of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 397

ing its responsibilities, without pledging yourself to carry on and to sustain, at
whatever cost may be entailed, the heritage of freedom and liberty that has
been entrusted to your care.

We can, if we wish it, be entirely complacent about our Americanism, and
content ourselves with the consoling thought that America is the most comfort-
able place in all the world in which one can live today. Our cities are not being
bombed; there are no dictatorial officials to tell us what we may or may not do
or say; how we may live; in what channels we may direct our efforts to earn a
living. We are free as no other peoples in the world are, to go and come, to
speak, to assemble, to worship as we may. And such privileges stand out in
sharper contrast than ever before because so much of the rest of the world
today denied those liberties which have become the very staff of our national
and individual existence.

To be real Americans today, however, and to accept one's full responsi-
bilities as such, is admittedly a serious matter. From the earliest days of our
Country's settlement, our ancestors have been motivated by ideals—ideals of
liberty, of laudable ambition, of hatred of oppression, ideals that all add up to,
and are best expressed by the word democracy. We must preserve these
ideals today!

In the face of happenings of recent months, it sometimes would appear
that all that has been done in this Country in the interest of democracy, all
the suffering, all the travail, has been to little purpose when, all about us, we
see the divine spark of freedom choked and throttled, and the God-given
rights of man flouted and destroyed.

Is all the freedom that our forefathers worked for, that our ancestors
bought for us at so dear a price, is all this a will-of-the-wisp, a lie? Is that
equality among men of which we have so proudly boasted to all the world—is
that merely a delusion? The dictators would tell us so, but I for one cannot
accept their version. And I know full well that America will never accept it!

Ours is a peace-loving nation; the citizens of America did not desire war.
they crave to live in peace and concord with their fellow men and women
. throughout the world and are not jealously seeking any possessions of her
sister nations. International peace and good will are intensely desired by our
people. America had enough of war twenty years ago and the loss, both in
men and property, is still being suffered.

Above all such considerations, however, the people of America realize
that there are things infinitely worse than war. In fact, nearly all of Europe
today furnishes striking example of this fact. Whether we keep out of war,
only the future will say, but whatever comes I have faith that the people of
America will shoulder their responsibilities, will put their heart and soul into
whatever efforts are demanded of them. America values its freedom, its unique
place among the nations of the world, too thoroughly ever to permit them to
be taken from her.

The future is uncertain, indeed, but if we face it with a keen sense of our
responsibilities, new citizens as well as. old, we can find a solution to our
problems. We can retain for ourselves and for those to come after us, all
that has made America the great nation that it is, all that makes life in
America worthwhile.