of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 231

behavior without concluding that the two are absolutely different. Whereas
America seeks none of the possessions of foreign countries and has nothing
but the most complete good will towards other peoples, the centuries have
built up in the mind of European peoples national desires and bitterness that
underlie and shape their every national action.

Even while they were bombing defenseless cities, the aggressor nations of
Europe were beating their breasts and proclaiming their desire for peace. Now,
however, they have thrown aside all pretense of lofty motives and are revealed
for what they are—war-mad, self-seeking rulers who, disregarding all ideas
of rights of others, feel that the time now is ripe for them to realize their
dreams for the conquest of the world.

Look at the situation abroad. London is burning; Paris is captured;
Rotterdam and Warsaw are partly in ruins. Throughout England, homes of
defensless women and children are bombed by ruthless raiders who hurl de-
struction from the clouds as carelessly as we would throw pebbles into a well.
Hospitals and churches have been the target of tons of dynamite. Not even
the dead can rest in peace because cemeteries are -blasted by bombs which tear
up acres as the raiders continue their daily work.

The people of America view with deep concern, almost, I might say, with
consternation, the new, inhuman theories of government that have risen to
plague Europe and to threaten seriously our own national security. We see
unjustified and unjustifiable attacks upon weak and defenseless nations, and
we are told brazenly by war-crazed dictators that even we may be subject to
similar humiliations and conquests.

Thus it is that our people today, almost without exception, are ready to
build up our armaments, to add materially to our armed forces, and to con-
struct a two-ocean navy that will be unmatched by any nation in the world, in
order to warn off, if possible, any or all attacks that may be contemplated or
made against us.

But, and emphasize. this also, American people are facing the facts today
without the misunderstanding that misled them in 1917. Through bitter ex-
perience we have come to know that we can never persuade Europe to accept
and live by American principles or American ideals.

. That American ideals of peace among nations can be achieved is evidenced
clearly by our own splendid relationship over a period of more than a century
and a half with a great neighbor to the North, Canada. Although under
different flags, our people and the people of Canada speak the same language
and voice the same sentiments on international relations. Many nationalities
are represented on both sides of the border, but no racial antagonisms separate
us. In all the long borderline, there is not a single fortification. With the
passing years, the residents of these two countries mingle more and more
freely, and become more and more brotherly in their national relations.

Why is it that our people in America are so determined to continue to
live the American way, rather than to conform their lives to some new pattern
worked out in a foreign laboratory? The answer is plain and unmistakeable
for anyone to read who is not blinded by loyalty to foreign principles or unin-
formed in American ways of thinking.

The-American way of living, won for us on the battlefields of the American
Revolution, and preserved to us by our gallant forefathers through many a