388 State Papers and Addresses

day to contemplate the advantages that are ours by reason solely of the fact
that we enjoy citizenship in the United States of America.

It was in keeping with this thought that I gladly issued a proclamation,
following President Roosevelt, in setting aside today in Maryland as "I Am
An American Day. " While the purpose of this observance, as set forth in the
proclamation, is "for the instruction of future citizens in their duties and
opportunities as citizens of the United States, " I believe that in this year of
1941, "I Am An American Day" is a day for every American, and possibly
most particularly for those Americans who were born in this Country, who
never knew any life but the free life of America, and who consequently can
have no real conception of what it would mean if the present threats to our
security should be carried out, and we would be deprived of our God-Given

American freedom.
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In the proclamation issued, I further urged "that recognition be given

on this day to such of our citizens as have attained their majority, or have
been naturalized during the year, " and I further called upon all State and
local officials, all patriotic, civil and educational organizations, to initiate
or join in exercises designed to impress upon all citizens the true significance
of citizenship in this Nation.

Surely today, as we contemplate what has happened and what is happen-
ing abroad, we can truly appreciate what it means to be a citizen of the United
States—and to know that while millions of our fellow-beings in other once-free
lands are in virtual slavery, ofttimes hungry, and with no basis for hope of
relief from their present difficulties, we here in this Country, as always in the
years past, are free to act, to gather, to speak, to live exactly as we wish.

Today, there is more reason than ever before why Americanism true love
of this Country and its institutions, should be a living thing in the hearts and
minds of everyone of us. No other Country on the face of the earth has so
much that is definitely worth being proud of, and definitely worth protecting.
And protect it we must, before it is too late!

The dictators seek to assure the world that in this modern day there is
no room for individualism, that only when the state is supreme and takes
complete charge of everything and everyone, even down to their innermost
private lives, can the governmental system succeed. For more than a century
and a half we have proved the contrary of this. And as. long as America and
the Democracies of the British Empire survive, the very fact of survival will
refute the self-seeking demands of totalitarian chiefs for complete domination.

Since our forefathers in America first set up their system of free govern-
ment; since they first proclaimed to the world the inherent dignity of man and
his God-given right to certain privileges, among them the privilege of self-
government, America has stood like a beacon in the sky, a symbol of liberty
to all mankind.

We are passing through momentous times. No one of us can say that
history is being made at this very moment, what new boundaries are being
invaded, what new peoples are being over-run. History teaches us, however,