Remarks at a Masonic Breakfast on Washington's Birthday.

Mr. Chairman and distinguished guests:

I am exceedingly happy to be with you this morning for breakfast, but I don't think it would be entirely fair for me to take advantage of the opportunity to inflict two speeches on you, because at 2:30 this afternoon I am going to address you formally and straight from the shoulder on the foreign policy of the United States as it affects the birthday of George Washington.

I think that gatherings of this kind are exceedingly helpful for the welfare of the country as a whole. We come from every corner of the United States, we know the local conditions, and we have come here to discuss national affairs and to discuss our own problems; and we go back home bigger and broader men, and in that way can continue the traditions on which our Government is founded.

It is a pleasure to me this morning to see a great many gentlemen here who are not members of the fraternity. They are just as good citizens and just as good men, nevertheless. I am very sure that there are some of them here this morning that I am going to have to get absolution for. I am a very good friend of His Holiness the Pope, so you needn't worry.

I do appreciate this privilege. I hope that it can be continued, and that we can get together for pleasure and fraternal association year after year, for the welfare not only of this organization to which we belong, but for the welfare of the United States and the governments of the world as a whole who believe in the Bill of Rights for their citizens. That is the thing that we are fighting for in this world.

If I am not careful, I will probably be tipping you off as to what I expect to discuss this afternoon, so I think now is a good time to quit.

Thank you very much.