Evening star., 1950-05-10
Partial Texts of Truman Talks in West

"A partial tert of President
Trumdn's address in Laramie,
I Wyo., yesterday tollotOs::
The West exerts strong influence
on the imagination of Americans
The stirring drama of the opening
of the West is part of our national
ut had much to do. / think, with
the notion that many Of us once
held that the United States was a
vast distance away from foreign
neighbors-that our Nation was an
isolated community separated by
days of travel from other communi-
ties on the globe.
You know how the West has
shrunk. Distances seem to have
been wiped out by a network OF
rails and highways, and now by
the huge airliners that cross the
entire Nation in less time than 1t
used to take to cross single county
The worlds distances have like
wise shrunk. To put Laramie in
Its right perspective, you should
erect signpoSts in the center OF town
that read like this: One pointing
East that says, London. 80 hours;
one pointing West that says, "Shang-
hal, a hours; one pointing South,
Santiago, IS hours" and one point
ing North, Moscow, As hours"
Normal Flight Time.
These are the normal fight times
of commercial airliners.
There are military planes that
fly even faster.
It took two World Wars to bring
home to us the fact that world
distances have disappeared.
It is the great problem-and the
great challenge of our age-that
strangers have become fellow-citi-
zens at a time when the world is
50 deeply divided. We have been
forced into q common citizenship
with peoples who do not under
stand our conceptions of demo-
cratic life. We must recognize
whether we like it or not-that
we are neighbors with a government
which denies all the values Of the
American tradition, indeed OF all
ethical and moral traditions, and
which seems to spread its doctrine
over the entire earth. We have
become neighbors Of q new and
terrible tyranny.
Tyranny is not new in the world.
AS long as democracy has existed,
tyranny has existed. But never be-
fore has 1t been So difficult for
tyranny and democracy to find a
basis for peaceful co-eXistence.
There are two reasons for this.
The first reason I have already
mentioned-the elimination Of dis
The second reason Is that the
new tyranny Of Soviet communism
is giving no evidence that it is
willing to let the free world exist
peacefully. Communism has clearly
shown Its purpose to penetrate free
countries, to divide free peoples and
confuse them. to subvert their in
stitutions, and to weaken their
resistance.
Compromise Ruled Out.
How do we meet this overriding
problem-the most important one
of our time?
will tell you two things we can
not do.
First we cannot compromise our
own moral and ethical beliefs. We
know that this newest form of
tyranny is compound of evils.
Communism denies all that we have
come to know as democracy. It de-
nies freedom and liberty and human
dignity. 1t denies God.
Second, we cannot isolate our
selves. The leadership of the free
world, the hopes of millions of peo-
pie who have not our strength and
our resources, depend on us. But
even If we could forget our friends,
we know that there Is no salvation
even for ourselves in any passive
policy Of withdrawal. =.
We cannot compromise our prin-
ciples
We cannot withdraw from the
world.
What can we do?
We can do this: We can, together
with our nations of the free world,
clearly demonstrate the superiority
of the ideals of freedom over the
iron hand of tyranny.
We can make clear that democ-
racy and freedom bring to each in
dividual, each day, more of what he
wants than any other system of
government.
World Superiority Cited.
The free world must demonstrate
moral superiority. 1t must demon
Strate material superiority.
The free world has the resources
to make that demonstration. 1t has
the tremendous advantage that al
ways adheres to the cause of JUS
tice, liberty, and respect for human
dignity.
AS the strength and effectiveness
OF the system of freedom are made
clear over the globe-as the peoples
WIZ llOW oCd1lO III QOuDG Ou1u w
democracy-the danger of Commu-
mist domination will dwindle and
finally disappear. The struggle for
peace, security, and stability in
world affairs can be won.
This Is a longtime project.
know that the American people are
impatient. But in this instance, we
must be more than patient. The
conflict that exists In world affairs
will be with us for a long, long
time.
In all our relations with other
nations, we are following a con-
Sistent and fortnight policy to
strengthen the cause of freedom
and bring about stability and peace
in world affairs.
Unity of Nations Sought.
We are working, first of all, for
unity among the nations. The fore
most expression of our will for
unity is our work within the United
Nations.
We have done our best to settle
through the United Nations
some of the difficulties in the world
today. You know the record. You
know Of the vetoes. You know that
failures in the limited Nations car1.