of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 353

America is on trial, and our democratic form of government is under-
going its supreme test. More than half the world is ruled or is being pillaged
by the Dictators, and. the survival of the gallant countries which are lighting
against their aggressions hangs. in the balance.

It is unfortunate that we as a people failed for so long to grasp the fact
that the growth of the European dictatorships during the past decade has been
a challenge and a threat to us, as well as to the balance of the world. That
failure on our part, while unfortunate, is easy to understand. We were, and
are, a peace-loving people, given to the practice and preservation of the doc-
trines, of individual liberty, and the equality of men. We found it well-nigh
impossible even to conceive that there could arise on any national or inter-
national scale, a movement challenging the very fundamentals of civilization,
and openly seeking to overthrow the attainments of mankind during the past-
thousand years.

The right of individual liberty;. the fight to worship God according to the
individual conscience; the right of assembly; the right of free speech, free press
and radio—in spite of what we heard or read from time to "time, —we simply
could not conceive that even a dictatorship would ever attempt to take these
liberties away.

It is true that our President was far-sighted enough to sense the danger,
and so intimated in his Chicago speech of several years ago. The mass of our
people, however, as well as our leadership otherwise, failed to perceive it—at
any rate, to proclaim it.

With the onslaught on Poland, the ravishment of Norway; the betrayal of
Denmark; the enslavement of Holland and Belgium, and the overthrow -of
France, we began to open our eyes. We then began to take notice of the fact
that we too are in danger. But even then, there were and are yet, many hun-
dreds of thousands of our people who seem to think that the breadth of the
Atlantic Ocean is sufficient protection.

The overwhelming majority of us, however, without regard to party, sect,
or class, determined that while the Atlantic would be helpful, we dare not rely
upon it as our sole protection—therefore, a vast defense preparation has been
for some months underway.

It is in that connection that today's proceedings are being held, and it is
well. The lesson of the past year and a half, particularly, has made it plain •
that one of the most effective methods used by these dictatorships in their
conquering march has been the setting up of a vast system of subversive
agencies in the country about to be attacked.

This method, by which apparently friendly visitors are used to confuse,
mislead, betray and injure the nation visited, has come to be referred to popu-
larly as the Fifth Column method. The setting up of such a net work of
espionage and sabotage has ordinarily been found to have taken place months,
and even years, before the attack. It further appears that only the leaders of
the Columnists—key men—are sent from abroad; that members of their race
who have long been residents of the visited country are depended upon largely
to carry out the work of confusion, destruction, and betrayal.
. It is no longer a question for debate as to whether or not such foreign