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PAPER XVII
". . . We will extend to the opponents of force the material resources
of this Nation; . . ."
Address at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.,
June 10, 1940
President Newcomb, my friends of the University of Virginia:
I notice by the program that I am asked to address the class of 1940. I
avail myself of that privilege. But I also take this very apt occasion
to speak to many other classes that have graduated through all the
years, classes that are still in the period of study, not alone in the
schools of learning of the Nation, but classes that have come up through
the great schools of experience; in other words a cross section of the
country, just as you who graduate today are a cross section of the
Nation as a whole.
Every generation of young men and women in America has questions to ask
the world. Most of the time they are the simple but nevertheless
difficult questions, questions of work to do, opportunities to find,
ambitions to satisfy.
But every now and again in the history of the Republic a different kind
of question presents itself-a question that asks, not about the future
of an individual or even of a generation, but about the future of the
country, the future of the American people.
There was such a time at the beginning of our history as a Nation. Young
people asked themselves in those days what lay ahead, not for
themselves, but for the new United States.
There was such a time again in the seemingly endless years of the War
Between the States. Young men and young women on both sides of the line
asked themselves, not what trades or professions they would enter, what
lives they would make, but what was to become of the country they had
known.
There is such a time again today. Again today the young men and the
young women of America ask themselves with earnestness and with deep
concern this same question: "What is to become of the country we know?"
Now they ask it with even greater anxiety than before. They ask, not
only what the future holds for this Republic, but what the future holds
for all peoples and all nations that have been living under democratic
forms of Government-under the free institutions of a free people.
It is understandable to all of us that they should ask this question.
They read the words of those who are telling them that the ideal of
individual liberty, the ideal of free franchise, the ideal of peace
through justice, are decadent ideals. They read the word and hear the
boast of those who say that a belief in force-force directed by self-
chosen leaders-is the new and vigorous system which will overrun the
earth.
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They have seen the ascendancy of this philosophy of force in nation
after nation where free institutions and individual liberties were once
maintained.
It is natural and understandable that the younger generation should
first ask itself what the extension of the philosophy of force to all
the world would lead to ultimately. We see today in stark reality some
of the consequences of what we call the machine age.
Where control of machines has been retained in the hands of mankind as a
whole, untold benefits have accrued to mankind. For mankind was then the
master; and the machine was the servant.
But in this new system of force the mastery of the machine is not in the
hands of mankind. It is in the control of infinitely small groups of
individuals who rule without a single one of the democratic sanctions
that we have known. The machine in hands of irresponsible conquerors
becomes the master; mankind is not only the servant; it is the victim,
too. Such mastery abandons with deliberate contempt all the moral values
to which even this young country for more than three hundred years has
been accustomed and dedicated.
Surely the new philosophy proves from month to month that it could have
no possible conception of the way of life or the way of thought of a
nation whose origins go back to Jamestown and Plymouth Rock.
Conversely, neither those who spring from that ancient stock nor those
who have come hither in later years can be indifferent to the
destruction of freedom in their ancestral lands across the sea.
Perception of danger to our institutions may come slowly or it may come
with a rush and a shock as it has to the people of the United States in
the past few months. This perception of danger has come to us clearly
and overwhelming]y; and we perceive the peril in a worldwide arena-an
arena that may become so narrowed that only the Americas will retain the
ancient faiths.
Some indeed still hold to the now somewhat obvious delusion that we of
the United States can safely permit the United States to become a lone
island, a lone island in a world dominated by the philosophy of force.
Such an island may be the dream of those who still talk and vote as
isolationists. Such an island represents to me and to the overwhelming
majority of Americans today a helpless nightmare of a people without
freedom-the nightmare of a people lodged in prison, handcuffed, hungry,
and fed through the bars from day to day by the contemptuous, unpitying
masters of other continents.
It is natural also that we should ask ourselves how now we can prevent
the building of that prison and the placing of ourselves in the midst of
it.
Let us not hesitate-all of us-to proclaim certain truths. Overwhelmingly
we, as a nation-and this applies to all the other American nations-are
convinced that military and naval victory for the gods of force and hate
would endanger the institutions of democracy in the western world, and
that equally, therefore, the whole of our sympathies lies with those
nations that are giving their life blood in combat against these forces.
The people and the Government of the United States have seen with the
utmost regret and with grave disquiet the decision of the Italian
Government to engage in the hostilities now raging Europe.
