Evening star., 1947-05-01


gress this afternoon tolIolDs::
Mr.. Speaker,
MIR. President,
Members of the Congress of the
United States:
AS the President of a country
that has increasingly struggled for
democracy, finding in democracy
not only solution for the problem
of its own existence, but the en-
during basis for international peace,
7 am sincerely grateful for the
honor of being received in this
Congress where democracy holds
sway.
The essential meaning of this
ceremony lies in its friendly
spontaneity. 1t proves the firm
decision with which our nations
have overcome the obstacles of the
past. Over and above their differ
ences in temperament, in folkways
and in language, two peoples that
profoundly love their independence
have found ways to a mutual under
standing-ways of living side by
side, Of sharing life together. with
out violance or suspicion.
Outcome Of Democracy.
This attitude Of reciprocal esteem
is, also, an outcome of democracy.
A country under tyrant's rule is
not to be trusted, nor can other
countries live securely beside 1t. And
when the State curtails individual
freedom in order to impose its will
or that4of political party, civiliza-
ton Is On the warle. Because cfqiif-
zation is the onward march to the
full liberation of man, making him
fully conscious Of his own rights,
emitting him to demand the same
respect for them that he renders
the rights of others and making
him true to himself in his love of
country and true to his Country In
his loyalty to international soli-
dafity. .s
This is the type of manhood
democracies are shaping. We Mexi-
cans are molding it.
Our entire history has been a
struggle against want, against in
tervention and against despotism.
Against colonial despotism we re-
belled for independence in the days
of Hidalgo and Morelos. Against
the greed of Europe, the country
arose unafraid in the days of Juarez.
And against the prolonged system
of personal rule that frustrated
what the common people had ex-
pected from the wars of Independ-
ence and Reform, the men of 1910
started our revolution.
AS the son of one Of those men,
I speak to you now. With the
Mexican Revolution many of your
people were in sympathy, but others
proved reticent. I take great pride
in saying this to you: Our revolution
preceded by several years many of
the social reforms in other lands,
the very same reforms in the de-
fense of which our two countries
have just fought.
Political Ideas Unchanged.
When in the midst of the storm
the voice of great American
bespoke an era in which all men
would be free from want and from
fear, free to believe and free to
think, we in Mexico sensed that
these were ideals akin to our own,
designed to serve best the security
of our hemisphere
War did not change in Mexico
our political ideas, the trend of our
public thinking or the structure of
our institutions. 1t did not alter
our international policy. Unlike those
who had to improvise an theology
to justify their cooperation with
the democracieS, we Mexicans went
to war for the selfsame moral rea-
sons which moved us to condemn
all aggression, whether within or
beyond our SOIL
We went to war because the
dictators responsible for the conflict
sought to destroy elsewhere the
rights defended for our people by
our forefathers against the oppres-
sors at home and against alien i'm
peralists. We fought because the
pledges our Allies made, though
spoken in another language, meant
liberation, justice and faith in man
kind. For these lofty purposes. my