Press Release, Address of President Harry S. Truman at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri

# 245803 242 HOLD RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE June 8, 1950 : The following address of the President, to be delivered at the site of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the river front, St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday, June 10, 1950, IS FOR RELEASE at 3:00 p.m., c.d.t. (4:00 p.m., e.d.t.) on that 'day. at The same. release applies to all newspapers, radio announcers and news broadcasters. NOTE: PLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREVATURE PUBLICATION OR RADIO RELEASE. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President I am happy to participate in the dedication of this historic site to the memory of Thomas Jefferson and the early pioneers and settlers of our westward expansion. The park which is to be created here will bear witness to our gratitude to Jefferson and the brave men who explored and settled the area of the Louisiana Purchase. This park will commemorate a great act of statesmanship. 10 When Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, our country acquired a material basis for the kind of democratic society of NARA which Jefferson dreamed. The abundant lands of the West made it possible for millions of families to settle on their own farms as freeholders and independent citizens. This rural society of free men fixed the democratic character of our institutions. After this, the country changed in many ways and was exposed to many dangers, but its democratic nature could never be shaken. The foes of democracy, whether they were the old Federalists, or the monopolists of a later period, or the adherents of new tyrannies and dictatorships, have not been able to prevail against it. We sometimes forget that we owe the Louisiana Purchase to Jefferson's wisdom and experience in foreign affairs. Foreign policy was a matter of first importance in Tefferson's time, just as it is today. The United States in those days was a new nation, and weak by comparison with the great European empires, Its continued survival as an independent country depended upon its having the goodwill and friendship of other countries. Today, our foreign policy is that of one of the strongest nations in the world. But the future welfare of our country still depends upon our foreign policy just as it did in Jefferson's time. This is true not only because the world has shrunk in terms of space and time -- it is true also because in our day totalitarian tyrannies have sprung up in the world. These tyrannies, whether of the left or of the right, have threatened free institutions and freel governments everywhere. In this situation, our country has been impelled by the principles of freedom for which we stand, and by the needs of our national security, to take a leading role in the search for a just and permanent peace among nations. We have taken the position of leadership that President Wilson wanted us to take after the first World War. Our aim today is the same as his aim was then -- to establish a peace- ful world order in which disputes between nations can be adjusted (OVER)