Message to the National Convention of Young Democrats.

Democracy has a new significance these days, for the word, whether spelled with a capital or a small "D," has merged the meaning of both.

In its world-wide application, it means the defense of the great freedoms against the encroachment and attack of the dark forces of despotism which would reenslave the globe by turning back the clock of progress half a thousand years.

Domestically, democracy represents the efforts to continue and improve the condition of the individual, to protect the gains toward liberty— social and economic—that we have attained throughout the century and a half of the life of our Republic. Though the definitions differ in phrase, the objectives in the two fields are identical.

Across both oceans, on the oceans, and above the oceans the struggle is one of armed forces, with the ghastly result of destruction and slaughter on a scale unparalleled in modern history. It had to be so.

Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force. The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but matching destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.

At home, for a time we cherished the vain hope that the war would let us alone; inexorable events abroad taught us that there could be no safety in passivity; no sanctuary in isolation. So we were forced to disrupt our industrial fabric; not only to arm ourselves to the teeth; to become the armory for the democracies, for it soon became evident that only by defeating the sinister powers of cynical conquest, before they reach our shores, could we even have the slightest chance of staying out of actual war.

Unfortunately, here, as abroad, there were and are appeasers and compromisers who contend for treaties with forces that make a mock of treaties; for agreements with forces that forswear promises and pledges at their convenience. Granted that there are some who are making the progress of our national defense difficult, who are sincere in their beliefs that in some mysterious way peace may come with inaction, or inadequate action—what they advocate is none the less perilous to national security. Their horror of war is not more intense than that of those of us who are convinced that only by having the brigand Nations stopped abroad is there safety for the Americas.

As to what steps are required to stop the Nazis, I certainly am more inclined to accept the judgment of our Army and Navy experts, who have devoted a lifetime to the study of defending America, than I am to consider the judgment of even the most sincere exponent of the idea that we can occupy a water-tight 'compartment in a world filled with war.

I, like the rest of you, hoped that domestic politics would play no part in our defense measures. To some extent our hopes are realized—a multitude of the opposition party is serving the cause zealously and efficiently—but on the other hand, the votes in Congress on the various steps in our preparedness show that partisan politics is still rampant.

There are a very few who still wear a Democratic label who have joined the obstructionists. I think these are in the wrong party.

I would be the last person to dispute or limit the right of every citizen to have his own opinion and express it, and I know you are with me as to the preservation of that utmost freedom. But whether an individual against the principles and policies of a political party retains the right of membership in that party is a different question.

Patriotism is immensely more important than party loyalty, but when party loyalty goes hand in hand with devotion to our country, and a determination to keep that country free and safe, there is no division of allegiance.

I have implicit faith in the youth of this country; I have no doubt where you stand. I only ask you to keep your ranks clear and clean of whatever subversive influences add to our country's peril or make more difficult its protection.