The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-03

NEWFoUND GAP, Tennessee
North Carolina Border Sept. ZIP
text of President Roosevelt's
address dedicating the Great
Smoky Mountains national park
follows:
Here in the Great Smokes we
meet today to dedicate these
mountains, streams, and forests TO
the service of the American peo-
Gle. We are living under govern
ments which are proving their de-
votion to national parks. The gov
errors of North Carolina and OF
Tennessee have greatly helped us,
and the secretary of the interior
has today ready for dedication two
more parks-Kings Canyon in Cali
fornia and the Olympic National
park in the state of Washington
and soon, 1 hope, will have a third,
the Big Bend Park in Texas.
There are trees here that stood
before our forefathers came to this
continent; there are brooks that
still run as clear as on the day the
first pioneer cupped his hand and
drank from them. In this park. we
shall conserve the pine, the red
bud, the dogwood, the azalea, the
rhododendron, the trout and the
thrush for the happiness of the
American people.
Old Frontier Lives
The old frontier, that put the
hard fibre in the American spirit
and the long muscles on the
American back, lives and will
live in these untamed noun
tains to give future generations a
sense Of the land from which their
forefathers hewed their homes.
The hewing was hard. The dan
gers were many. The rifle could
never be far from the axe. The
pioneers stood on their own feet.
shot their own game and fought off
their own enemies. In time of acct
dent or misfortune, they helped
each other. In time of Indian at
tack, they stood by each other.
Today we no longer face Indians
and hard and lonely struggles with
nature-and also-we have grown
soft in many ways.
If we are to survive, we cannot
be soft in a world in which there
are dangers that threaten Ameri.
cans-dangers far more deadly
than were those the frontiers
men had to face.
The earth has been so shrunk by
the airplanA and the radio that
Europe is closer to America today
than was one side of these noun
tains to the other when the pio-
neers toiled through the primeval
forest. The arrow, the tomahawk,
and the scalping knife have been
replaced by the airplane, the
bomb, the tank, and the machine
gun. Their threat is as close to US
today as was the threat to t h e
frontiersmen when hostile Indians
were lurking on the other side OF
the gap.
Therefore, to meet the threat
to ward off these dangers-the con-
gress and I are establishing by law
the obligation inherent in our citi.
zenship to serve our forces for de-
Tense through training in many ca
pacities.
Not Easy
It is not in every case easy or
pleasant to ask men of the nation
to leave their homes and women
of the nation to give their men to
the service of the nation. But the
men and women of America have
never held back even when it has
meant personal sacrifice on their
part if it is sacrifice for the COM
mon good.
The greatest attack that h a s
ever been launched against free
dom of the individual is nearer the
Americas than ever before. To
meet that attack we must prepare
beforehand - for preparing later
may and probably would be too
late. A
We must prepare in a thousand
ways. Men are not enough. Thew
must have arms. They must learn
how to use those arms. They must
have skilled leaders-who must he
trained. New bases must be estab.
lished to enable our fleet to de-
rend our shores. Men and women
must be taught to create the SUD-
plies that We need. And we must
counter the agents of the dicta-
tors within our country.
There is, moreover, another enc
my at home. That enemy is the
mean and petty spirit that mocks
at ideals, sneers at sacrifice and
pretends the American people can
1--we by bread alone. If the spirit
OF God is not in us, and if we will
not prepare to give all that we
have and all that we are to pre-
serve Christian civilization in our
rket RenOrtc