Evening star., 1950-03-17
Roosevelt
Continued From First Page.)

to be available here to all who are
seriously concerned with learning
the truth.
"It will be real pleasure to see
this room filled with students"
The papers will not be available
to the general public. Only ac-
credited scholars and researchers
will have access to them.
President Truman said the
Roosevelt letters would furnish
rich source material for an inter-
probation of one of the most
momentous periods in American
history.
Message From Truman.
In a message read by jeff Lar
son, administrator of the General
Services Administration which has
supervision of the collection, Mr..
Truman said:
President Roosevelt himself
frequently voiced the hope that he
would be here to help arrange and
interpret his papers but We are
carrying out his wishes that these
papers be opened for free exam
ination consistent with the princi-
piles of private confidence and ma
tional security.
Some other officials of the
period have contributed their
papers to augment this collection;
trust that many others will come
forward and add their papers to
this collection in order that we
may have the means for a fuller
understanding of these years.
Indication of Faith.
In a world where millions are
living under the horrors of Com
munist torture and terror this
action we are taking is a simple
indication of the faith of de-
mocracy in truth. Under a Com
munist or totalitarian state these
papers would either be destroyed
or laboriously rewritten to con-
form with the trusted and per-
verted dogmas of a few unprinci-
pied rulers. In America we be-
lieve that there should be full and
free access to knowledge, for
knowledge is the strength of de-
mocracy.
"The opening of the Roosevelt
collection at this time is also a
striking indication of our faith in
the future. Our form of govern
ment does not rest on the shifting
sands Of communistic deceit, half
truth and propagandistic decep-
tion.
"a democracy is based on the
firm foundation of the conviction
OF a free people. BY opening this
collection we show our calm and
reasoned faith that the free world
of the future will survive"
Letter to DIR. Bush.
On June Is, 1910, Mr.. Roosevelt
set in motion a chain of events
that led to discovery of the atom
bomb. In letter to DR. Vannevar
Bush, Mr.. Roosevelt made the
scientist chairman of the National
Defense Research Committee, add
ing:
Recently, I appointed a special
committee " to study into the
possible relationship to national
defense of recent discoveries in
the field of atomistics, notably the
f1ssion of uranium.
Il will now request that this
committee report directly to you
as the function of your commit
tee includes this special matter
and your committee may consider
it advisable to support special
studies on this subject"
Urged Willkie Tour.
Two days before Pearl Harbor
on December 5, 1941 - Mr.
Roosevelt asked Wendell L. Will
kie to make good will tour OF
New Zealand and Australia as a
White House representative.
To the man he defeated in the
1910 presidential election, Mr.
Roosevelt wrote in part:
''I think both of us should be
extremely careful If you do &c
lest it be said that I am sending
you out of the country!
'"The sitaution is definitely seri-
Gus and there might be an armed
clash at any moment if the JAP
anese continue their forward
progress against the Philippines
Dutch Indies or Malaga or Burma
Perhaps the next four or fiv'
days will decide the matter"
They did. And Mr.. Roosevelt
later wrote on a carbon of tn,