STRONG, FREE AMERICA IN WORLD OF FREE MEN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 6

STRONG, FREE AMERICA IN WORLD OF FREE MEN

KOAD TO WHITE HOUSE

The following, but for a formal opening sentence, is the full text of the speech in which Mr THOMAS E. DEWEY accepted the R e . publican Party’s nomination as its presidential candidate on Ju ne 24.

I thank you with all my heart for your friendship and confidence. I am profoundly sensible of the responsibility that goes with it. I accept your nomination. In all humility. I pray God that I may deserve this opportunity to serve our country. I come to you unfettered by a single obligation or promise to any living person, free to join with you in selecting to serve our nation the finest men and women in the nation, free to unite our party and our country in meeting the grave challenge of our time. United we can match this challenge with depth of understanding and largeness of spirit; with a unity which is above recrimination, above partisanship. above self-interest. These arc articles of faith from which the greatness of America has been fashioned. Cur people are eager to know again the upsurging power of that faith. They are turning to us to put such a faith at the heart of our national life. That is what we arc called to do. That is what we will do. Choice Was Difficult

In this historic convention, you have had placed before you six other candidates. all high-minded men of character and ability, and deeply devoted to their country—Senator Raymond E. Baldwin. General Douglas MacArthur, Governor Harold E. Stassen. Senator Robert A. Taft. Senator Arthur Vandenberg. and Governor Earl Warren. It has been a difficult choice in an honourable contest. It has been a stirring demonstration of the life and vitality, and ideals of our Republican Party.

There has been honest contention, spirited disagreement, het argument. Eut let no one be misled. You have given moving and dramatic proof of now Americans, who honestly differ, close ranks and move forward, for the nation’s well-being, shoulder to shoulder.

The responsibility and the opportunity that have come to our party are the greatest in the history of free government. For to-night our future —:OUr peace, our prosperity, ’the very fate of freedom —hangs in a precarious balance.

Mere victory in an election is not our task or our purpose. Our task is to fill our victory with such meaning that mankind everywhere, yearning for freedom, will take heart and move forward out of this desperate darkness into the light of freedom’s promise. Our platform proclaims the guideposts that will mark our steadfast and certain endeavour in a fearful world. This magnificent statement of principles is concise and to the point. You unanimously adopted it. I proudly support it. It will be the heart of the message I will take to the country. After January 20, it will be the cornerstone of our Republican administration.

We are a united party. Our nation stands tragically in need of that same unity. Nation Yearns for Higher Things Our people are turning away from the meaner things that divide us. They yearn to move to higher ground, to find a common purpose in the finer things which unite us. We must be the instrument of that aspiration. Wc must be the means by which America’s full powers are released and this uncertain future filled again, with opportunity. This is our pledge. That will be the fruit of our victory.

If this unity is to be won and kept, it must have great dimensions. Its boundaries must be far above and beyond politics. Freedom can be saved --it can only be saved —if free men

I everywhere make this unity their com J mon cause. Ujiity in such a cause must be th chief cornerstone of peace, a nea won at the expense of liberty peace 100 dearly bought. Such a nearl would not enaure. Above all nth* purposes, we must labour by everi peaceful means to build a world ordp lounded upon justice and rightern,? ness. -That kind of world will haJf’ peace. That kind of peace will worth having. That is the crowning responsibility that our people havn laid upon us. That is the crownint task to which we dedicate ourselves 8 The unity we seek is more than terial. It is more than a matter S things and measures. It is most of all spiritual. Our problem is not outside ourselves. We have found the mean? to blow the world, physically anart Spiritually, we have yet to “find the means to put Together the worlds broken pieces, to bind up its wounds to make a good society, a community of men of goodwill that fits ou ' dreams. We have devised noble plans for a new xfcorld. Without a new spirit our noblest plans will come to nought’ We pray that, in the days ahead, a full measure of that spirit may be o Ur€ The next Presidential term will see the completion of the first half of thx twentieth century. So far it hag been a century of amazing progress and of terrible tragedy. We have seen man kind’s age-long struggle against nature crowned by extraordinary success Yet our triumphs have been darkened by bitter defeats in the equally ancient struggle of men to live together in peace, security, and understanding. For this age of pregfettL this twentieth century, has been donu inated by two terrible world wars and. between the wars, the wont nomic depression Sn the , history®# mankind. We must learn to do better. The period that is drawing to a close has been one of scientific achievemwflf The era that is opening before us rnmu be a period of human and spiritmf achievement. We propose to continue to carry forward the great technological gains of our age. We shall harness the imaginable possibilities of atnmi,> energy, to bring men and women a larger, fuller life. But there is anmqr' thing more important than aft thjj,With all the energy, intelligence, awT determination which mortal heart and mind can summon to the task, we must solve the problem of establishing", a just and lasting peace in the world and of securing to our own and other like-minded people the blessings qf freedom and opportunity. To inc, to be a Republican in this hour is to dedicate one’s life to the freedom of men. As long as the world is half free and half slave, wc must peacefully labour to help men everywhere to achieve liberty. Tjie Party’s Goal We have declared our goal to be a strong and free America in a free worla of free men—free to speak their own minds, free to develop new ideas, free to publish what they believe, frifei' to move from place to place, free la choose occupations, free to choose and j use the fruits of .their labour, free to • worship God, each according to his own concept or His grace and His mercy. When these rights are secure in the world, the permanent ideals of the Republican Party shall have been realised. The ideals of the American people ■ are the ideals of the Republican Party, We have lighted a beacon here, ui 1 Philadelphia, in this cradle of our own independence. We have lighted a beacon to give eternal hope that men may live in liberty with human dignity and before God, and loving Him, stand erect and free.