Keynote Address of California Governor Warren
June 26, 1944, 9:00 p.m. ET
We are here to do a job for the American people. And we mean business.
What is our job? Ask any American. Ask the anxious American mother and father. Ask the anxious wives and sweethearts of our fighting men. Ask our fighting men themselves. They will tell you what our job is.
They will give you the keynote for this convention. They will tell you out of their hearts, and what they say will be the same – East and West, North and South, it will be the same.
For now the same anxieties are on every American heart – the same hour-to-hour concern for what the day may bring forth, the same steadfast courage to sustain them, the same dreams, the same hope that they will have a chance to make their dreams come true.
This is what is on their hearts. This is our job:
To get our boys back home again – victorious and with all speed.
To open the door for all Americans – to open it, not just to jobs, but to opportunity!
To make and guard the peace so wisely and so well that this time will be the last time that American homes are called to give their sons and daughters to the agony and tragedy of war.
Isn’t that a plain and homely story? But is there any other story which any American would put in place of it? Is there any other thing which, in his heart, any American wants more than these? Is there any American who would not give everything he has to bring these things to pass?
We know there is only one answer to these questions. We know, also, that that answer makes our job. To get that job done is why we are here.
This convention and this election are not time out from the job of winning the war and the peace. This convention and this election are part of that job.
We are here to speed the cause – to help America to speed the cause – for which our fighting men are giving their lives. We are here to make the road on which America can march toward victory, toward opportunity, toward peace.
That is the biggest job Americans have ever undertaken together. It is too big a job for little Americans – it is too big a job for a quarreling America. There is room for honest differences among us. There is no room for disunity. We can be of differing minds. But we must be of one heart.
That singleness of heart is not something we can wait for. Our boys in Normandy, in Italy, in India and China, in the far reaches of the South Pacific – they are not waiting for it. They are of one heart. What a highly courageous, steadfast heart it is!
What they ask of us – what they have the right to expect of us – is singleness of heart here at home. Freedom is in the balances. We dare not be found wanting.
For so great a venture together we must be together. Here and now we can begin to get together. That is our purpose.
It is the purpose of this convention to put the public welfare above private self-interest; to put the nation above the party; to put the progress of the whole American community above special privilege for any part of it; to put indispensable principles – once and for all – above indispensable men.
The choice of me as a keynote speaker was not made because of any personal attribute of mine. There were others far abler who could have been chosen.
The only good reason I was chosen was because I come from the great, hopeful, energetic West. Ours is the youngest part of America. My own state of California was a child of four years when the Republican Party was born.
Growth and change and adventure are still a part of our daily life.
In the West, there is little fear of failure and no fear of trying. That spirit of youth is the spirit of this convention.
Certainly, we are not here to look for a road back to some status quo. There is no status to which we could or should return. The future cannot be overtaken in reverse.
Neither are we here to work out some easy-sounding scheme whereby America can stand still. We believe that America wants to get going and keep going. A forward-going America is what we are here for.
In that spirit we can be confident of the future. It will not be easy. We have nothing easy to offer. Dark days lie ahead. We have no tricks to escape them. We expect tough going and we are ready for it. There is no pessimism, no defeatism, no bitterness, no jauntiness among us. Too much that we love and cherish is at stake.
And of one thing we are sure: America can come through these trying, desperate times a finer, happier, better-spirited America. It is our purpose to see to it that America does come through that way.
That is what the American people expect the Republican Party to accomplish. They are already turning to us for its accomplishment. That is why, in so many streams of late, they have been changing so many horses. That is why – in city halls, courthouses and state capitols, where government is closest to the people – the people have returned to Republican government. That is why, in election after election, they are restoring Republican leadership to Congress.
The people did this, not just because they wanted a change. They did it because they wanted a chance. As times became more critical, as their problems became more complex as strange policies and questionable practices added to their difficulties and increased their confusions, they instinctively returned to the Republican Party.
In Congress, from 16 Republicans in the Senate in 1937, the people have now elected 37; from 88 Republicans in the House of Representatives, the people have now elected 212. From eight Republican governors in 1938, the people have now elected 26. Three out of every four Americans now live under Republican state administrations. In Washington, where the bureaucrats live, there is still a Democrat in the White House. But out where the people live the country is predominantly Republican.
