244 State Papers and Addresses

consolation in the fact that their State's financial affairs are in shape: —that,
at a time when Federal taxes are going higher and higher, it will be possible
to make some reductions in Maryland's levies to help balance Federal pay-
ments. Furthermore, as a result of the tremendous expenditures now being
made upon the highways of our State, the next few years will find Maryland's
roadways in the best condition they have been since that well-remembered
time when Maryland, first to realize the importance of good roads, was noted
throughout the Nation for the excellence of her highways.

I've talked in serious vein tonight, but these are times when we must
face facts, even if they are unpleasant facts. We are up against possibly the
greatest threat to our national existence in all our Nation's history. Fortunate
indeed are we, however, in having time to do the things we know must be
done, while another nation keeps the enemy busily engaged, and away from
our threshold.

Don't let us take too much for granted along that line, however, we still
have a long way to go, in preparedness as well as in the ordering of our
industrial existence, to the point where we really can feel satisfied with the
results of our efforts. But at least we have made a start in the right direction,
and are well along on our way.

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF 1940
PHILADELPHIA FORUM

October 15, 1940
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

IT always helps to clarify a situation if a speaker at the outset will state
what he believes and what he does not believe about the opposition candi-
date as well as concerning the candidate whose cause he espouses. I want
, to make myself perfectly clear to this audience which is doing me the honor
of listening to me.

It never has been my belief that all virtue reposes in the Democratic
Party any more than I believe that corruption permeates the Republican Party.
Twenty years in public service, in which I have worked in close association
with representatives of both parties, have taught me that neither has a
"corner" on the markets of intelligence, public-spiritedness or patriotism.
Applying that doctrine to the present campaign, I have no hesitancy in
admitting that the Republican Party presents a candidate whose integrity is
above question, whose capabilities cannot be ignored and whose patriotism
cannot be impugned. It is entirely creditable to the Republican standard-
bearer and to the party he represents that his success is self-made; that he
has risen to the high position he now occupies by force of his attainments
and industry, and that he is intent upon doing for the United States and its
future all that he can do in order to perpetuate the basic principles upon which
this great Nation was founded.

I think it is in order to undertake such a discussion as this by considering
which of the political parties—based upon their records—is to be preferred,