Excerpts from the Press Conference

Q. Mr. President, may I ask a question about the Atlantic Charter which was discussed at our last press conference? It seems that recently a number of people have felt that we are losing the purposes, or that they are slipping away from us —

THE PRESIDENT: (interposing) Again, it depends on which paper you read.

Q. Well, I would like to hear from the President and not merely from others. I would like to know what the President thinks about it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I ought to prepare something a little formal and think it over, but I will try it.

There are certain—you might call them documents, because is a telegram a document?—I don't know—"pronouncements," call it that, that in all history have been made. Some of them are of a good deal of importance, some of them do have an effect on the thinking of a public towards objectives, and for a better world.

And the Atlantic Charter stands as an objective. A great many of the previous pronouncements that go back many centuries have not been attained yet, and yet the objective is still just as good as it was when it was announced several thousand years ago.

And I think that the objective of the Atlantic Charter is just as sound, if you believe in that kind of objective—some people don't, some people laugh at it- just as valid as when it was announced in 1941.

There are a lot of people who say you can't attain an objective or improvement in human life or in humanity, therefore why talk about it. Well, those people who come out for the Ten Commandments will say we don't all live up to the Ten Commandments, which is perfectly true, but on the whole they are pretty good. It's something pretty good to shoot for. The Christian religion most of us in the room happen to belong to, we think it is pretty good. We certainly haven't attained it. Well, the Atlantic Charter is going to take its place, not comparing it with the Christian religion or the Ten Commandments, but as a definite step, just the same way as Wilson's Fourteen Points constituted a major contribution to something we would all like to see happen in the world. Well, those Fourteen Points weren't all attained, but it was a step towards a better life for the population of the world.

And every once in a while somebody comes forward with something else, and will in the future. It depends a little bit on how you are built.

Q. Mr. President, did you mean to imply by that that we are as far from attaining the ends of the Atlantic Charter as the world was a thousand years ago?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, no. Oh, no. The world goes a little bit by peaks and valleys, but on the whole the curve is upward; on the whole, over these thousands of years human life is on a great deal better scale than it was then. And we have got a long way to go.

But things are better, and things are going to get better, if we work for it. There are some people who don't like to work for it- some people in this room—who are—what will I say?—congenitally "agin" that sort of thing. Well, that is part of the peaks and valleys. . . .

Q. Mr. President, have there been any further developments toward a meeting between the Big Three?

THE PRESIDENT: Not yet. And, by the way, when it is- when a development is made, you won't be told. (Laughter) There is such a thing known as security for a ship or for a plane, which we have to maintain, as we have in the past. It would be vital about maintaining it when they have known about the fact that I had gone—a pretty good guess as to which way I had gone would be the same thing.

MR. EARLY: Make that off the record.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. That's off the record.

Q. Is there any chance of inviting or bringing, then, Mr. Stalin here, do you think?

THE PRESIDENT: No.

Q. Mr. President—

THE PRESIDENT: (interposing) That has to be off the record.

Q. That's all off the record, too?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q. Mr. President, is there anything that could be said to further our understanding as to what has held up this meeting up to this point? Since you have said you were anxious to meet, Mr. Churchill has said the same thing.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, again, I have got to tell you off the record. It's largely a question of geography. There aren't three people in the same place. You can't hold a conference in several different places. There has got to be one place. That has to be off the record, too. In other words, to find a place that three of us can go to.

Q. Does the fact that the Premier of Russia is also actively at the head of the armed forces have a bearing on that?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, all kinds of factors. . . .

Q. Mr. President, there has been some discussion of a joint chiefs of staff for political and economic questions, similar to the joint chiefs of staff for military questions. Is there anything comparable to that in contemplation?

THE PRESIDENT: I think that was a columnist suggested that, wasn't it? It was a columnist, that's right. All we can say is that columnists are with us, an unnecessary excrescence on our civilization. Excuse me. (Laughter)

MAY CRAIG: (interposing) But you have one in the family! [Mrs. Roosevelt's column, "My Day."] (Loud laughter)

THE PRESIDENT: (laughing) Yes, that's true. That's different. (continued laughter) Very good—very good. That's perfectly true, May, but it's a little bit different. Mostly it's a diary. (More laughter) . . .