of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 265

and the most obscure, is still as rightful a claimant for protection under the
Flag as any other. The Constitution of the United States guarantees the
same privileges to every man and woman and, therefore, we have every
reason to stand shoulder to shoulder as loyal Americans, equally interested
and joint owners of the most priceless possession of government.

Let us also remember that the same Constitution proved that the Presi-
dent of the United States is our Commander-in-chief. Having been chosen
by the majority to guide the destinies of the Nation, he is entitled to receive,
and I am sure will receive, the unstinted and loyal support of all citizens.
There is no place on the program for dissension, for partisanship, for obstruc-
tionist tactics. Political considerations must now be laid aside while our
people act and think for the promotion and welfare of our great Country.

-Armistice Day must ever remind us that our blessings exist only because
men have gone to war to procure and protect them for us. We would be
neither independent nor united, nor Democratically governed, unless there
had been men who died in battles, and gold-star mothers who raised them
in the love of their Country. Other patriots, who lived through the war,
continue to deserve the gratitude of the American public for preserving our
institutions.

Our obligation to all those who went to the defense of their Country will
never be re-paid if we do not stand together as Americans. We owe it them
to re-dedicate ourselves today to perpetuating everything worthwhile in
American life. We owe it to our fellow-men to strive for the eradication of
un-American activities and practices. We owe it to our Country to exert
every possible effort to maintain what is the Land of the Free and the Home
of the Brave.

I

ARMISTICE DAY CELEBRATION

St. Joseph's College, November 17, 1940
Emmitsburg

IT would be difficult to picture a more peaceful setting for an Armistice Day
celebration than this beautiful college of St. Joseph's, with its background
of cultural traditions. Certainly the Francis X. Elder Post of the American
Legion could not have chosen a lovelier spot in which to center its patriotic
demonstration.

What a contrast this gathering presents to scenes that are taking place
in many sections of Europe this afternoon! How sharp that contrast is, our
minds can hardly conceive, because we have no adequate idea of conditions
that prevail across the sea. Just as an instance of the difference, however,
I might cite the quoted remarks of Ambassador Kennedy's private secretary,
just returned from England with the Ambassador, who told a boyhood friend
the other day that even in the quiet of his Massachusetts home he could not
hear the drone of an airplane motor without instinctively running for shelter.

A year ago there may have been many Sunday afternoon meetings like
this within the confines of French colleges similar to yours. Today, these
quiet gatherings are no more, and it is just to make sure that the fate of