My
Countrymen:
This
occasion is not alone the administration of the most
sacred oath which can be assumed by an American citizen.
It is a dedication and consecration under God to the
highest office in service of our people. I assume this
trust in the humility of knowledge that only through the
guidance of Almighty Providence can I hope to discharge
its ever-increasing burdens.
It
is in keeping with tradition throughout our history that I
should express simply and directly the opinions which I
hold concerning some of the matters of present importance.
If
we survey the situation of our Nation both at home and
abroad, we find many satisfactions; we find some causes
for concern. We have emerged from the losses of the Great
War and the reconstruction following it with increased
virility and strength. From this strength we have
contributed to the recovery and progress of the world.
What America has done has given renewed hope and courage
to all who have faith in government by the people. In the
large view, we have reached a higher degree of comfort and
security than ever existed before in the history of the
world. Through liberation from widespread poverty we have
reached a higher degree of individual freedom than ever
before. The devotion to and concern for our institutions
are deep and sincere. We are steadily building a new
race a new civilization great in its own attainments.
The influence and high purposes of our Nation are
respected among the peoples of the world. We aspire to
distinction in the world, but to a distinction based upon
confidence in our sense of justice as well as our
accomplishments within our own borders and in our own
lives. For wise guidance in this great period of recovery
the Nation is deeply indebted to Calvin Coolidge.
But
all this majestic advance should not obscure the constant
dangers from which self-government must be safeguarded.
The strong man must at all times be alert to the attack of
insidious disease.
The
Failure of Our System of Criminal Justice
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The
most malign of all these dangers today is disregard and
disobedience of law. Crime is increasing. Confidence in
rigid and speedy justice is decreasing. I am not prepared
to believe that this indicates any decay in the moral
fiber of the American people. I am not prepared to believe
that it indicates an impotence of the Federal Government
to enforce its laws.
It
is only in part due to the additional burdens imposed upon
our judicial system by the eighteenth amendment. The
problem is much wider than that. Many influences had
increasingly complicated and weakened our law enforcement
organization long before the adoption of the eighteenth
amendment.
To
reestablish the vigor and effectiveness of law enforcement
we must critically consider the entire Federal machinery
of justice, the redistribution of its functions, the
simplification of its procedure, the provision of
additional special tribunals, the better selection of
juries, and the more effective organization of our
agencies of investigation and prosecution that justice may
be sure and that it may be swift. While the authority of
the Federal Government extends to but part of our vast
system of national, State, and local justice, yet the
standards which the Federal Government establishes have
the most profound influence upon the whole structure.
We
are fortunate in the ability and integrity of our Federal
judges and attorneys. But the system which these officers
are called upon to administer is in many respects ill
adapted to present-day conditions. Its intricate and
involved rules of procedure have become the refuge of both
big and little criminals. There is a belief abroad that by
invoking technicalities, subterfuge, and delay, the ends
of justice may be thwarted by those who can pay the cost.
Reform,
reorganization and strengthening of our whole judicial and
enforcement system, both in civil and criminal sides, have
been advocated for years by statesmen, judges, and bar
associations. First steps toward that end should not
longer be delayed. Rigid and expeditious justice is the
first safeguard of freedom, the basis of all ordered
liberty, the vital force of progress. It must not come to
be in our Republic that it can be defeated by the
indifference of the citizen, by exploitation of the delays
and entanglements of the law, or by combinations of
criminals. Justice must not fail because the agencies of
enforcement are either delinquent or inefficiently
organized. To consider these evils, to find their remedy,
is the most sore necessity of our times.
Enforcement
of the Eighteenth Amendment
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Of
the undoubted abuses which have grown up under the
eighteenth amendment, part are due to the causes I have
just mentioned; but part are due to the failure of some
States to accept their share of responsibility for
concurrent enforcement and to the failure of many State
and local officials to accept the obligation under their
oath of office zealously to enforce the laws. With the
failures from these many causes has come a dangerous
expansion in the criminal elements who have found enlarged
opportunities in dealing in illegal liquor.
But
a large responsibility rests directly upon our citizens.
There would be little traffic in illegal liquor if only
criminals patronized it. We must awake to the fact that
this patronage from large numbers of law-abiding citizens
is supplying the rewards and stimulating crime.
