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Address
Delivered by President Roosevelt at Arlington Cemetery, November 1l, 1935
The living memory of the World War is close
to each of us today. Our thoughts return to great objectives of the past, even
as the minds of older men go back to their boyhood's ideals.
We Americans were so placed that we gained a
perspective of the great world conflict that was perhaps clearer than that of
our fellow men who were closer to the scene of battle. For most of the first 3
years of the war we were not participants; but during the final phase we
ourselves engaged on many fronts.
For that reason perhaps we understood, as
well as any, the cries that went up—that the world conflict should be made a
war to end wars. We were not invaded nor were we threatened with invasion, then
or later; but the very distance of our view led us to perceive the dire results
of war through days of following peace.
The primary purpose of this Nation is to
avoid being drawn into war. It seeks also in every practicable way to promote
peace and to discourage war. Except for those few who have placed or who place
temporary, selfish gain ahead of national or world peace, the overwhelming mass
of American citizens are in hearty accord with these basic policies of our
Government, as they are also entirely sympathetic with the efforts of other
nations to end war.
That is why we too have striven with great
consistency to approve steps to remove the causes of war and to disapprove
steps taken by others to commit acts of aggression. We have either led or
performed our full part in every important attempt to limit and to reduce armaments.
We have sought by definite act and solemn commitment to establish the United
States as a good neighbor among nations. We are acting to simplify definitions
and facts by calling war "war" when armed invasion and a resulting
killing of human beings take place.
But though our course is consistent and
clear, it is with disappointment and sorrow that we confess that the world's
gain thus far has been small.
I would not be frank with you if I did not
tell you that the dangers that confront the future of mankind as a whole are
greater to the world and therefore to us than the dangers which confront the
people of the United States by and in themselves alone.
Jealousies between nations continue;
armaments increase; national
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ambitions that disturb the world's peace are thrust forward. Most serious
of all, international confidence in the sacredness of international contracts
is on the wane.
The memory of our hopes of 1917 and 1918 dies
with the death of those of us who took part. It is, therefore, your sacred
obligation and mine, by conscious effort, to pass that memory on to succeeding
generations. A new generation, even in its cradle or still unborn, is coming to
the fore. The children in our schools, the young men and women passing through
our colleges into productive life, have, unlike us, no direct knowledge of the
meaning of war. They are not immune to the glamour of war, to the opportunities
to escape from the drabness and worry of hard times at home in the glory and
heroism of the arms factory and the battlefield. Fortunately there is evidence
on every hand that the youth of America, as a whole, is not trapped by that
delusion. They know that elation and prosperity which may come from a new war
must lead—for those who survive it—to economic and social collapse more
sweeping than any we have experienced in the past. While, therefore, we cannot
and must not hide our concern for grave world dangers, and while, at the same
time, we cannot build walls around ourselves and hide our heads in the sand, we
must go forward with all our strength to stress and to strive for international
peace.
In this effort America must and will protect
herself. Under no circumstances will this policy of self-protection go to
lengths beyond self-protection. Aggression on the part of the United States is
an impossibility insofar as the present administration of your Government is
concerned. Defense against aggression by others—adequate defense on land, on
sea, and in air—is our accepted policy; and the measure of that defense is and
will be solely the amount necessary to safeguard us against the armaments of
others. The more greatly they decrease their armaments, the more quickly and
surely shall we decrease ours.
In many other fields, by word and deed, we are
giving example to the world by removing or lowering barriers which impede
friendly intercourse. Our soldier and sailor dead call to us across the years
to make our lives effective in building constructively for peace. It is fitting
that on this Armistice Day I am privileged to tell you that between us and a
great neighbor, another act cementing our historic friendship has been agreed
upon and is being consummated. Between Canada and the United States exists a
neighborliness, a genuine friendship, which for over a century has dispelled
every passing rift.
Our two peoples, each independent in
themselves, are closely knit
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by ties of blood and a common heritage; our standards of life are
substantially the same; our commerce and our economic conditions rest upon the
same foundations. Between two such peoples, if we would build constructively
for peace and progress, the flow of intercourse should be mutually beneficial
and not unduly hampered. Each has much to gain, by material profit and by
increased employment, through the means of enlarged trade, one with the other.
I am, therefore, happy to be able to tell you
on Armistice Day that the Canadian Prime Minister and I, after thoughtful
discussion of our national problems, have reached a definite agreement which
will eliminate disagreements and unreasonable restrictions, and thus work to
the advantage of both Canada and the United States.
The power of good example is the strongest
force in the world. It surpasses preachments; it excels good resolutions; it is
better than agreements unfulfilled.
If we as a nation, by our good example, can
contribute to the peaceful well-being of the fellowship of nations, our course
through the years will not have been in vain.
We who survive have profited by the good
example of our fellow Americans who gave their lives in war. On these
surrounding hills of Virginia they rest—thousands upon thousands—in the last
bivouac of the dead. Below us, across the river, we see a great Capital of a
great Nation.
The past and the present unite in the prayer
that America will ever seek the ways of peace, and by her example at home and
abroad speed the return of good will among men.