The executive branch has been making real progress toward full equality of treatment and opportunity—­in the Armed Forces, in the civil service, and in private firms working for the Government.  Further advances require action by Congress, and I hope that means will be provided to give the Members of the Senate and the House a chance to vote on them.

I am glad to hear that home rule for the District of Columbia will be the first item of business before the Senate.  I hope that it, as well as statehood for Hawaii and Alaska, will be adopted promptly.

All these measures I have been talking about—­measures to advance the well-being of our people—­demonstrate to the world the forward movement of our free society.

This demonstration of the way free men govern themselves has a more powerful influence on the people of the world—­on both sides of the Iron Curtain—­than all the trick slogans and pie-in-the-sky promises of the Communists.

But our shortcomings, as well as our progress, are watched from abroad.  And there is one shortcoming I want to speak about plainly.

Our kind of government above all others cannot tolerate dishonesty among public servants.

Some dishonest people worm themselves into almost every human organization.  It is all the more shocking, however, when they make their way into a Government such as ours, which is based on the principle of justice for all.  Such unworthy public servants must be weeded out.  I intend to see to it that Federal employees who have been guilty of misconduct are punished for it.  I also intend to see to it that the honest and hard-working great majority of our Federal employees are protected against partisan slander and malicious attack.

I have already made some recommendations to the Congress to help accomplish these purposes.  I intend to submit further recommendations to this end.  I will welcome the wholehearted cooperation of the Congress in this effort.

I also think that the Congress can do a great deal to strengthen confidence in our institutions by applying rigorous standards of moral integrity to its own operations, and by finding an effective way to control campaign expenditures, and by protecting the rights of individuals in congressional investigations.

To meet the crisis which now hangs over the world, we need many different kinds of strength—­military, economic, political, and moral.  And of all these, I am convinced that moral strength is the most vital.

When you come right down to it, it is the courage and the character of our Nation—­and of each one of us as individuals-that will really decide how well we meet this challenge.

We are engaged in a great undertaking at home and abroad—­the greatest, in fact, that any nation has ever been privileged to embark upon.  We are working night and day to bring peace to the world and to spread the democratic ideals of justice and self-government to all people.  Our accomplishments are already remarkable.  We ought to be full of pride in what we are doing, and full of confidence and hope in the outcome.  No nation ever had greater resources, or greater energy, or nobler traditions to inspire it.