I
have been selected by you to execute and enforce the laws
of the country. I propose to do so to the extent of my own
abilities, but the measure of success that the Government
shall attain will depend upon the moral support which you,
as citizens, extend. The duty of citizens to support the
laws of the land is coequal with the duty of their
Government to enforce the laws which exist. No greater
national service can be given by men and women of good
will who, I know, are not unmindful of the
responsibilities of citizenship than that they should,
by their example, assist in stamping out crime and
outlawry by refusing participation in and condemning all
transactions with illegal liquor. Our whole system of
self-government will crumble either if officials elect
what laws they will enforce or citizens elect what laws
they will support. The worst evil of disregard for some
law is that it destroys respect for all law. For our
citizens to patronize the violation of a particular law on
the ground that they are opposed to it is destructive of
the very basis of all that protection of life, of homes
and property which they rightly claim under other laws. If
citizens do not like a law, their duty as honest men and
women is to discourage its violation; their right is
openly to work for its repeal.
To
those of criminal mind there can be no appeal but vigorous
enforcement of the law. Fortunately they are but a small
percentage of our people. Their activities must be
stopped.
I
propose to appoint a national commission for a searching
investigation of the whole structure of our Federal system
of jurisprudence, to include the method of enforcement of
the eighteenth amendment and the causes of abuse under it.
Its purpose will be to make such recommendations for
reorganization of the administration of Federal laws and
court procedure as may be found desirable. In the meantime
it is essential that a large part of the enforcement
activities be transferred from the Treasury Department to
the Department of Justice as a beginning of more effective
organization.
The
Relation of Government to Business
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The
election has again confirmed the determination of the
American people that regulation of private enterprise and
not Government ownership or operation is the course
rightly to be pursued in our relation to business. In
recent years we have established a differentiation in the
whole method of business regulation between the industries
which produce and distribute commodities on the one hand
and public utilities on the other. In the former, our laws
insist upon effective competition; in the latter, because
we substantially confer a monopoly by limiting
competition, we must regulate their services and rates.
The rigid enforcement of the laws applicable to both
groups is the very base of equal opportunity and freedom
from domination for all our people, and it is just as
essential for the stability and prosperity of business
itself as for the protection of the public at large. Such
regulation should be extended by the Federal Government
within the limitations of the Constitution and only when
the individual States are without power to protect their
citizens through their own authority. On the other hand,
we should be fearless when the authority rests only in the
Federal Government.
Cooperation
by the Government
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The
larger purpose of our economic thought should be to
establish more firmly stability and security of business
and employment and thereby remove poverty still further
from our borders. Our people have in recent years
developed a new-found capacity for cooperation among
themselves to effect high purposes in public welfare. It
is an advance toward the highest conception of
self-government. Self-government does not and should not
imply the use of political agencies alone. Progress is
born of cooperation in the community not from
governmental restraints. The Government should assist and
encourage these movements of collective self-help by
itself cooperating with them. Business has by cooperation
made great progress in the advancement of service, in
stability, in regularity of employment and in the
correction of its own abuses. Such progress, however, can
continue only so long as business manifests its respect
for law.
There
is an equally important field of cooperation by the
Federal Government with the multitude of agencies, State,
municipal and private, in the systematic development of
those processes which directly affect public health,
recreation, education, and the home. We have need further
to perfect the means by which Government can be adapted to
human service.
Although
education is primarily a responsibility of the States and
local communities, and rightly so, yet the Nation as a
whole is vitally concerned in its development everywhere
to the highest standards and to complete universality.
Self-government can succeed only through an instructed
electorate. Our objective is not simply to overcome
illiteracy. The Nation has marched far beyond that. The
more complex the problems of the Nation become, the
greater is the need for more and more advanced
instruction. Moreover, as our numbers increase and as our
life expands with science and invention, we must discover
more and more leaders for every walk of life. We can not
hope to succeed in directing this increasingly complex
civilization unless we can draw all the talent of
leadership from the whole people. One civilization after
another has been wrecked upon the attempt to secure
sufficient leadership from a single group or class. If we
would prevent the growth of class distinctions and would
constantly refresh our leadership with the ideals of our
people, we must draw constantly from the general mass. The
full opportunity for every boy and girl to rise through
the selective processes of education can alone secure to
us this leadership.
