Informal Remarks in San Francisco

[1.] FAIRMONT HOTEL (Breakfast of International Labor Organization, Red Room, Fairmont Hotel, 8:40 a.m.)

Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen of the ILO:

Mr. Morse persuaded me to come and have breakfast with you, and I am very happy that I am able to do it.

I have a hard and fast rule about speeches on Sunday. You see, I believe that 6 days in the week are for work, and one is for rest. Of course, I have never caught up with that. But I only consented to say a word or two here because I think maybe this organization can make--and is making--a greater contribution to peace in the world than nearly any other organization of its kind in the world. When I say any other kind of organization in the world, I mean parallel organization, because there is only one ILO, and there has only been one ILO.

I believe that if a cross-section of every country in the world could sit down at breakfast such as you are having here, and talk to each other so they can understand each other in a common language, we would never have any trouble in the world.

You know, honest men, when the facts are all in sight, never have any difficulty agreeing as to what the decision ought to be. It is my duty, as President of the United States, to make the decisions, because I can't pass the buck to anybody; and if I can get all the facts, I have found that the decisions that I make as a result of the facts are satisfactory to everybody.

Now I think this organization is in a position to do more for peace in the world than any other organization of its kind in the world, as I said a while ago.

I want to pay a tribute to Mr. Phelan, retiring president, or presiding officer, or whatever he is called, because he has built this organization up over the 29 years that he has been in charge of it. He came to the White House and invited me to come to this breakfast, and I told him that f thought I would be so busy I couldn't possibly get here. Well, I have been so busy that I managed to get here, incidentally, because I decided to accept a degree from the University of California yesterday, and it became convenient for me to come over here. And I am certainly happy that I have had that opportunity.

This organization is represented from the United States by business and labor, and government. Mr. Morse, and Senator Thomas--the great Senator from Utah--Mr. Morse, the Under Secretary and Acting Secretary of Labor, are representatives of the Government of the United States. Mr. Zellerbach represents the business cross-section of the United States, and Mr. Fenton represents labor in the United States.

If we could get congresses together representing all those organizations--and I think probably it might be well to add another organization, since this is Sunday morning--we ought to have a cross-section of religion in the world, a religion rounded on a moral code.

I, the other day, was instrumental in starting a stamp sale dedicating the death of four chaplains in this Second World War, and those four chaplains represented Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. And those four chaplains, when their ship was sinking handed out all the life preservers that were available in the box, and then took off their own and gave their lives that four young men might be saved.

Now you can't witness, or hear about a thing of that kind, without understanding that the heart of the ordinary man is right. And that is what I want to impress upon you this morning, that when your heart is right, and you want to do only what is right, you will have plenty of help and assistance in doing it.

We want peace--peace. We want peace in the world. We want every country in the world to have the necessities of life, to be able to live with its neighbors on a basis of "doing as you would be done by." If we can accomplish that, there will be no difficulty whatever about our getting along in the world. I tried to make that perfectly clear yesterday over at the stadium, and I believe that we are approaching that sort of a situation in the world.

The United Nations is just a fundamental start in understanding. The United Nations, some day, will come out just as the United States came out after 1787, when they adopted the Constitution of the United States. It took 80 years to implement that Constitution. And if we can get the United Nations to work as a court of justice, in which all the difficulties between the United Nations can be settled as we settle them between States in the United States, we will have no difficulty whatever; and never, never will we have to use this atomic release for anything but for the welfare of mankind.

That's all I am interested in. I want to see that the results of the good things that came out of this terrible war, through which we went, are used in the future for the welfare of mankind, and not for its destruction. That is the only ambition I have. That is the only ambition I have ever had. And if you read the record, you will find that that is what I have been working for ever since I was unfortunate enough to become President of the United States on the death of one of the greatest Presidents the country ever had--Franklin Roosevelt.

If I can carry out the policies which he and I discussed a month or so before he died, there will be peace in the world.

You people are making a great contribution.

It has been a pleasure to come over here and preach a Sunday morning sermon to you.

[2.] FAIRMONT HOTEL (Luncheon of the Northern California Democratic Presidential Delegation, Venetian Room, Fairmont Hotel, 12:50 p.m.)

Mr. McEnery, if old man protocol was here, he would shake your hand. You know, the President has a great deal of trouble, sometimes, with the great citizens who introduce him.

I remember one time hearing a story about a man introducing President Roosevelt and he took 15 minutes to make the introduction, and all he was supposed to say was "the President of the United States," just as your chairman did here a while ago. And when the President got up to speak, he said "I appreciate the introduction very much. All has been said that is necessary to be said. I have to catch a train."

I am going out here to the Golden Gate Park to take part in the Flag Day celebration which has been advanced one day for my benefit so I could take part in it.

