Speech Transcript:

My Countrymen:

This occasion is not alone the administration of the most sacred oath
which can be assumed by an American citizen. It is a dedication and
consecration under God to the highest office in service of our
people. I assume this trust in the humility of knowledge that only
through the guidance of Almighty Providence can I hope to discharge
its ever-increasing burdens.

It is in keeping with tradition throughout our history that I should
express simply and directly the opinions which I hold concerning some
of the matters of present importance.

OUR PROGRESS

If we survey the situation of our Nation both at home and abroad, we
find many satisfactions; we find some causes for concern. We have
emerged from the losses of the Great War and the reconstruction
following it with increased virility and strength. From this strength
we have contributed to the recovery and progress of the world. What
America has done has given renewed hope and courage to all who have
faith in government by the people. In the large view, we have reached
a higher degree of comfort and security than ever existed before in
the history of the world. Through liberation from widespread poverty
we have reached a higher degree of individual freedom than ever
before. The devotion to and concern for our institutions are deep and
sincere. We are steadily building a new race--a new civilization great
in its own attainments. The influence and high purposes of our Nation
are respected among the peoples of the world. We aspire to
distinction in the world, but to a distinction based upon confidence
in our sense of justice as well as our accomplishments within our own
borders and in our own lives. For wise guidance in this great period
of recovery the Nation is deeply indebted to Calvin Coolidge.
But all this majestic advance should not obscure the constant dangers
from which self-government must be safeguarded. The strong man must at
all times be alert to the attack of insidious disease.

THE FAILURE OF OUR SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The most malign of all these dangers today is disregard and
disobedience of law. Crime is increasing. Confidence in rigid and
speedy justice is decreasing. I am not prepared to believe that this
indicates any decay in the moral fiber of the American people. I am
not prepared to believe that it indicates an impotence of the Federal
Government to enforce its laws.
It is only in part due to the additional burdens imposed upon our
judicial system by the eighteenth amendment. The problem is much
wider than that. Many influences had increasingly complicated and
weakened our law enforcement organization long before the adoption of
the eighteenth amendment.

To reestablish the vigor and effectiveness of law enforcement we must
critically consider the entire Federal machinery of justice, the
redistribution of its functions, the simplification of its procedure,
the provision of additional special tribunals, the better selection of
juries, and the more effective organization of our agencies of
investigation and prosecution that justice may be sure and that it
may be swift. While the authority of the Federal Government extends
to but part of our vast system of national, State, and local justice,
yet the standards which the Federal Government establishes have the
most profound influence upon the whole structure.

We are fortunate in the ability and integrity of our Federal judges
and attorneys. But the system which these officers are called upon to
administer is in many respects ill adapted to present-day conditions.
Its intricate and involved rules of procedure have become the refuge
of both big and little criminals. There is a belief abroad that by
invoking technicalities, subterfuge, and delay, the ends of justice
may be thwarted by those who can pay the cost.

Reform, reorganization and strengthening of our whole judicial and
enforcement system, both in civil and criminal sides, have been
advocated for years by statesmen, judges, and bar associations. First
steps toward that end should not longer be delayed. Rigid and
expeditious justice is the first safeguard of freedom, the basis of
all ordered liberty, the vital force of progress. It must not come to
be in our Republic that it can be defeated by the indifference of the
citizen, by exploitation of the delays and entanglements of the law,
or by combinations of criminals. Justice must not fail because the
agencies of enforcement are either delinquent or inefficiently
organized. To consider these evils, to find their remedy, is the most
sore necessity of our times.

ENFORCEMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT

Of the undoubted abuses which have grown up under the eighteenth
amendment, part are due to the causes I have just mentioned; but part
are due to the failure of some States to accept their share of
responsibility for concurrent enforcement and to the failure of many
State and local officials to accept the obligation under their oath
of office zealously to enforce the laws. With the failures from these
many causes has come a dangerous expansion in the criminal elements
who have found enlarged opportunities in dealing in illegal liquor.
But a large responsibility rests directly upon our citizens. There
would be little traffic in illegal liquor if only criminals
patronized it. We must awake to the fact that this patronage from
large numbers of law-abiding citizens is supplying the rewards and
stimulating crime.

