Remarks in New London at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Mr. Commandant of the cadets in the review this morning, and my host here:

I appreciate most highly this etching of the ship which I am to inspect shortly. The men at this table have offered to make a deal with me, to trade it for the Williamsburg. I want to say to you, however, don't be fooled by that offer, for the simple reason that the Williamsburg can pitch higher and roll further than I think your sailing ship can. I will try to find out--and I will, I hope, find out before the day is over, if the Navy can still run a sailing ship. I am not sure about that. I have got my aide looking it up.

I have wanted to pay you a visit for some time. The Secretary of the Treasury and I were field artillery captains in the first World War. You know, that has been a long time ago. None of you was on earth at that time. And as a Secretary in the Cabinet, he has control of the Coast Guard, and he has been trying for more than a year to have me, as President of the United States, pay you a visit. I am most happy to be here. I have had a very pleasant day, and I expect to have more pleasure as the day goes on.

This organization is a great organization. It had the first armed sea force under the Government of the United States, after it was organized in 1789. I think the Coast Guard started in 1790, if I am not mistaken, and I understand that that armed Coast Guard organization was made up of cutters-it was sometimes called the "cutter service," so they tell me. It was organized by Alexander Hamilton, and when he ordered these gutters, he said that he wanted the very best that could possibly be obtained, and he was willing to pay as much as $1,500 apiece for them.

Now I was just thinking about one of the ships on which I had the pleasure of coming back from Rio de Janeiro, with my naval aide in command of it. The name of that ship was the U.S.S. Missouri, and if I am not mistaken, at its launching--which I attended, and my daughter was the sponsor-at that point it had cost $101 million.

Now people wonder why Government has expanded, and the cost has increased. I am giving you those two illustrations to show you why that is the case. We are not living in 1790, and we can't go back to 1790. We have got to go forward with the world.

Now you young gentlemen, and the members of the classes of Annapolis and West Point, are here in this and those two schools for a special purpose. We must have leaders in this great Nation of ours, which has now assumed a position of the leadership of the free world.

The Office of the President of the United States is the greatest responsibility in the history of the world, and the Office of the President of the United States cannot function unless he can depend upon the leadership of all those services that make up the Government of the United States.

You are here at this school for the purpose of learning and understanding leadership, and when you come out of this school you not only will be able to understand leadership but you will be better citizens of this great Republic.

People do not appreciate, yet, the fact that the responsibility of this Nation in the world is the greatest responsibility that has ever come to any nation in the history of the world.

I hope that you young gentlemen will study that situation and appreciate just exactly what it means to be a part--and you will be a part--of the Government. The Government is based on just one thing: the sovereignty of the people who are governed. And that sovereignty is every individual in the country. That includes the man who digs ditches. It includes the man who lives on Park Avenue in New York. It includes the man who inhabits the White House in Washington. We are all a part of that Government, and that Government must assume its responsibility.

I am happy to be here today, and to have had a chance to review your Corps, and to hear it reported by a certain very high official that the Coast Guard can out-march the Navy. That remark was made by a very high official in this great State, and a Naval Reserve officer. I have been very much afraid that the naval aide would probably take it up with the Secretary of the Navy, and see if a court-martial wouldn't be in order. But I want to say to you that I will pardon him if they convict him of anything, provided that this is done before the 20th day of January.

I hope that you young men will assume the responsibility which will be yours when you finish this great school. I hope you will be better citizens for having been here at this school. All of you will no doubt have an opportunity to become officers in the Coast Guard, one of the Nation's great services.

The Coast Guard and the Secret Service are a part of the Treasury Department. You never hear much about them in headlines and things of that sort, except when there is a disaster of some kind, or when the President himself gets into trouble. And you will find the Coast Guard and the Secret Service on the job and doing exactly what they are supposed to do.

I was just reading the other day about the Coast Guard's icebreaker that has been closer to the North Pole than any other ship in delivering food and supplies to a station up there which it is necessary for us to have in that neighborhood.

That, my young friends, is what makes this country great. People are perfectly willing to do their duty by the Government, and do it because it is their duty, and not with any hope of personal aggrandizement.

I hope that sometime or other, when I become a citizen again, and get out of that great white jail, that you may let me take a ride with you on your rolling, rocking sailing ship in which you get your training.

I appreciate very much this privilege, and I hope that all of you will be successful graduates of this great school.