Evening star., 1940-08-19
Sy the Associated Press.


PHILADELPHIA. Aug. 19.-
Following is the tert OF Ambds-
sddor William C.. Bullitts ad-
dress last night before a pa
triotic gathering in Independence
Square sponsored by the Amer
ican Philosophical Society,":
Fellow citizens of my country;
men and women; Americans:
There are times, rare and in
frequent. when a man feels he has
a right to ask his fellow citizens
to hear him. Here tonight, in my
own city, in this square where our
Republic was created, I feel I have
that right.
For nearly four years I have
served as Ambassador Of our Re-
public to the French Republic. That
republic, like our own, followed the
gleam of liberty, equality and fra
ternity for all men and all races.
That republic, like our own, strove
for peace.
I have seen the French Republic
destroyed.
AS your emissary, as the repre-
sentative of American democracy,
I have witnessed the acts which
destroyed the French democracy.
I know of my own knowledge what
blows were struck. what devices of
intrigue and treachery and force
were employed. I know who are
the enemies of freedom because I
have seen them at their work. I
know how dangerous they are and
by what means they are dangerous.
Because I have seen these things
and know them of my own knoWl-
edge, I know that dangers beSet
free institutions everywhere. And
I know what those dangers are. The
strategy of destruction by which
the free nation of France was over
thrown is the strategy of destruc-
ton by which the enemies of free
dom hope to overthrow liberty in
this, the greatest Of the nations that
freedom has created.
Because I have seen these things
with my own eyes, heard them with
by own ears, and felt them in my
own body, I ask you, my fellow free
Americans, to hear what I feel 1t
my duty to say.
Z. S. Urged to Act
Before 1t Is Too Late.
America is in danger.
1t is my conviction, drawn from
my own experience and from the
information in the hands of our
Government in Washington, that
the United States is in as great
peril today as was France a year
ago. And I believe that unless we
act now, decisivelv, to meet the
threat we shall be too late.
The dictatorS are convinced that
all democracies will always be too
late. You remember Hitler's state
ment: Each country will imagine
that it alone will escape. I shall not
even need to destroy them one by
one. Selfishness and lack of fore
sight will prevent each one fighting
until it is too late
Control of government by public
opinion is the essence of democracy.
And it has always been our belief
that free speech and a free press
and free education would enable us
to form and express our opinions
sufficiently swiftly not only to permit
but to compel our Government to
act quickly and effectively. But the
problems of world affairs have be-
come so complex, in this day of vol
canic change, that the average
citizen has the greatest difficulty in
understanding them and judging
what is best for his country before 1t
Is too late.
The dictators have developed a
strategy of attack that is based on
this difficulty. To prepare the way
for military attack on a democracy
they employ every possible variety
Of agent and propaganda to be-
fuddle the public so that the de-
mocracy will not prepare in time
They succeeded in befuddling public
opinion in France and England to
such an extent that they were able
to conquer France in a few days and
are now striving to conquer an Eng
land which awakened late.
They are not yet in a position to
attack America by military means;
but their campaign of befuddle-
ment, their preparatory assault, is
following the same lines in America
that 1t followed in France.
Do not imagine thate the French
citizen was less intelligent or cared
less about his country than the
American citizen. The honest
French patriot did his best, but he
just could not see through the
smoke screens of bribery, propa-
ganda, lies and threats which the
dictators spread in his country. For
every Frenchman who acted as the
conscious agent of a foreign die
tator, there were a thousand who,
with good intentions and high
patriotism, elnwittingly played the
dictators' game.
How many Americans today are
playing the dictators' game without
knowing it?
French Believed Concessions
Would Preserve Peace.
In France, as in the United States
today, there were many honest
pacifists. There were many be-
cause after 1918 every Frenchman
became in one sense a pacifist. The
French wanted no more war. And
when the German propagandists
told the French that they could
buy peace with Germany by making
one concession after another, the
French believed them.
The French, who were much
stronger at the time than were the
Germans, let the Germans recon-
struct an army, a navy and an air
force, let them reoccupy the Rhine
land and the Saar, then Austria.
then the Sudeten areas of Czecho-
Slovakia, then the whole of Czecho-
Slovakia. After that the Germans
said that the price of peace was
Danzig and Poland's outlet to the
sea.