In
public health the discoveries of science have opened a new
era. Many sections of our country and many groups of our
citizens suffer from diseases the eradication of which are
mere matters of administration and moderate expenditure.
Public health service should be as fully organized and as
universally incorporated into our governmental system as
is public education. The returns are a thousand fold in
economic benefits, and infinitely more in reduction of
suffering and promotion of human happiness.
The
United States fully accepts the profound truth that our
own progress, prosperity, and peace are interlocked with
the progress, prosperity, and peace of all humanity. The
whole world is at peace. The dangers to a continuation of
this peace to-day are largely the fear and suspicion which
still haunt the world. No suspicion or fear can be rightly
directed toward our country.
Those
who have a true understanding of America know that we have
no desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other
domination of other peoples. Such purposes are repugnant
to our ideals of human freedom. Our form of government is
ill adapted to the responsibilities which inevitably
follow permanent limitation of the independence of other
peoples. Superficial observers seem to find no destiny for
our abounding increase in population, in wealth and power
except that of imperialism. They fail to see that the
American people are engrossed in the building for
themselves of a new economic system, a new social system,
a new political system all of which are characterized by
aspirations of freedom of opportunity and thereby are the
negation of imperialism. They fail to realize that because
of our abounding prosperity our youth are pressing more
and more into our institutions of learning; that our
people are seeking a larger vision through art,
literature, science, and travel; that they are moving
toward stronger moral and spiritual life that from these
things our sympathies are broadening beyond the bounds of
our Nation and race toward their true expression in a real
brotherhood of man. They fail to see that the idealism of
America will lead it to no narrow or selfish channel, but
inspire it to do its full share as a nation toward the
advancement of civilization. It will do that not by mere
declaration but by taking a practical part in supporting
all useful international undertakings. We not only desire
peace with the world, but to see peace maintained
throughout the world. We wish to advance the reign of
justice and reason toward the extinction of force.
The
recent treaty for the renunciation of war as an instrument
of national policy sets an advanced standard in our
conception of the relations of nations. Its acceptance
should pave the way to greater limitation of armament, the
offer of which we sincerely extend to the world. But its
full realization also implies a greater and greater
perfection in the instrumentalities for pacific settlement
of controversies between nations. In the creation and use
of these instrumentalities we should support every sound
method of conciliation, arbitration, and judicial
settlement. American statesmen were among the first to
propose and they have constantly urged upon the world, the
establishment of a tribunal for the settlement of
controversies of a justiciable character. The Permanent
Court of International Justice in its major purpose is
thus peculiarly identified with American ideals and with
American statesmanship. No more potent instrumentality for
this purpose has ever been conceived and no other is
practicable of establishment. The reservations placed upon
our adherence should not be misinterpreted. The United
States seeks by these reservations no special privilege or
advantage but only to clarify our relation to advisory
opinions and other matters which are subsidiary to the
major purpose of the court. The way should, and I believe
will, be found by which we may take our proper place in a
movement so fundamental to the progress of peace.
Our
people have determined that we should make no political
engagements such as membership in the League of Nations,
which may commit us in advance as a nation to become
involved in the settlements of controversies between other
countries. They adhere to the belief that the independence
of America from such obligations increases its ability and
availability for service in all fields of human progress.
I
have lately returned from a journey among our sister
Republics of the Western Hemisphere. I have received
unbounded hospitality and courtesy as their expression of
friendliness to our country. We are held by particular
bonds of sympathy and common interest with them. They are
each of them building a racial character and a culture
which is an impressive contribution to human progress. We
wish only for the maintenance of their independence, the
growth of their stability, and their prosperity. While we
have had wars in the Western Hemisphere, yet on the whole
the record is in encouraging contrast with that of other
parts of the world. Fortunately the New World is largely
free from the inheritances of fear and distrust which have
so troubled the Old World. We should keep it so.
It
is impossible, my countrymen, to speak of peace without
profound emotion. In thousands of homes in America, in
millions of homes around the world, there are vacant
chairs. It would be a shameful confession of our
unworthiness if it should develop that we have abandoned
the hope for which all these men died. Surely civilization
is old enough, surely mankind is mature enough so that we
ought in our own lifetime to find a way to permanent
peace. Abroad, to west and east, are nations whose sons
mingled their blood with the blood of our sons on the
battlefields. Most of these nations have contributed to
our race, to our culture, our knowledge, and our progress.