I have been selected by you to execute and enforce the laws of the
country. I propose to do so to the extent of my own abilities, but
the measure of success that the Government shall attain will depend
upon the moral support which you, as citizens, extend. The duty of
citizens to support the laws of the land is coequal with the duty of
their Government to enforce the laws which exist. No greater national
service can be given by men and women of good will--who, I know, are
not unmindful of the responsibilities of citizenship--than that they
should, by their example, assist in stamping out crime and outlawry
by refusing participation in and condemning all transactions with
illegal liquor. Our whole system of self-government will crumble
either if officials elect what laws they will enforce or citizens
elect what laws they will support. The worst evil of disregard for
some law is that it destroys respect for all law. For our citizens to
patronize the violation of a particular law on the ground that they
are opposed to it is destructive of the very basis of all that
protection of life, of homes and property which they rightly claim
under other laws. If citizens do not like a law, their duty as honest
men and women is to discourage its violation; their right is openly to
work for its repeal.

To those of criminal mind there can be no appeal but vigorous
enforcement of the law. Fortunately they are but a small percentage
of our people. Their activities must be stopped.

A NATIONAL INVESTIGATION

I propose to appoint a national commission for a searching
investigation of the whole structure of our Federal system of
jurisprudence, to include the method of enforcement of the eighteenth
amendment and the causes of abuse under it. Its purpose will be to
make such recommendations for reorganization of the administration of
Federal laws and court procedure as may be found desirable. In the
meantime it is essential that a large part of the enforcement
activities be transferred from the Treasury Department to the
Department of Justice as a beginning of more effective organization.
THE RELATION OF GOVERNMENT TO BUSINESS

The election has again confirmed the determination of the American
people that regulation of private enterprise and not Government
ownership or operation is the course rightly to be pursued in our
relation to business. In recent years we have established a
differentiation in the whole method of business regulation between
the industries which produce and distribute commodities on the one
hand and public utilities on the other. In the former, our laws
insist upon effective competition; in the latter, because we
substantially confer a monopoly by limiting competition, we must
regulate their services and rates. The rigid enforcement of the laws
applicable to both groups is the very base of equal opportunity and
freedom from domination for all our people, and it is just as
essential for the stability and prosperity of business itself as for
the protection of the public at large. Such regulation should be
extended by the Federal Government within the limitations of the
Constitution and only when the individual States are without power to
protect their citizens through their own authority. On the other hand,
we should be fearless when the authority rests only in the Federal
Government.
COOPERATION BY THE GOVERNMENT

The larger purpose of our economic thought should be to establish
more firmly stability and security of business and employment and
thereby remove poverty still further from our borders. Our people
have in recent years developed a new-found capacity for cooperation
among themselves to effect high purposes in public welfare. It is an
advance toward the highest conception of self-government.
Self-government does not and should not imply the use of political
agencies alone. Progress is born of cooperation in the community--not
from governmental restraints. The Government should assist and
encourage these movements of collective self-help by itself
cooperating with them. Business has by cooperation made great
progress in the advancement of service, in stability, in regularity
of employment and in the correction of its own abuses. Such progress,
however, can continue only so long as business manifests its respect
for law.
There is an equally important field of cooperation by the Federal
Government with the multitude of agencies, State, municipal and
private, in the systematic development of those processes which
directly affect public health, recreation, education, and the home.
We have need further to perfect the means by which Government can be
adapted to human service.

EDUCATION

Although education is primarily a responsibility of the States and
local communities, and rightly so, yet the Nation as a whole is
vitally concerned in its development everywhere to the highest
standards and to complete universality. Self-government can succeed
only through an instructed electorate. Our objective is not simply to
overcome illiteracy. The Nation has marched far beyond that. The more
complex the problems of the Nation become, the greater is the need
for more and more advanced instruction. Moreover, as our numbers
increase and as our life expands with science and invention, we must
discover more and more leaders for every walk of life. We can not
hope to succeed in directing this increasingly complex civilization
unless we can draw all the talent of leadership from the whole
people. One civilization after another has been wrecked upon the
attempt to secure sufficient leadership from a single group or class.
If we would prevent the growth of class distinctions and would
constantly refresh our leadership with the ideals of our people, we
must draw constantly from the general mass. The full opportunity for
every boy and girl to rise through the selective processes of
education can alone secure to us this leadership.
PUBLIC HEALTH

