Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Chicago, Illinois

IIIIII NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE" GOVERNMENT HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 24, 1948 CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President, to be delivered in Chicago, Illinois, tomorrow Monday, October 25, 1948, IS FOR RELEASE IN ALL REGULAR EDITIONS OF MORNING NEWSPAPERS OF Tuesday, October 26, 1948 CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President It is inspiring to recall that in this Hall, sixteen years ago, the Democratic Party gave the Nation our great leader, Franklin D. Roosevelt. And when I think of Chicago, I can never forget that four years ago the Democratic Party honored me here with the nomination for Vice-President. We have passed through many stormy and exciting days since the election of 1944. We were fighting a terrible war then. We won that war for freedom. Now we are engaged in an even greater struggle -- the struggle to preserve freedom and peace throughout the world. The principal objective of my Administration has been to create world-wide conditions of a just and lasting peace. I have never turned from that objective. And I never will stop working for peace! I have worked hard for peace, because I know that peace is no idle dream. It is a real and living possibility. In our own generation, mankind has taken some long steps toward this goal. Thirty years ago, a great Democratic President gave voice to the conscience of the world when he proposed the League of Nations. That President was Woodrow Wilson. Vicious partisan attacks kept the United States from joining the League, but Woodrow Wilson opened up a great vision for all those who have come after him. Because we did not live up to our God-given opportunity, after World Mar I, the League of Nations failed to prevent the most tragic war in history - the second World War. We hope we have learned our lesson. Now we have another chance. We have a chance, this time, to build enduring peace. We have that chance because of the vision of another great Democratic President. Franklin Roosevelt's wisdom and foresight inspired the nations of the world to forge a new and stronger instrument to keep the peace -- the United Nations. Today, any nation which dares to contemplate aggressive war knows that it must face the collective judgment of the United Nations and the combined forces of many countries. We all know that we have a long way to go before the threat of war is finally lifted. The United Nations still lacks much of the power which it must have to do its work successfully. But we are on our way. And, please God, with courageous and sustained effort on the part of the free nations of the world, we can do more than merely avert war. (OVER)