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More than three months ago the Chief of the Italian Government sent me
word that because of the determination of Italy to limit, so far as
might be possible, the spread of the European conflict, more than two
hundred millions of people in the region of the Mediterranean had been
enabled to escape the suffering and the devastation of war.
I informed the Chief of the Italian Government that this desire on the
part of Italy to prevent the war from spreading met with full sympathy
and response on the part of the Government and the people of the United
States, and I expressed the earnest hope of this Government and of this
people that this policy on the part of Italy might be continued. I made
it clear that in the opinion of the Government of the United States any
extension of hostilities in the region of the Mediterranean might result
in a still greater enlargement of the scene of the conflict, the
conflict in the Near East and in Africa and that if this came to pass no
one could foretell how much greater the theater of the war eventually
might become.
Again on a subsequent occasion, not so long ago, recognizing that
certain aspirations of Italy might form the basis of discussions among
the powers most specifically concerned, I offered, in a message
addressed to the Chief of the Italian Government, to send to the
Governments of France and of Great Britain such specific indications of
the desires of Italy to obtain readjustments with regard to her position
as the Chief of the Italian Government might desire to transmit through
me. While making it clear that the Government of-the United States in
such an event could not and would not assume responsibility for the
nature of the proposals submitted nor for agreements which might
thereafter be reached, I proposed that if Italy would refrain from
entering the war I would be willing to ask assurances from the other
powers concerned that they would faithfully execute any agreement so
reached and that Italy's voice in any future peace conference would have
the same authority as if Italy had actually taken part in the war, as a
belligerent.
Unfortunately to the regret of all of us and the regret of humanity, the
Chief of the Italian Government was unwilling to accept the procedure
suggested and he has made no counter proposal.
This Government directed its efforts to doing what it could to work for
the preservation of peace in the Mediterranean area, and it likewise
expressed its willingness to endeavor to cooperate with the Government
of Italy when the appropriate occasion arose for the creation of a more
stable world order, through the reduction of armaments, and through the
construction of a more liberal international economic system which would
assure to all powers equality of opportunity in the world's markets and
in the securing of raw materials on equal terms.
I have likewise, of course, felt it necessary in my communications to
Signor Mussolini to express the concern of the Government of the United
States because of the fact that any extension of the war in the region
of the Mediterranean would inevitably result in great prejudice to the
ways of life and Government and to the trade and commerce of all the
American Republics.
The Government of Italy has now chosen to preserve what it terms its
"freedom of action" and to fulfill what it states are its promises to
Germany. In so doing it has manifested disregard for the rights and
security of other nations, disregard for the lives
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of the peoples of those nations which are directly threatened by this
spread of the war; and has evidenced its unwillingness to find the means
through pacific negotiations for the satisfaction of what it believes
are its legitimate aspirations.
On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has
struck it into the back of its neighbor.
On this tenth day of June, 1940, in this University founded by the first
great American teacher of democracy, we send forth our prayers and our
hopes to those beyond the seas who are maintaining with magnificent
valor their battle for freedom.
In our American unity, we will pursue two obvious and simultaneous
courses: we will extend to the opponents of force the material resources
of this nation; and, at the same time, we will harness and speed up the
use of those resources in order that we ourselves in the Americas may
have equipment and training equal to the task of any emergency and every
defense.
All roads leading to the accomplishment of these objectives must be kept
clear of obstructions. We will not slow down or detour. Signs and
signals call for speed-full speed ahead.
It is right that each new generation should ask questions. But in recent
months the principal question has been somewhat simplified. Once more
the future of the nation and of the American people is at stake.
We need not and we will not, in any way, abandon our continuing effort
to make democracy work within our borders. We still insist on the need
for vast improvements in our own social and economic life.
But that is a component part of national defense itself.
The program unfolds swiftly and into that program will fit the
responsibility and the opportunity of every man and woman in the land to
preserve his and her heritage in days of peril.
I call for effort, courage, sacrifice, devotion. Granting the love of
freedom, all of these are possible.
And the love of freedom is still fierce and steady in the nation today.
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See Papers IX, XIV, XIX, XXI, XXII, of this series for Western
Hemisphere defense and aid to opponents of force. See also Public Papers
and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 Volume, pp. 587-595, 673-
678, for notes on Lend-Lease and financial aid to China.