In those 26 Republican states, the people have already elected the kind of government which the job ahead of us requires.
They are determined this year to have more of that kind of government. They are determined to have more of it in the states. They are determined to have more of it in Congress. They are determined to have more of it – a great deal more of it – in the White House.
In those states where the people have returned to the Republican Party, government is not only for the people but of and by the people. That means not some of the people, but all of the people. Their kind of representative government reaches from ocean to ocean and from border to border. It extends to both sides of the tracks. It includes every citizen. That is why the platform of this convention will be one on which all of us can stand together – not divided by race or creed, not as minorities or majorities but as fellow Americans.
No party that stands for less than that can unite America. A better world for others must begin with us. That is where in 26 of our states it has already begun.
In those states which are already Republican you will find the record of public administration is progressive, enlightened and in the public interest. In those states you will find increased emphasis upon the public health, upon free education, upon care for orphaned and neglected children, upon support for the aged, for the victims of industrial accidents, for those handicapped by physical disabilities and for the victims of economic misfortune.
Those are the states of this Union where labor has achieved its highest dignity; where labor and management have come to their best understanding; where they have learned to work together most effectively; where, together, they are doing the best job.
What is the result of that kind of government? I can tell you. I can tell you in terms that every American with a son fighting overseas will understand. To win the war in the air, those Republican states have been called on to produce more than 81 percent of all our airplanes. To win the war at sea, those states have been called on to produce more than 76 percent of all our ships. To win the war on land, those states have been called on to produce more than 87 percent of all our ordnance – and more than 83 percent of all our other fighting equipment.
The American people were introduced, not long ago, to Dr. Win-the-War. From the record of these states, it is clear that Dr. Win-the-War is a Republican.
But this war cannot be fought and won as Republicans or Democrats. This is an all-American war. There is a place for every American in it. There is no place of honor for any American who is not in it.
In or out of office, Republicans and Democrats share the responsibility of winning the war. We want to share it in the same spirit in which the sons of all of us fight from the same foxholes, through the same jungles, across the same beaches, in the same ships at sea and in the air.
The generals who command our armies, the admirals who command our fleets are no more Republican or Democratic than the armies and the fleets which they command. They are not a product of politics. They are products of our non-political military establishment. Their concern is not with the party in power – whether it is Republican or Democratic, Their concern is how to get the men and the materials out where the war will be won. They know how to run the war and we will see to it that they have the opportunity to run it without political interference.
Our purpose is to see that the country is responsive to their military leadership; to stand back of them through good days and bad; to see to it that they get the materials needed for victory.
How well that victory can be won; how magnificently it can be won when government unites all the people to win it, is plainly written in the record of those 26 states whose government is now Republican. That is what needs to be done for the nation as a whole. To that we dedicate ourselves as our first objective; to keep the war out of politics and politics out of the war; to strengthen, among us, that spirit of single-mindedness, of unity, of self-forgetfulness that will hearten our military leaders, strengthen their hands and speed the day when, having bivouacked along the main streets of Germany and Japan, they will lead our boys victoriously home again.
But when the war is won, what then? We will have 11,000,000 men and women out of uniform. We will have millions of war workers whose war work has stopped. We will have tens of thousands of businessmen whose war contracts have been canceled.
What will those millions of Americans want? They will want what is the right of every American to have. They will want jobs. By jobs, they do not mean made jobs – with the government as employer. That is not what we mean, either. They mean moneymaking jobs in private industry. Those are the kind of jobs we mean.
But these young people will not be satisfied with just jobs. We will not be satisfied, either. These young people will want good jobs and a chance to get ahead. Hundreds of thousands of them will want to set up in small businesses for themselves; to be their own boss; to have their own farm; to own their own filling station; to run their own store, or operate their own little factory.
We will see to it that they get that chance. We can see to it because we know what it is that makes jobs and opportunity. We know that the government does not make them – not the kind of jobs the people want and which we aim to help the people to get. Government-made jobs can be a crisis necessity. But such jobs are not good enough for the long pull. For the long pull, the American people want a highway, not a dead-end street.
