FOREIGN DEBTS

About $12,000,000,000 is due to our Government from abroad, mostly from European Governments.  Great Britain, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland have negotiated settlements amounting close to $5,000,000,000.  This represents the funding of over 42 per cent of the debt since the creation of the special Foreign Debt Commission.  As the life of this commission is about to expire, its term should be extended.  I am opposed to the cancellation of these debts and believe it for the best welfare of the world that they should be liquidated and paid as fast as possible.  I do not favor oppressive measures, but unless money that is borrowed is repaid credit can not be secured in time of necessity, and there exists besides a moral obligation which our country can not ignore and no other country can evade.  Terms and conditions may have to conform to differences in the financial abilities of the countries concerned, but the principle that each country should meet its obligation admits of no differences and is of universal application.

It is axiomatic that our country can not stand still.  It would seem to be perfectly plain from recent events that it is determined to go forward.  But it wants no pretenses, it wants no vagaries.  It is determined to advance in an orderly, sound and common-sense way.  It does not propose to abandon the theory of the Declaration that the people have inalienable rights which no majority and no power of government can destroy.  It does not propose to abandon the practice of the Constitution that provides for the protection of these rights.  It believes that within these limitations, which are imposed not by the fiat of man but by the law of the Creator, self-government is just and wise.  It is convinced that it will be impossible for the people to provide their own government unless they continue to own their own property.

These are the very foundations of America.  On them has been erected a Government of freedom and equality, of justice and mercy, of education and charity.  Living under it and supporting it the people have come into great possessions on the material and spiritual sides of life.  I want to continue in this direction.  I know that the Congress shares with me that desire.  I want our institutions to be more and more expressive of these principles.  I want the people of all the earth to see in the American flag the symbol of a Government which intends no oppression at home and no aggression abroad, which in the spirit of a common brotherhood provides assistance in time of distress.

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State of the Union Address
Calvin Coolidge
December 8, 1925

Members of the Congress: