Remarks at the Women's National Democratic Club Dinner.

Madam President, Madam Chairman, Mrs. Wilson, distinguished guests, and fellow Democrats:

It certainly is a most happy evening. This is, I think, one of the nicest gatherings I have ever attended. It is always a pleasure, of course, to meet with Democrats, and when we can meet with that section of the Democratic Party, the Women's Democratic Club, that makes among the greatest contributions to Democratic victory, it is more than a pleasure.

I am very certain that every woman in the great State of New York has been doing her duty today, as a result of those returns. That means she has made the old man go to the polls, and she has gone herself and voted. That is really what counts.

You know, the people of this great Nation of ours are not always appreciative of their privileges. They neglect the very thing that gives them the liberties which we all enjoy. They do not, when they have the opportunity, exercise the right to vote.

We must try--and the women of this country are trying--to instill into all the people the necessity for exercising that duty and that privilege under the Constitution of the United States, which gives you the right to vote.

If you didn't have that right, you would be marching up and down in front of the White House with banners, saying, "Votes for Women--Votes for Women--Votes for Women,"

Now you have the right, yet only about 50 percent of us vote. I will tell you that 2 percent more women vote than the men, and if we don't look out--if we don't look out!we will probably have a feminine government some day. I don't think the country would be any worse off, do you?

I am exceedingly happy if the New York Times and the New York Daily News are correct, that we have won a victory in New York--which will have a very decided effect on the elections in 1950.

When we win that sort of victory, in a year such as this, we assume a much greater responsibility from now on than we have had in the past year.

We have had a tremendous responsibility thrust upon the Democratic Party as the party of the people on account of the elections in 1948--as I have to reiterate time and again, a surprise election to a lot of people.

But the Democratic platform set out certain things which it is our duty to try to accomplish. And I want to say to you that the first session of the 81st Congress did a remarkable job, and the second session of the 81st Congress is going to do a better job, as a result of these elections today.

And I am more than convinced that the Democratic Party, the party of the people, will continue to do that job for the welfare of this Nation, and for the welfare of the world.

We have two great objects, as set out in the Democratic platform: that is the welfare and the prosperity of the United States of America, and the welfare and the prosperity of the world as a whole.

Back in 1918--1917 and 1918--that great President, Woodrow Wilson, had a vision of a world association of nations that would spend its time working out the differences between nations to keep peace in the world. His own country did not support him in that, and we had to fight another world war as a result of that situation to find out what our duty in the world is.

I told that great statesman, the Prime Minister of India, the other day, when he paid me an official visit, a few things about the United States of America. He was telling me that India had been a colony and that India had been made an independent commonwealth, and that they would have tremendous difficulties. And I reminded him that the United States of America had been a colony under the same government under which India had been a colony, and that we had spent 80 years trying to find out what we really wanted to do, and we finally had to whip ourselves before we found out what we wanted to do at home; and then we had to fight two world wars to find out what we ought to do in the world--and I sincerely hoped that India would not have to go through with that sort of program before India arrived at its place in the world. And I am sure that India will not have to go through that sort of program. And I am sure that India will arrive at its place in the world without having to fight two world WAYS.

What we want now, more than anything else, is peace in the world. We are going to get that peace. I am just as sure as I stand here that we will get that peace in the world, for the simple reason that we are beginning to find out that there are enough of the good things in life in the world for every man, woman, and child in the world to have his fair share of those good things.

And that is what we are working for. We are going to work for that situation to take place in the United States, and we are approaching it closer and closer every day and every year. And the Democratic Party is the backbone of that program. I am just as sure as I stand here that we will work out a situation in the world as a whole, so that the world will live at peace.

Everybody has been discussing point 4 of the inaugural address of January the 20th-which a great many people thought I would not deliver. Now, that point 4 is just as simple as this: there are resources in the world which, if properly developed for the welfare of the people in which those resources are situated, will contribute not only to the welfare of the people of those countries but to the welfare of all their neighbors, and all the rest of the world.

We are somewhat famous for the technical knowledge which we have been able to accumulate under this Republic of the United States. What I propose to do is to present to the peoples of the world that know-how, and that knowledge, for the development of the resources in these other great countries for the welfare and benefit of the inhabitants of those countries, and not for their exploitation. That is what point 4 means.

We have immense stores of capital in this country. This country was developed by capital from France and Belgium, and Holland and Germany, and Great Britain. Nearly every great railroad in this country, to some extent, was financed by investments from one or the other of those countries. I know, because I made an investigation, when I was in the Senate, of the financial resources of all the railroads in the United States. Not only were those railroads financed, but many of our mining enterprises, and many of our other great enterprises were financed by foreign capital.

But when World War I came along, that capital invested in this country was spent in this country for munitions of war. And when World War II came along, the rest of those investments were spent by those countries trying to save themselves from dictatorship.

Now we on our side have been endeavoring, by the expenditure of certain funds, and the investment of certain funds which we call the Marshall plan, to revive those countries which exhausted themselves in the fight for liberty.

When we have done that, we will still have an immense well of uninvested capital in this United States which can be used, not by the Government of the United States but by the owners of that capital for the development of these immense resources in Asia, in Africa, in South America, in Australia, in Indonesia, and all the rest of the world which has resources inexhaustible.

I stand in my office and look at a globe which General Eisenhower gave me when I was in Frankfurt, on the way to Potsdam. That globe was the one he used to win the war in Europe. It is a great big thing, about that big [indicating]. And I turn that globe around so that all the trouble spots in the world are up, and I can look across the room and see what is going on--I hope I can see what is going on in the world.

I see immense undeveloped rivers and valleys all over the world that would make TVAs and Columbia Valley developments. I see untold resources in South America, in Canada, and in Africa. All it needs to get it into the markets of the world is somebody who knows the technical approach to their development.

The Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers can be brought back and turned again into the Garden of Eden. In the time of Nebuchadnezzar, that valley supported from 12 to 25 million people, all the time, in luxury--and can do it again. And that will make their neighbors rich. And they have the resources with which to make that development possible, if they are shown how to do it. I can name you place after place around this globe where that sort of situation exists. And that, my friends, when it is properly developed, means peace in the world, because most wars are fought for economic reasons, or because some country is overpopulated, or because some country wants some riches that some other country has.

If we follow through on the leadership and the support of the United Nations--which we are now doing--some time or other, I hope, before you are a great deal older, the light will break upon the world, and with the Lord's help we will have peace and proper development--for the welfare of all mankind everywhere on this earth.

Thank you.