Remarks to the President's Advisory Commission on Universal Training.

I AM VERY MUCH interested in this Commission, because I am very much interested in the coming generation. We found, through the records of the draft boards, that almost 30 percent of our young people who were called up for military service were unfit physically or mentally. That is a terrible reflection on a free country.

I have been interested in the physical development and the mental and moral development of young people ever since I was graduated from high school. I have been somewhat of a student of history, and I have discovered that great republics of the past always passed out when their peoples became prosperous and fat and lazy, and were not willing to assume their responsibilities.

In other words, when the Romans and the Greeks and some of the ancient Mesopotamian countries turned to mercenary defense forces, they ended. That is, when the people of a nation would not do the necessary service to continue their government, it ended eventually in one way or another. That has been true of modern nations also.

I want to see this Republic continue. It is the greatest government that the world has seen. It is set up in a way that divides the power of the government among three different sections. That is, we have the legislative branch and the executive branch headed by the President, and we have the independent judiciary.

I want our young people to be informed on what this government is, what it stands for--its responsibilities. And I think the best way to do this is through a universal training program. I don't like to think of it as a universal military training program. I want it to be a universal training program, giving our young people a background in the disciplinary approach of getting along with one another, informing them of their physical makeup, and what it means to take care of this Temple which God gave us. If we get that instilled into them, and then instill into them a responsibility which begins in the township, in the city ward, the first thing you know we will have sold our Republic to the coming generations as Madison and Hamilton and Jefferson sold it in the first place.

I hope you gentlemen, and Mrs. Rosenberg, will approach this job with the idea of insuring the continuation of our form of government. I want you to call as witnesses, if you will, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, and any other Cabinet members that you think could contribute information to you. The Secretary of Labor can be of great help to you.

Then go outside the executive branch and talk to leaders in the House and the Senate. I want you to be known as the President's Advisory Commission on Universal Training. I want that word military left out. The military phase is incidental to what l have in mind.

The modern nation no longer depends solely on the Army and Navy for its protection. Any difficulty in which it is necessary for the Army and Navy to fight, involves the whole country. It is a total war these days. More people were killed behind the lines in enemy countries, and in friendly countries, than were killed on the battlefronts. Now that is a startling statement, but if you look at the figures you will find that that is the case.

The two things that I am most interested in as President of the United States are peace in the world and production at home. We must make our production machine work in peacetime as it did in wartime, so that everybody can have his share of the good things of life under our form of government. And then, if we have peace in the world, we can create that situation in the other countries.

We don't want any territory. We don't want to hog the trade of the world. We do want an interchange of ideas and of merchandise and everything of that sort.

You can help greatly to bring these things about. You are not to be rushed. When you get through, I want you to give me a report of your findings. I didn't intend to make a speech at all.