SAVING THE NATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 January 1941, Page 6

SAVING THE NATION

ROOSEVELT ON PEOPLE’S TASK tv- 1 ■ ■ THIRD TERM INAUGURATION SPEECH. FAITH IN DEMOCRACY. <Ry Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright ■ 'Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.i WASHINGTON. January 20. Mr F. D. Roosevelt today was inaugurated as President of the United States for a third term. He drove from the White House to the Capitol in an open car, escorted by four Army scout cars, which were equipped with heavy machineguns. A procession of official cars followed. while members of the Secret Service brought up the rear. The crowds cheered as the President waved his top hat. Chief Justice Hughes swore in Mr Roosevelt, after which the President delivered his inaugural speech. •’On each national day of inauguration since 1789." he said, "the people have r< mv.ed their sense of dedication to the United States. Today the people’s task is to save the nation and its institutions from disruption. Without there are men who believe that democracy as a form of government and frame of life is limited or measured by a kind of mystical artificial fate —that, for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery are to become the surging wave of the future —and that freedom is a fleeing tide. Eight year, l ago (in the depression •. when the life; of this Republic seemed frozen by fat-; ulistic terror, we proved this to be un-' true. Wo acted quickly and boldly These later years have been living, years, fruitful for the people of this: democracy. They have brought greater security and a better understanding that life’s ideals are measurable in other j than material things. Very vital for; our present and future is this experi-

ence of democracy which lias success-; fully survived the crisis at home and; put away many evils, to build new 1 Structures on enduring lines, and* throughout has maintained tin* fact of; its democracy. Prophets of the down-; fall of American democracy have .seen ; their dire predictions come to naught ■ Democracy is not dying We know ibecause it is built on the unhampered initiative of individual men and women, joined in a common enterprise < undertaken and carried through by the free expression of a free majority We know it because democracy, alone of all forms of government, enlists the; full force of men’s enlightened will." i