Informal Remarks in St. Louis in Connection With the 30th Reunion of the 35th Division Association.

[1.] At the Battery D Breakfast (Crystal Room, Hotel Jefferson, 8:40 a.m.)

Well, as usual, it has been a most successful party. I am more than happy to see so many of you here this morning. I have understood that the model cabinet meeting was prepared in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

I have seen a great many here today that I haven't seen for several years, and it is a pleasure to be able to recognize all of you-as usual. I don't think I had to be told who was behind a single face.

But the thing that pleases me most is that you are not living in the past, you don't come here to have anything but a good time and association with your former comrades. Every single one of you is living for today, and making a contribution to the welfare of the country. You don't sit around and pound your cane on the floor and say "the old so-and-so," because you have other things to do.

Most of you have grandchildren, and I have been taking a poll up here, and it looks to me as if the descendants of Battery D will be able to create a division, should we have another disaster--which I hope we won't.

I hope you will continue to live in the present, continue to help this country go forward to its destiny, and continue to meet annually as you have today.

Thank you very much.

[2.] At the Executive Committee Meeting of Battery D (Gold Room, Hotel Jefferson, 10 a.m.)

Mr. President, distinguished guests, Governor Smith, Mayor Darst, members of the 35th Division:

I appreciate most highly those welcoming remarks of the mayor and the Governor. Since I have been President, it has been my privilege to attend four reunions of the 35th Division--one in Omaha, one in Kansas City, one in Little Rock, and now this one here in Missouri's metropolis. Every time I have been present I have had a most pleasant and enjoyable time.

It was my privilege, awhile ago, to discuss with the representative of our great friend and ally, His Excellency Ambassador Bonnet of France, the question of French veterans and how they spent their time on occasions like this.

He said the French soldiers are just exactly like American soldiers. They have organization reunions, they have division reunions, they have army reunions, they have banquets, and they have shows; and evidently they are exactly as we are.

I enjoyed immensely the entertainment last night, and was highly pleased that I could be present. I am here for the purpose of discussing some things in which we are all interested this afternoon. I am also here to see that a bunch of old stiffs, to which the Governor referred, get the proper amount of exercise today, before we get to the speechmaking.

If there is any fat colonel or general who thinks he is going to ride in this parade, he is just as mistaken as he can be. That just doesn't happen when I am President.

It was my privilege last year, in Little Rock, to see to it that the Secretary of Defense and the Governor of Arkansas walked just as far as I did.

If I can manage it today, I am going to see to it that the Secretary of Defense and the Governor of Missouri walk just as far as I do. I won't have to put a "hammer" on the mayor, because he is used to walking, anyway, as he was in the infantry in the First World War.

It has always been a pleasure to be here-had a wonderful breakfast this morning with that organization known as D Battery. They are behaving themselves. Not a single one of them looks to me as if he hadn't been to bed and slept all night just as he should. One thing, though, that may not be so well to bring to our attention, is the fact that that means that anno Domini is catching up with them. Ten years ago, that would not have been true.

It was my privilege to bring to their attention the fact that the thing that pleased me most about these organizations is that you are living in the present, you are citizens of the United States of America, the greatest Republic in the world, today. You are citizens who are doing your duty, today. You are not living in the past.

I hope you will never live in the past, because the problems and the things which we face now are greater than ever in the world. We must solve them, and in order to solve them we must have men of experience who are interested in the welfare of the world and the Nation.

I hope you will pay particular attention to what I have to say this afternoon, because it has a bearing on you as citizens of the world and of the United States.

I am going to enjoy myself the best I can. It is going to be necessary for me to go back upstairs and transact some business and do some work for the Government of the United States--for which I am working, as you know.

And when I am gone, after I leave here, I am going to appoint the senior member of my family, and former commanding general of the 35th Division, Maj. Gen. Ralph E. Truman, to be my proxy and vote for me when I am gone. I am sure I can trust him, as he is against most of the things I am for, and of course he is for the things I am not for--so you see!

Thank you very much for this privilege. I am glad to be here. I hope when the places are designated for next year, that you will let me know about it.

[3.] At the World War Memorial (12:30 p.m.)

Mr. Mayor, Governor Smith, His Excellency the Ambassador of France, Secretary of Defense, distinguished guests and fellow soldiers--fellow members of the 35th Division:

It is indeed a privilege for me to be here today to help in this ceremony for those who lost their lives in the defense of this great Republic.

We should always honor their memory. In every struggle through which we have been--the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the War Between the States in 1861, the Spanish-American War, the First World and the Second World Wars--it has always been customary in this country to show its gratefulness to those who made the supreme sacrifice, and to those who were injured completely.

I hope we will always continue that sort of feeling. It is the young men of the Nation that make it strong. It is the young men of the Nation that we do not want to sacrifice in another struggle.

That is why we work continually for peace in the world. We cannot afford another world war, either economically or in the form of manpower. You know, the great empires and republics of the past have usually exhausted themselves by the slaughter of their young men in the struggles that were entirely unnecessary.

In order that we may meet the situation with which we are faced, we must have these wonderful young men willing and able to defend the country at any cost. But we who are in the control of the Government must spend every bit of our energies in an endeavor to see that they do not have to make that supreme sacrifice. That is what the President of the United States is endeavoring to do. That is why we support the United Nations. That is why we try to make agreements with those countries, who believe as we do, for the defense of the free nations of the world.

Eventually, my friends, the moral forces of the world will prevail over the unmoral forces. I am just as sure as I stand here that Almighty God, from whom we derive all our powers, will not let His law be upset by people who do not believe in any law.

I hope that we will continue to pay tribute to those who made the supreme sacrifice, and I hope that we will be able to say that we do not intend to add other young men, to whom we will have to pay tribute.