The belief that we have come to the end of the road, that a dead-end street is all that we have ahead of us – that will not produce jobs and opportunity, either. That belief is defeatism. The fruit of defeatism is an economy of scarcity. We know what scarcity produces. It produces scarcity: of jobs, of opportunity, of the good things of life.
We know what it is that makes jobs and opportunity. We know that private production makes them. We know that our productive system going full blast can make enough of them. It is the Republican Party that has kept that knowledge alive in America. We have kept it alive against great odds. And now the country knows how important it is that the Republicans kept that knowledge alive. For that confidence in our productive system and the know-how to get that system into full-blast production made the difference, when war came, between life and death. The same knowledge and the same knowhow will make the difference when the war is won.
But we Republicans also know that full-blast production – and the jobs and opportunity which it makes – can only come in a climate that is friendly to production. A climate that is friendly to production requires a government that is friendly to production.
It requires a government which believes that our economic soil, far from being worn out, is still life-giving; a government which believes that those who work honorably and well to make that soil produce, far from being a threat to our wellbeing, are the hope of it; a government which, far from penalizing production, encourages it; a government which believes in an economy of plenty because its aim for all the people is abundance.
In such a climate, labor and management will not be set off – one against the other. They will realize – government can help them to realize – that they do not represent two different systems; that they are, rather, part of the same system. They will understand that they are partners in that system. If, for any reason, one partner fails, both will be destroyed. They will, understand, also, that such a partnership system exists for more than profit; that it’s even more important reason for existence is the increasing security and wellbeing of all the people.
With such an understanding of their relationship to each other and their responsibility to the community, labor and management can reconcile their day-to-day differences in order, together, to make full production possible. It is a Republican responsibility to foster that climate and speed that understanding. That we will do.
In such a climate, also, the farm will no longer be set off against the city; the city against the farm. Farmer and city dweller will come to see that they do not represent two rival economic communities; that, in fact, they are partners in the same community. They will understand that bad times for one mean bad times for the other; that good times for one must include good times for the other. It is a Republican responsibility to speed that understanding and foster a climate in which prosperity is possible for both. That also we will do.
We know that this can be done. We know that the people expect us to do it. They have turned to us because – under the threat of war – they wanted to get along. When the war is won, they want to keep going – toward full, peacetime production that will insure, not jobs alone, but opportunity and a fair and increasing share of life’s good things. To that we dedicate ourselves as our second objective.
But to insure such a future, this war must end in something better than an armistice. This war must end in peace. For our homes, our sons and our daughters, this time must be the last time.
In their hearts the American people know what kind of peace they want. They may differ upon details, but they are agreed upon the things that are really important. What is needed is effective leadership, honestly and vigorously to carry into realization the aspirations upon which our people are united.
We want a peace that will be lasting. That means a peace that will be just. That means not only justice for the few and powerful, but justice also for the many and less powerful.
We want a peace that is based upon realities and not upon the insecure foundation of mere words or promises. That means a peace which, being mindful of the interest of other nations, does not neglect or sacrifice the interests of our own nation.
None of these aspirations can be realized under a leadership that plays power politics on a worldwide stage. They cannot be achieved under a leadership which neglects the interests of America. No such leadership can hope to keep the world’s respect or to unite America in helping to solve the world’s problems. Nor can they ever be achieved by a leadership which holds itself superior to the wisdom of the people.
As Republicans, we are united in uncompromising opposition to aggression. We are prepared to take a definite stand against aggression, not merely to denounce it but to resist it and restrain it. That calls for effective cooperation with all the peace-loving nations of the world; for the establishment of a tribunal for the settlement of international disputes which otherwise might lead to war. We are agreed, too, that, if such a program is to be effective, the friendly cooperation of the war’s principal Allied combatants – the United States, Great Britain, Russia and China – is as essential as the keystone of an arch. But beyond that is the task of establishing order, maintaining peace and extending prosperity. We stand ready to welcome every nation that is prepared in honesty and goodwill to join with us in the accomplishment of that purpose. And we know that if we are to maintain respect among the nations of the world, if we are to be able to keep our own commitments and to compel recalcitrants to keep theirs, we must keep America ever strong and self-reliant.
The Republican Party has not waited to declare these principles. At the Mackinac Conference, we blazed the way for them. The future of America and the happiness of our children depend on their establishment.
