[Footnote 1:  Executive Order 9808 (3 CFR, 1943-1948 Comp., p. 590.)]

NATURAL RESOURCES

In our responsibility to promote the general welfare of the people, we have always to consider the natural resources of our country.  They are the foundation of our life.  In the development of the great river systems of America there is the major opportunity of our generation to contribute to the increase of the national wealth.  This program is already well along; it should be pushed with full vigor.

I must advise the Congress that we are rapidly becoming a “have not” Nation as to many of our minerals.  The economic progress and the security of our country depend upon an expanding return of mineral discovery and upon improved methods of recovery.  The Federal Government must do its part to meet this need.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Progress in reaching our domestic goals is closely related to our conduct of foreign affairs.  All that I have said about maintaining a sound and prosperous economy and improving the welfare of our people has greater meaning because of the world leadership of the United States.  What we do, or fail to do, at home affects not only ourselves but millions throughout the world.  If we are to fulfill our responsibilities to ourselves and to other peoples, we must make sure that the United States is sound economically, socially, and politically.  Only then will we be able to help bring about the elements of peace in other countries—­political stability, economic advancement, and social progress.

Peace treaties for Italy, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary have finally been prepared.  Following the signing of these treaties next month in Paris, they will be submitted to the Senate for ratification.  This Government does not regard the treaties as completely satisfactory.  Whatever their defects, however, I am convinced that they are as good as we can hope to obtain by agreement among the principal wartime Allies.  Further dispute and delay would gravely jeopardize political stability in the countries concerned for many years.

During the long months of debate on these treaties, we have made it clear to all nations that the United States will not consent to settlements at the expense of principles we regard as vital to a just and enduring peace.  We have made it equally dear that we will not retreat to isolationism.  Our policies will be the same during the forthcoming negotiations in Moscow on the German and Austrian treaties, and during the future conferences on the Japanese treaty.

The delay in arriving at the first peace settlements is due partly to the difficulty of reaching agreement with the Soviet Union on the terms of settlement.  Whatever differences there may have been between us and the Soviet Union, however, should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the basic interests of both nations lie in the early making of a peace under which the peoples of all countries may return, as free men and women, to the essential tasks of production and reconstruction.  The major concern of each of us should be the promotion of collective security, not the advancement of individual security.