of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 466

I say that we received a rude awakening. I can only hope and pray that
it was and is rude enough to shock us—to shake us—to galvanize us into ac-
tion. For without natural love of people, with our belief in the good and
homely things of life, we have a tendency to become complacent. We are apt
to put such faith in Democracy as to think it a defense unto itself. Oh, yes,
Americans always rise to an emergency. Americans hearken to the voice of
our chosen leaders.

Having made some efforts, our people are prone to relax a little. And
therein lies our greatest danger, because this National emergency is not a thing
that waxes and wanes from day to day. It is a constant menace. It is an
ever-growing peril. It creeps in from the horizon and comes like a. poisonous
fog between us and the sunlight of our liberty. It was there yesterday—it
will not be gone tomorow.

Today is the time—every day is the time for Americans to cry out to one
another "Awake and Arouse", '' for that creeping darkness on the horizon is the
shadow of a vulture's wings. You can hear them beating, if you listen. You
can also hear the moans and groans and anguished cries of victims already
torn and mangled by its bloody talons, and, as if the terrible holocaust in
Europe were not enough, the last few days have brought another threat through
renewed movements in the Far East.

Who are these victims? They were the weak, they were the unprepared,
they were the gullible peoples, also once secure in their chosen ways of life
who believed that the vulture meant no harm to them. Hadn't the vulture said
so ? Hadn't it cooed like a dove ? Hadn't it twisted its hideous face into smiles
of innocence and grimaces of friendship? We cannot name one single victim
from the shores of France to the steppes of. Russia who had not been lulled with
promises and caught napping.

Who then is really safe from this dragon of the sky ? Only a nation with
weapons already in hand. Only peoples who reject in derision and disgust the
promises of any kind from that monster of so many deceits. The price of
liberty is eternal vigilance. That old maxim was never more true than it is
today. It is the mocking tragedy of humanity that the modern Lucifer can
assume many pleasing shapes and speak in such alluring tones. Let us beware
of these. Let us have no doings with anyone who seeks to disguise the patent
fact of danger.

Today, as we contemplate what has happened, and what is happening
abroad, we can truly appreciate what it means to be a citizen of the United
States—and to know that while, unfortunately, millions of human beings abroad
are burrowing in the earth like moles to safeguard themselves against attack,
here in this Country, as always in the years past, we are free to act, to gather,
to speak, to live exactly as we wish.

Today, there is more reason than ever why America should be a living
thing in the hearts and minds of every citizen. No other country on the face
of the earth has so much that is definitely worth being proud of and definitely
worth protecting. Our priceless liberty, our prestige among the nations of the
earth, our spiritual leadership, all combine to make the United States the fore-
most in the entire world.