Evening star., 1927-05-30
TEXT OF ADDRESS DELIVERED
BY PRESIDENT AT ARLINGTON

cations to humanity. We shall best
fulfill our mission by extending to
them all the hand of helpfulness, con-
sideration and friendship. Our own
greatness will be measured by the jus
tice and forbearance which we mani
fest toward others.
Reason and Law.
at is because of our belief in these
principles that we wish to see all the
world relieved from strife and conflict
and brought under the humaniZing in
fiuence of a reign of law. Our conduct
will be dictated, not in accordance
with the will of the strongest but in
accordance with the judgments OF
righteousness. 1t is in accordance
with this policy that we have sought
to discontinue the old practice of COM
petition in armaments and cast our
influence on the side of reasonable
Iimita tions. We wish to discard the
element of force and compulsion in in.
ternational agreements and conduct
and reIv on reason and law. We
recognize that in the present state of
the world this is not vision which
will he Immediately realized, yet lii Ne
by little, step by step, in every pr =
teal way, we should show our deter
mination to press on toward this mark
of our high calling.
"Our Government has recently been
attempting to proceed in accordance
with these principles in its relations
with China. Nicaragua and Mexico,
and in inviting Japan and Great Brit
ain to participate in a three-power
naval limitation conference.
While the foreign relations of this
country are becoming more and more
Important and constitute a field to
which it will he necessary for our
Government and our people to give
much more attention than is now
realized, yet it is our domestic af-
fairs that must always assume the
first rank Nations which are torn
by dissension and disCOrd. which are
weak and inefficient at home. have
little standing or influence abroad.
Even the blind do not choose the
blind to lead them. Foreign peoples
are certainly going to seek assistance
only from those who have demon
strated their capacity to maintain
their own affairs efficiently. If we
desire to be an influence in order and
law, tranquility and good will in the
world, we must be determined to make
sufficient sacrifices to live by these
precepts at home. We can be a moral
force in the world only to the extent
that we establish morality in our own
country.
Debt of Gratitude.
This day had it's inception in the
desire TO do honor to those who had
followed the flag in our great domestic
struggle for the preservation of the
Union and the supremacy of the Con-
stltutiOn. Like all principles express
sive Of a great truth, it has gradually
broadened in its aspects to include
within its sacred domain all of those
who have followed our flag. But we
should never permit this both day of
May to go by without some expression
of our peculiar debt of gratitude to
those who offered their lives to their
country under the leadership OF Abra-
ham Lincoln. When that great con-
fiict was ended, when it was apparent
that our Federal Union was 10 be per-
petual, that our Constitution was to be
supreme, that all our people were to
be free. America spoke with a new
authority in the affairs Of the world
THE questions at issue in those
days were decided with all the finality
which can attach to human affairs.
Those who had taken a leading part
in their decision were the prominent
eXponents of a policy of reconcilia-
ton. Gen. Grant pied for harmony
and good feeling between the sec
tions,' while Gen. Lee declared, Restor-
alton of peace should be the sole object
of all. The people of our generation
have seen these admonitions needed
and these hopes realized.
tEThn od ~
not confined in our history to any one
section. They had appeared in the
hills of Pennsylvania, they had met in
convention in New England. they had
adopted resolutions in Kentucky. they
had taken up arms in South Carolina.
That issue has been decided. 1t has
no advocates now. But it has left it's
heirs and successors in all the differ
ent brands of sectionalisn, with their
special pleaders, who are oftentimes
extremely vocal. in the eyes of our
National Government all parts of our
country are equally important and en-
titled to equal consideration. They
are all parts of one common whole,
which must succeed or fail together
All efforts to set one part against an
other part, to advance one section at
the expense OF another section, are a
species of disloyalty to the spirit of
the Union. 1t is only a small nature
that wishes to divorce himself and his
locality from the rest of the nation
The true American contemplates the
shore, the noun lin and the plain.
and instead of desiring to withdraw
himself from any of them reioices in
his realization that they are all his
country.
Constitution and Union.
"The integrity of the Union rests
on the Constitution. Unless that great
instrument is to be the supreme law
of the land, we could have no Union
worthy of our consideration. In its
original inception it was the product
of prayerful consideration by the best
endowed minds that were ever turned
to political deliberation. Although it
was drafted in convention. it repre-
sented the mature thought of the
country. Into it went the genius of
Adams and jefferson, of Franklin and
Madison. of Hamilton and Washing
ton. 1t has been eXpounded by
Webster and other statesmen in the
Congress, and adjudicated by Marshall
and other magistrates on the bench.
With it's three independent depart
ments, the executive, legislative and
judicial, it established a Republican
form of Government Incompatible in
the guarantees of order and liberty
with which it has endowed the Amer
lean people. AS charter of freedom
and self-government it is unsurpassed
by any political document which ever
guided the destinies of people.
I'VE have made our place in the
world through the Union and the Com
stitution. We have f1ourished as a
people because of our success in estab-
fishing selfgovernment. But all of
these results are predicated upon a
law-abiding people. If our own coun-
try should be given over to violence
and crime, it would be necessary to
diminish the bounds Of our freedom to
secure order and self-preservation. In
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