In public health the discoveries of science have opened a new era.
Many sections of our country and many groups of our citizens suffer
from diseases the eradication of which are mere matters of
administration and moderate expenditure. Public health service should
be as fully organized and as universally incorporated into our
governmental system as is public education. The returns are a
thousand fold in economic benefits, and infinitely more in reduction
of suffering and promotion of human happiness.
WORLD PEACE

The United States fully accepts the profound truth that our own
progress, prosperity, and peace are interlocked with the progress,
prosperity, and peace of all humanity. The whole world is at peace.
The dangers to a continuation of this peace to-day are largely the
fear and suspicion which still haunt the world. No suspicion or fear
can be rightly directed toward our country.
Those who have a true understanding of America know that we have no
desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other domination of
other peoples. Such purposes are repugnant to our ideals of human
freedom. Our form of government is ill adapted to the
responsibilities which inevitably follow permanent limitation of the
independence of other peoples. Superficial observers seem to find no
destiny for our abounding increase in population, in wealth and power
except that of imperialism. They fail to see that the American people
are engrossed in the building for themselves of a new economic
system, a new social system, a new political system all of which are
characterized by aspirations of freedom of opportunity and thereby
are the negation of imperialism. They fail to realize that because of
our abounding prosperity our youth are pressing more and more into our
institutions of learning; that our people are seeking a larger vision
through art, literature, science, and travel; that they are moving
toward stronger moral and spiritual life--that from these things our
sympathies are broadening beyond the bounds of our Nation and race
toward their true expression in a real brotherhood of man. They fail
to see that the idealism of America will lead it to no narrow or
selfish channel, but inspire it to do its full share as a nation
toward the advancement of civilization. It will do that not by mere
declaration but by taking a practical part in supporting all useful
international undertakings. We not only desire peace with the world,
but to see peace maintained throughout the world. We wish to advance
the reign of justice and reason toward the extinction of force.

The recent treaty for the renunciation of war as an instrument of
national policy sets an advanced standard in our conception of the
relations of nations. Its acceptance should pave the way to greater
limitation of armament, the offer of which we sincerely extend to the
world. But its full realization also implies a greater and greater
perfection in the instrumentalities for pacific settlement of
controversies between nations. In the creation and use of these
instrumentalities we should support every sound method of
conciliation, arbitration, and judicial settlement. American
statesmen were among the first to propose and they have constantly
urged upon the world, the establishment of a tribunal for the
settlement of controversies of a justiciable character. The Permanent
Court of International Justice in its major purpose is thus peculiarly
identified with American ideals and with American statesmanship. No
more potent instrumentality for this purpose has ever been conceived
and no other is practicable of establishment. The reservations placed
upon our adherence should not be misinterpreted. The United States
seeks by these reservations no special privilege or advantage but
only to clarify our relation to advisory opinions and other matters
which are subsidiary to the major purpose of the court. The way
should, and I believe will, be found by which we may take our proper
place in a movement so fundamental to the progress of peace.

Our people have determined that we should make no political
engagements such as membership in the League of Nations, which may
commit us in advance as a nation to become involved in the
settlements of controversies between other countries. They adhere to
the belief that the independence of America from such obligations
increases its ability and availability for service in all fields of
human progress.

I have lately returned from a journey among our sister Republics of
the Western Hemisphere. I have received unbounded hospitality and
courtesy as their expression of friendliness to our country. We are
held by particular bonds of sympathy and common interest with them.
They are each of them building a racial character and a culture which
is an impressive contribution to human progress. We wish only for the
maintenance of their independence, the growth of their stability, and
their prosperity. While we have had wars in the Western Hemisphere,
yet on the whole the record is in encouraging contrast with that of
other parts of the world. Fortunately the New World is largely free
from the inheritances of fear and distrust which have so troubled the
Old World. We should keep it so.

It is impossible, my countrymen, to speak of peace without profound
emotion. In thousands of homes in America, in millions of homes
around the world, there are vacant chairs. It would be a shameful
confession of our unworthiness if it should develop that we have
abandoned the hope for which all these men died. Surely civilization
is old enough, surely mankind is mature enough so that we ought in
our own lifetime to find a way to permanent peace. Abroad, to west
and east, are nations whose sons mingled their blood with the blood
of our sons on the battlefields. Most of these nations have
contributed to our race, to our culture, our knowledge, and our
progress. From one of them we derive our very language and from many
of them much of the genius of our institutions. Their desire for
peace is as deep and sincere as our own.

