Remarks to a Delegation From the National Council of Churches.

Dr. Dahlberg and Ladies and Gentlemen:

My attitude toward one of the functions of the church in promoting peace is one of appreciation of the great service it can perform in uniting better the free nations of the world. I think we should never forget we are supporting principles which are after all religious in their derivation. And I mean politically speaking, as against a godless atheism--and because this is an atheistic ideology, denying all human rights, any kind of human dignity--we have an enemy operating under a dictatorship that has us always at a disadvantage.

We are a democracy. We achieve our decisions by debate, by a representative form of government. They have the great advantage, whether it be economic or military, or any other kind of contest, of having in one mailed fist, all authority.

Now this is, I should hasten to say, not in the long run a particular form of efficiency. I believe it was Woodrow Wilson who said, "The highest form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people." And when the chips are down, that is exactly correct. If we declare a purpose to pursue an objective that will be costly, in sacrifice, in material sacrifice, maybe in suffering or in life, we will go on to the end. But when in a dictatorship that sacrifice and suffering holds more fear for the individual than his fear of the "boss," then chaos ensues. This happened in the last days of the Czars, and it happened in the last days of Hitler, and in other dictatorships--including Napoleon.

Now, to go back to my main thesis, that by reminding ourselves always in every free country, that every type of free government is a political expression of some form of religious belief, we have a great force of unity, and we achieve among ourselves, by spontaneous cooperation, the kind of power that the other fellow cannot, in the long run, command.

The Founding Fathers, when they wanted to explain to the world that this new form of government was united in America, and noted that they had a decent respect for the opinion of mankind, said that "We hold that all men are endowed by their Creator"--in other words, to explain our form of government you had to call upon the Divine Creator.

This, it seems to me, is the strongest link that we have among all the countries of the West. Indeed I think this even includes the Mohammedans, the Buddhists and the rest; because they, too, strongly believe that they achieve a right to human dignity because of their relationship to the Supreme Being. We must remember always that there are others that can have this same feeling of unity, because of their recognition of a religious destiny. So, what you are doing, what you are attempting to do is, to my mind, one of the finest things that you could possibly undertake.

Now I was going to talk for 10 seconds, and I have already for 10 minutes, but I will say one other thing: I have been giving my mind and heart to this business of foreign relations for a long time, long before I was President. And one thing is always clear--Jefferson spoke about it and many of our former statesmen: the need for an informed public opinion. Because since public opinion is the force that makes our country operate, makes it function, we must be perfectly sure that that public opinion is applied in the right direction, or we are not going on the right road.

I cannot tell you how much I have concerned myself about trying to take simple issues in the foreign relations field or indeed in the economic, and as I would like to suggest to you, the need for a sound dollar. I take these subjects when I can, right squarely into press conferences, on the television. I am going to talk about foreign relations tomorrow evening a tittle bit--15 minutes. But always I feel the necessity of trying to make the facts available to the American public. And sometimes, you know, you have to tackle them and hold them down to feed these facts to them. The man that plows a furrow in Dickinson County, or works on a Brooklyn dock, or drives a taxicab--when you begin to talk to him about the need for helping the people of Ghana, or of French Africa--well, he wonders what in the world you are talking about.

Now you give the facts, but it doesn't always penetrate, so there has to be education--sometimes almost spoonfed, and probably with the aid of a hammer. But we need it. We talk all the time in Government and the public print about the woeful ignorance of foreigners about America. One thing we must be very careful about, how fully does the average American citizen understand his country, its problems and its role in the world.

So, these two things: uniting the free world through this common respect for religion; and educating ourselves as to the type of problem that we must solve, if we are going to be true to those values that our religion teaches us.

These are two great works to which I should think all of us could dedicate ourselves full time.

Now just one more observation before I go out. I had a long talk with Cardinal Spellman on the phone. He is an old, old friend of mine-a good one. And I assure you that our Catholic brothers are joining you in these hours of prayer for peace--with the hope that those of Government that have to direct affairs in relationship with Russia and with others, can have some guidance that will come about because of this universality of prayer. He assured me in very .emphatic manner on that, and I thought you might like to know it.

Thank you very much. It's good to see you--and good luck.