From one of them we derive our very language and from many
of them much of the genius of our institutions. Their
desire for peace is as deep and sincere as our own.
Peace
can be contributed to by respect for our ability in
defense. Peace can be promoted by the limitation of arms
and by the creation of the instrumentalities for peaceful
settlement of controversies. But it will become a reality
only through self-restraint and active effort in
friendliness and helpfulness. I covet for this
administration a record of having further contributed to
advance the cause of peace.
In
our form of democracy the expression of the popular will
can be effected only through the instrumentality of
political parties. We maintain party government not to
promote intolerant partisanship but because opportunity
must be given for expression of the popular will, and
organization provided for the execution of its mandates
and for accountability of government to the people. It
follows that the government both in the executive and the
legislative branches must carry out in good faith the
platforms upon which the party was entrusted with power.
But the government is that of the whole people; the party
is the instrument through which policies are determined
and men chosen to bring them into being. The animosities
of elections should have no place in our Government, for
government must concern itself alone with the common weal.
Special
Session of the Congress
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Action
upon some of the proposals upon which the Republican Party
was returned to power, particularly further agricultural
relief and limited changes in the tariff, cannot in
justice to our farmers, our labor, and our manufacturers
be postponed. I shall therefore request a special session
of Congress for the consideration of these two questions.
I shall deal with each of them upon the assembly of the
Congress.
Other
Mandates from the Election
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It
appears to me that the more important further mandates
from the recent election were the maintenance of the
integrity of the Constitution; the vigorous enforcement of
the laws; the continuance of economy in public
expenditure; the continued regulation of business to
prevent domination in the community; the denial of
ownership or operation of business by the Government in
competition with its citizens; the avoidance of policies
which would involve us in the controversies of foreign
nations; the more effective reorganization of the
departments of the Federal Government; the expansion of
public works; and the promotion of welfare activities
affecting education and the home.
These
were the more tangible determinations of the election, but
beyond them was the confidence and belief of the people
that we would not neglect the support of the embedded
ideals and aspirations of America. These ideals and
aspirations are the touchstones upon which the day-to-day
administration and legislative acts of government must be
tested. More than this, the Government must, so far as
lies within its proper powers, give leadership to the
realization of these ideals and to the fruition of these
aspirations. No one can adequately reduce these things of
the spirit to phrases or to a catalogue of definitions. We
do know what the attainments of these ideals should be:
The preservation of self-government and its full
foundations in local government; the perfection of justice
whether in economic or in social fields; the maintenance
of ordered liberty; the denial of domination by any group
or class; the building up and preservation of equality of
opportunity; the stimulation of initiative and
individuality; absolute integrity in public affairs; the
choice of officials for fitness to office; the direction
of economic progress toward prosperity for the further
lessening of poverty; the freedom of public opinion; the
sustaining of education and of the advancement of
knowledge; the growth of religious spirit and the
tolerance of all faiths; the strengthening of the home;
the advancement of peace.
There
is no short road to the realization of these aspirations.
Ours is a progressive people, but with a determination
that progress must be based upon the foundation of
experience. Ill-considered remedies for our faults bring
only penalties after them. But if we hold the faith of the
men in our mighty past who created these ideals, we shall
leave them heightened and strengthened for our children.
This
is not the time and place for extended discussion. The
questions before our country are problems of progress to
higher standards; they are not the problems of
degeneration. They demand thought and they serve to
quicken the conscience and enlist our sense of
responsibility for their settlement. And that
responsibility rests upon you, my countrymen, as much as
upon those of us who have been selected for office.
Ours
is a land rich in resources; stimulating in its glorious
beauty; filled with millions of happy homes; blessed with
comfort and opportunity. In no nation are the institutions
of progress more advanced. In no nation are the fruits of
accomplishment more secure. In no nation is the government
more worthy of respect. No country is more loved by its
people. I have an abiding faith in their capacity,
integrity and high purpose. I have no fears for the future
of our country. It is bright with hope.
In
the presence of my countrymen, mindful of the solemnity of
this occasion, knowing what the task means and the
responsibility which it involves, I beg your tolerance,
your aid, and your cooperation. I ask the help of Almighty
God in this service to my country to which you have called
me.
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