Press Release, Address by President Harry S. Truman

52459 HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE JUNE 30, 1950 278 CONFIDENTIAL The following address of the President, to be delivered at the Boy Scout Jamboree, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is for release at 9:00 E.D.T., Friday, June. 30, 1950. The same release applies to all newspapers, radio commentators and news broadcasters. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President As Honorary President of the Boy Scouts of America, I am proud to open this Scout Jamboree. I understand that there are nearly fifty thousand Scouts in this encampment. I am glad to see, such evidence of the strength of the Scout novement. And I think it most appropriate in times like these that you have chosen to hold your Jamboree at this his- toric shrine of Valley Forge. When George Washington brought his army to this spot in De- cember 1777, the cause of independence appeared to be lost. His army at that time numbered only 11,000 men -- less than one-fourth the number of Scouts attending this Jamboree. Washington's men were without adequate food. They were in rags. Some had no shoes. They had to build their own shelter against the bitter weather. The enemy occupied the capital TRUMAN city of Philadelphia. Few men believed that George Washington is tiny NARA force could survive. Victory seemed out of the question. But the men of that army stuck it out. They stuck it out be- cause they had a fierce belief in the causo of freedom for which they were lighting. And because of that belief, they won, I know that we still have, in this country, the same unconquer able belief in freedom. Many of you know, I am suro, that mon from other countries came over here, during our Revolutionary War, to ficht with us for freedom. Lafayette, a Frenchman; Von Steuben, a German; Pulaski, a Fole, and many others were here with our army at Valley Forge. Today, even more than in Hashington' time, men in other coun- tries share our belief in freddom and our rillingness to make sacrifices for it. These ment are just as eager as we are to achieve peace in the world based on freedom and justice. If we are to succeed in our common struggle for peaco, we must. know and work with these freedom-loving people of other countries. Ne need to understand their problems and they need to understand ours, so that all of us can work together effoctively. I am very glad that the Boy Scouts are doing so much to further this understanding among people from different countries. You are to be congratulated on sending so many food and clothing packages overseas and on your support of the United Nations Appeal for Children and the World Friendship Fund. To At this encampment, there are Scouts from every State in the Union, from Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and from the Philippines and many othor foreign countries. This is a practical demonstrition of how to achieve world understanding. When you vrork and live together, and exchange ideas around the campfire, you got to know what the other fellow is like. That is the first step toward settling world problems in a spirit of givo and take, instead of fighting about them. I wish that more people from foreign countries would visit here and learn about our way of life. When visitors come over here and spend somo time with us, they carry back to their home countries a truer pic- ture of what American democracy is really like. And the same thing is true in the other direction. The more of us from the United States who go abroad, and live for awhile with pe ople in other countries, the better prepared we will be to work with other nations for peace in the world. (OVER)