Remarks at a Dinner of the Society of Business Magazine Editors.

IT SEEMS that this occasion would not be complete if a politician didn't get a chance to say a few words.

I am glad to congratulate Paul Wooton, because when I first came here to Washington in 1935, Paul Wooton was our neighbor-and he was a real neighbor. You never forget kind treatment when you move into a strange place. Just to show you the difference in the attitudes of people when a strange man comes to town, my daughter at that time was about 10 years old--I hope you won't spread that around--and Paul Wooton lived in the apartment below us. And he was as kind to Margaret as anybody could be. And when anybody is kind to Margaret, I never forget it. And neither do I forget it when they are not!

Paul Wooton has done a great service to the city of Washington. He has had so many honors that I don't know whether I can name them all or not. Joe Short, in coming over here with me, said that Paul was president of the Press Club 2 years before he was, and he taught Joe Short how to introduce distinguished people. He was instrumental in bringing this organization to the White House--as I said--at least once a year since I have been President, and twice when he could get in. This silver quill presented to Paul is because of his work with this organization, and I think he has earned it.

I have always been pleased when this organization called on me. We have always had a good time. They have always given me some information that I couldn't use-and a great deal that I could, for which I was highly appreciative.

Now, we are faced with two things right now. We are faced with aggression, and we are faced with inflation. I want this organization to help the Government of the United States to meet both, and you can make a great contribution if you do that-and I know you will, as your president has said.

We are faced with inflation because of conditions in the world. I don't think there is any man here who would want to see the thing for which we are fighting lost because we are not able to control ourselves. I think we can control ourselves. I think we can meet this situation. I think that every man who has studied the position and the condition of the United States is in favor of trying to meet this program that the Government is now putting out with everything that it has.

I don't care whether he is in business, or whether he is in politics, or whether he works with his hands for a living, I think every patriotic American--and I don't know any unpatriotic one at this minute--is anxious to see our success in meeting our home situation. And I think they are just as anxious to see us meet the situation with which we are faced, because fate has made us the leaders of the world. We shirked it in 1920. We cannot shirk it now, because it is ours. We must meet it, and it will take everything we have, with all the brains we can mobilize to meet it.

I don't pretend that I know everything. I surround myself with men who understand the various branches of government, who understand the world situation; and by pooling all those brains and all the others that we can mobilize we will be able to meet the situation.

It is a struggle between people who believe in spiritual values, and people who believe in nothing but materialism. We are fighting for freedom, for the right to worship as we please, in any church we choose to attend, the right to read what we please, and the right to speak what we please, and the right to elect public officials of our own choosing-and then to give them hell after they are elected!

Dictators don't believe that. There is no difference between dictators, if you study your history. There has not been any difference in any police state that ever existed in the history of the world. They are all alike. They are all for the enslavement of the individual for the benefit of the state.

We believe that the state exists for the benefit of the individual, and that is what we are fighting for.

There isn't any difference between Hitler and Mussolini, in the Tarquins of ancient Rome, in the Kings of Sparta, in Charles I of England, and Louis XIV--and Stalin. They are all just alike. Alexander I of Russia was just as much a dictator as any other that ever existed. They believed in the enslavement of the common people.

This Republic of ours has been founded on a different program. I think the greatest part of the Constitution of the United States is the Bill of Rights, and I believe that we should give everything we have to see that that Bill of Rights is maintained for the benefit of the individual.

This is not the first time in the history of the world that the moral forces have been faced with the materialist forces. If you go down through history, you will find that the fight has been to maintain the right to worship as we please, talk as we please, and act as we please, so long as we don't interfere with the rights of others. This has been the struggle down through all the ages.

I am just as sure as I stand here that we are going to win that struggle, because there have been times in the history of the world when we have been much closer to losing it than we are now.

There has never been a nation in the history of the world placed on a stronger foundation than ours. There has never been a nation in the history of the world as unselfish, and with the ideals that believe in the welfare of every individual in the world as well, as our own. There has never been a nation in the world which in time of victory has helped the vanquished to recover as we have. I don't think you will find a situation like that anywhere in the history of the world.

We have our troubles. Somebody sent me a cartoon from Punch a day or two ago, in which the cartoonist was depicting an argument in the senate of the Carthaginians, and one able senator of the Carthaginians was saying that Hannibal should not be allowed to use elephants simply because the senate should control the use of those elephants.

That has been going on ever since we have had senates and senators, and I have served 10 years in the Senate, and I know just exactly how they feel, and I know just exactly what the difficulty is.

And we are going to meet it. There is not a Senator in the Senate who is not just as anxious as I am to see the United States Government continue as a free government in the world.

And actually, no matter what they say for publication, when the time comes for action, they will be right there--I am just as sure of that as I stand here.

But it is an interesting thing to study the history of these things. When Louis XIV was trying to be the master of all Europe, there were men in the Parliament of Great Britain who decided that the best thing to do would be not to try to defend their forts in Belgium and on the Continent, but to withdraw to the island of Great Britain and wait for Louis XIV to come and get them. Thank God they did not do that--they did not do that. They met the situation, and freedom prevailed in the world.

And we are going to meet it, and freedom is going to prevail in the world.

But, in order to do that, we must have the cooperation of the people who make up this great Nation of ours. And I am appealing to you gentlemen to put out the facts. Honest criticism is necessary. I don't object to that. There is nothing new you can say about me, anyhow. But honest criticism is helpful. Nobody objects to that. But when it comes to the fundamental things, I know that every one of you will be in there pitching.

I wish I could have been here and had dinner with you, but you know, in these times, I have so many documents to read and so many papers to sign--up to now I have had to sign my name 600 times a day, and now I think it runs about 800--I don't have a chance, and I can't do the things that I am supposed to do and attend functions of this kind for pleasure.

I came over here merely because Paul Wooton was our good neighbor, and because I wanted to say to you that I hope you will cooperate to the fullest extent possible to meet this situation with which we are faced.

Thank you very much.