Peace can be contributed to by respect for our ability in defense.
Peace can be promoted by the limitation of arms and by the creation
of the instrumentalities for peaceful settlement of controversies.
But it will become a reality only through self-restraint and active
effort in friendliness and helpfulness. I covet for this
administration a record of having further contributed to advance the
cause of peace.

PARTY RESPONSIBILITIES

In our form of democracy the expression of the popular will can be
effected only through the instrumentality of political parties. We
maintain party government not to promote intolerant partisanship but
because opportunity must be given for expression of the popular will,
and organization provided for the execution of its mandates and for
accountability of government to the people. It follows that the
government both in the executive and the legislative branches must
carry out in good faith the platforms upon which the party was
entrusted with power. But the government is that of the whole people;
the party is the instrument through which policies are determined and
men chosen to bring them into being. The animosities of elections
should have no place in our Government, for government must concern
itself alone with the common weal.
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE CONGRESS

Action upon some of the proposals upon which the Republican Party was
returned to power, particularly further agricultural relief and
limited changes in the tariff, cannot in justice to our farmers, our
labor, and our manufacturers be postponed. I shall therefore request
a special session of Congress for the consideration of these two
questions. I shall deal with each of them upon the assembly of the
Congress.
OTHER MANDATES FROM THE ELECTION

It appears to me that the more important further mandates from the
recent election were the maintenance of the integrity of the
Constitution; the vigorous enforcement of the laws; the continuance
of economy in public expenditure; the continued regulation of
business to prevent domination in the community; the denial of
ownership or operation of business by the Government in competition
with its citizens; the avoidance of policies which would involve us
in the controversies of foreign nations; the more effective
reorganization of the departments of the Federal Government; the
expansion of public works; and the promotion of welfare activities
affecting education and the home.
These were the more tangible determinations of the election, but
beyond them was the confidence and belief of the people that we would
not neglect the support of the embedded ideals and aspirations of
America. These ideals and aspirations are the touchstones upon which
the day-to-day administration and legislative acts of government must
be tested. More than this, the Government must, so far as lies within
its proper powers, give leadership to the realization of these ideals
and to the fruition of these aspirations. No one can adequately reduce
these things of the spirit to phrases or to a catalogue of
definitions. We do know what the attainments of these ideals should
be: The preservation of self-government and its full foundations in
local government; the perfection of justice whether in economic or in
social fields; the maintenance of ordered liberty; the denial of
domination by any group or class; the building up and preservation of
equality of opportunity; the stimulation of initiative and
individuality; absolute integrity in public affairs; the choice of
officials for fitness to office; the direction of economic progress
toward prosperity for the further lessening of poverty; the freedom
of public opinion; the sustaining of education and of the advancement
of knowledge; the growth of religious spirit and the tolerance of all
faiths; the strengthening of the home; the advancement of peace.

There is no short road to the realization of these aspirations. Ours
is a progressive people, but with a determination that progress must
be based upon the foundation of experience. Ill-considered remedies
for our faults bring only penalties after them. But if we hold the
faith of the men in our mighty past who created these ideals, we
shall leave them heightened and strengthened for our children.

CONCLUSION

This is not the time and place for extended discussion. The questions
before our country are problems of progress to higher standards; they
are not the problems of degeneration. They demand thought and they
serve to quicken the conscience and enlist our sense of
responsibility for their settlement. And that responsibility rests
upon you, my countrymen, as much as upon those of us who have been
selected for office.
Ours is a land rich in resources; stimulating in its glorious beauty;
filled with millions of happy homes; blessed with comfort and
opportunity. In no nation are the institutions of progress more
advanced. In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure.
In no nation is the government more worthy of respect. No country is
more loved by its people. I have an abiding faith in their capacity,
integrity and high purpose. I have no fears for the future of our
country. It is bright with hope.

In the presence of my countrymen, mindful of the solemnity of this
occasion, knowing what the task means and the responsibility which it
involves, I beg your tolerance, your aid, and your cooperation. I ask
the help of Almighty God in this service to my country to which you
have called me.