Press Release, Informal Remarks of the President to The Pemiscot County Fair

INFORMAL REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT at THE PEMISCOT COUNTY FAIR, Caruthersville, Missouri, October 7, 1945, 4:30 P.M. Jim Ahearn, my friends of Southeast Missouri, Northeast Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois: It is a pleasure to be here today. Once again I am your guest at the American Legion Fair. It is a customary procedure for me. This is number twelve. I came down here the first time, if I remember correctly, in 1934. At that time, I was the Presiding Judge of the County Court of Jackson County, and a candidate for United States Senator. The next time I came, I was the United States Senator from Missouri, and for nine times I came down here as the Senator from Missouri - - because I liked to come, I have almost as many friends in this part of the great State of Missouri as I have in Jackson County, and that is really saying something. Last year I came as the candidate for Vice President of the United States. Mr. Roosevelt and myself were the candidates on the Democratic ticket. We won that election, as you know, and I settled down as President of the Senate and its Presiding Officer to happily enjoy a four-year term. Then suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, Mr. Roosevelt passed away - - a great leader, a great humanitarian, the greatest of our war Presidents. And the greatest responsibility that ever NARA has fallen to a human being in the history of the world fell to me. In my first address to the Congress, after that happened, I explained to them that I had not sought that responsibility, nor had I sought the honor which goes with that responsibility. But I have been a public servant in one phase or another for the past thirty years, and I have never shirked a job. I shall not shirk this one. I told the Members of Congress and the nation that if we were to be successful - - and we will be, undoubtedly - - it would re- quire the cooperation not only of the Congress but of the country as a whole, for us to accomplish the things which Almighty God intended this great nation to accomplish. Just to rehearse for your benefit a few of the things that have happened since April 12, 1945 - - just about six months ago. The San Francisco Conference was convened on the 25th day of April - just 13 days after I was sworn in as President of the United States. That Conference was successful, and just about four months after it was convened, the United States Senate approved the Charter of the United Nations by an overwhelming majority. There were only two Senators against it, and I never did understand why they were against it. At any rate, the United States entered on an entirely new developi ment of its foreign policy. Some three months after that, I went to Berlin to meet with the heads of the governments of Russia, Great Britain and the United States, in order to discuss the world outlook for the coming peace. The deliberations of that Conference will be felt for generations in the final peace. Just a little less than a month after I became President, that is, 26 days after I was inaugurated, the Axis powers in Europe folded up. On the 12th day of August, Japan folded up. In the mean- time, one of the most earth-shaking discoveries in the history of the world was made - - the development of atomic. energy was discovered. That discovery was used in the last war effort against Japan, and the effect of that atomic bomb is too terrible for contemplation. But we have only begun on the atomic energy program. That great force, if properly used by this country of ours, and by the world at large, can become the greatest boon that humanity has ever had. It can create a world which, in my opinion, will be the happiest world that the sun has ever shone upon. (OVER)