In that spirit of endeavor and service I greet the 75th Congress at the beginning of this auspicious New Year.

***

State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 3, 1938

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate and of the House of
Representatives: 

In addressing the Congress on the state of the Union present facts and future hazards demand that I speak clearly and earnestly of the causes which underlie events of profound concern to all.

In spite of the determination of this Nation for peace, it has become clear that acts and policies of nations in other parts of the world have far-reaching effects not only upon their immediate neighbors but also on us.

I am thankful that I can tell you that our Nation is at peace.  It has been kept at peace despite provocations which in other days, because of their seriousness, could well have engendered war.  The people of the United States and the Government of the United States have shown capacity for restraint and a civilized approach to the purposes of peace, while at the same time we maintain the integrity inherent in the sovereignty of 130,000,000 people, lest we weaken or destroy our influence for peace and jeopardize the sovereignty itself.

It is our traditional policy to live at peace with other nations.  More than that, we have been among the leaders in advocating the use of pacific methods of discussion and conciliation in international differences.  We have striven for the reduction of military forces.

But in a world of high tension and disorder, in a world where stable civilization is actually threatened, it becomes the responsibility of each nation which strives for peace at home and peace with and among others to be strong enough to assure the observance of those fundamentals of peaceful solution of conflicts which are the only ultimate basis for orderly existence.

Resolute in our determination to respect the rights of others, and to command respect for the rights of ourselves, we must keep ourselves adequately strong in self-defense.

There is a trend in the world away from the observance both of the letter and the spirit of treaties.  We propose to observe, as we have in the past, our own treaty obligations to the limit; but we cannot be certain of reciprocity on the part of others.

Disregard for treaty obligations seems to have followed the surface trend away from the democratic representative form of government.  It would seem, therefore, that world peace through international agreements is most safe in the hands of democratic representative governments—­or, in other words, peace is most greatly jeopardized in and by those nations where democracy has been discarded or has never developed.

I have used the words “surface trend,” for I still believe that civilized man increasingly insists and in the long run will insist on genuine participation in his own government.  Our people believe that over the years democracies of the world will survive, and that democracy will be restored or established in those nations which today know it not.  In that faith lies the future peace of mankind.