broad outline we must do to achieve that victory. Then, if our spiritual dedication is up to. the task, we cannot fail.

Now, that is something that I believe this Society does for our people. It increases, and keeps alive, and nurtures that dedication to the dignity of man, to the greatness of our country, and the right of every man to walk upright, fearlessly, among his own equals.

I do hope that during this week you have had a grand time in Washington. I hope that it will not be 7 years that shall pass before I see you again.

Thank you, and good day.