I am extremely sorry that it is not possible for me to talk to you as I know you would like to have me talk to you. I have very decided scruples about a man in politics using any Sunday meeting for the advancement of his political career. I made that rule when I first went into politics back in 1920. I think most of you weren't born at that time, from the looks of this audience.

At any rate, I have come West so that you could look at me, so that you could listen to me when I am discussing the things that are of most interest to the people of the United States, and particularly the people west of the Mississippi River; and I feel that you are entitled to that privilege. There has been a great deal said in various quarters about my ability, or inability, my intelligence or lack of it, and I think when you have studied the record, then you will be in a better position to make up your mind, when you can see just what I look like.

I had the privilege this morning of having breakfast with the ILO, which is the International Labor Organization, the only international organization that survived World War II. That organization is making a very great contribution to the peace of the world and that, of course, is what all of us are most interested in. There is not a person in the United States who is not interested in a peace that will prevent the sacrifice of lives and treasure again by this great Nation.

I have said time and again that Almighty God intended this great Nation to be the leader of what is right and what is well for the world, and He indicated that in 1920 after the First World War. But there were certain men who felt that that was not the proper thing to do, and then we had to go through World War II.

Now we are in the predicament of leadership of all the world, and that leadership requires that we assume responsibility in the world. It requires that we remember that the foundation of the things for which we stand is in the Book of the Law, and in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John.

If we just remember that, and follow those precepts, and accept that responsibility, we are going to get what God Almighty intended us to get.

We are facing, I think, an age unequaled in the history of the world, as I told the alumni yesterday at the University of California, and you people can make a tremendous contribution to that if you just bear those things in mind and analyze the situations with which we are faced today.

The welfare of the United States, and incidentally the welfare of the world, is wrapped up in what you do. Remember that.

This is a solemn occasion. This is Sunday-June 13th. I hope it will be a red-letter day in your memory, and that you will take to heart your responsibility, because your responsibility is mine.

Thank you very much.

[3.] GOLDEN GATE PARK (Flag Day Ceremonies, Golden Gate Park, 3:10 p.m.)

Mr. Mayor, Brother Grand Exalted Ruler, Brother Exalted Ruler, and citizens of San Francisco, California:

I appreciate very much the invitation of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks to participate in this beautiful ceremony. It is a beautiful ceremony. It symbolizes just what all of us would like to be and what we hope to be. That flag has significance now, and has had always a significance that no other flag in the world ever had.

I am somewhat attached to Flag Day, because on Flag Day 1905, just a month and 6 days after I was 21 years old, I joined the National Guard of Missouri, and I served in that National Guard in the First World War.

At that time we did not have any special celebrations for Flag Day in my city, but that celebration for me was one of the most significant, as this one will be one of the most significant, to me.

It was a wonderful thing when Betsy Ross put the first flag together, and made that striped part of the flag represent the first 13 States. You know, in the beginning; when new States were added, they added a stripe as well as a star to the flag, but it was finally decided that the flag with 13 stripes and a star for each State would make the most beautiful flag in the world, and a flag that stands for everything that is sacred on this continent, and stands for everything the world should strive for as a whole.

We have been forced into two wars fighting for the very liberties for which our forefathers fought in 1776. Right now we are fighting for the liberty of the individual. We are fighting for the right of the citizen to live as he chooses, as long as he does not infringe the rights of his neighbors. We have freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of action, the right to go and come as we please. We are striving manfully now to achieve those rights for every citizen in the world.

Right here in San Francisco it was my privilege just 3 years ago to close the session which created the United Nations. I was present and witnessed the signature of 51 nations to that great document. That document is the constitution of the world, and as long as we live and as long as we exist, if we want peace in the world we must make that constitution of the world work, just as the Constitution of the United States was made to work in 1789. It took us 80 years to implement that Constitution as it is today. It may take a generation or two to make the United Nations constitution work completely and fairly, but I am an optimist. I am just as sure as I stand here that that United Nations Charter will become the constitution of the world, and that we will settle our differences between countries just as we settle our differences in the United States between the States.

That United Nations Charter is working. It has made a demonstration of how it can work in the East Indies, in Indonesia. It has made a demonstration of how it can work in Palestine. It has made a demonstration of how it can work in the European recovery program. Those things just as sure as I stand here will be successful.

And there will be peace in the world.

This flag which we honor today and under which we live stands for all those things that can make you and me better citizens of the United States and better citizens of the world.

I appreciate very much, as I have said before, the privilege of having been able to come and take a small part in this magnificent celebration. This most hospitable of cities can show the country how this celebration should be carried on, and I am glad indeed that I was here to take a small part in it.

Thank you very much.