Whatever the exact procedures, on these principles the American people, in their hearts, agree. I do not believe that any sound American political party should say more. I am sure that in good conscience, no such political party can say less.
This is the job we are here to do. These are the things about which we mean business: To get the boys victoriously back home; to open the door to jobs and opportunity; to make a peace that this time will be lasting. This is too great an undertaking for petty politics, for name-calling or for hate-making. There is no place among us for malcontents. We are in no mood for torchlight jubilation. Whether we win as a party is of less importance to us than whether we win as a people.
There has been progress in every decade of American history. Progress is an American habit. We do not propose to deny the progress that has been made during the last decade. Neither do we aim to repeal it. Whatever its source, if it is good, we will acknowledge it. If it is sound, we will build on it. If it is forward looking, we will make use of it as we go forward from here.
Neither do we aim to turn the clock back and make an issue of every administration mistake in the last eleven years. We are less concerned about these past errors than about the direction in which for the future we are going.
We believe the New Deal is leading us away from representative government. We believe that its centralization of power in the numerous bureaus at Washington will eventually destroy freedom as Americans have always understood it – freedom in the home, freedom of individual opportunity in business and employment, freedom to govern ourselves locally.
We believed the New Deal is destroying the two-party system. The New Deal is no longer the Democratic Party. It is an incongruous clique within that party. It retains its power by patronizing and holding together incompatible groups. It talks of idealism and seeks its votes from the moat corrupt political machines in the country. The leaders of its inner circle are not representatives of the people. They are the personal agents of one man. Their appointments to public office are not made on the basis of efficiency or public approval, but on the basis of loyalty to the clique. Under this rule, the Constitution has been short circuited. The Cabinet has ceased to be a voice and has become an echo. Congress, wherever possible, has been circumvented by executive decree. Both Congress and the judiciary have been intimidated and bludgeoned to make them servile.
Over all of this – and over all of us – is the ominous, gargantuan figure of an arrogant, power-intoxicated bureaucracy. Nowhere in its vast domain has it been satisfied with merely one bureaucrat, if by hook or crook desks could be found for two. These bureaucrats of the New Deal tell the farmer what to sow and when to reap – sometimes without regard for either the seeds or the season. They require him to work in the fields all day and keep books for the government all night. These same bureaucrats tell the worker what union he shall join, what dues he shall pay, and to whom he must pay them. They soon will tell the worker where he can work and where he cannot work. Then the workers of America will be a long way down the road toward the kind of government which our nation is now resisting with all its power.
These bureaucrats encumber the small businessman with a multiplicity of rules, regulations, orders and decrees which entangle him, stifle his business and darken his future. They move in – like political commissars – to watch over the shoulders of our industrialists – to say what, where and how industry can produce.
They have threatened our free press. They have intimidated our free radio. They are using every device and excuse to insinuate themselves into control over the public schools of our states. They have injected a low grade of politics into the administration of relief and social welfare.
They have bypassed the governments of the states in an effort to destroy state effectiveness and compel the people to rely solely upon the New Deal clique at Washington for the solution of all their problems.
For years they have deprived entire regions of representation in the policy-making agencies of the federal government.
To perpetuate themselves in power the New Deal clique has always capitalized upon some crisis. It has always had the indispensable man – the same man – for each succeeding crisis. The first time it was the depression. The second time it was the recession. Last time it was to keep us out of war. This time it will be to achieve peace. The next time – who knows what crisis it will be? That there will be one and that the indispensable man will still be indispensable, we can rely upon the New Deal clique to assert. The New Deal came to power with a song on its lips: “Happy days are here again.” That song is ended. Even the melody does not linger on. Now we are being conditioned for a new song: “Don’t change horses in the middle of a stream.” That melody isn’t likely to linger either. For eleven long years we have been in the middle of the stream. We are not amphibious. We want to get across. We want to feel dry and solid ground under our feet again.
The life of a nation is a succession of crises. War and peace and economic and social adjustments have always followed each other in endless succession. No party, clique or individual can rightfully claim priority in government because a crisis occurs during its administration.
The Republican Party was born in a great crisis. The American people turned to it because they wanted to get safely, speedily through that crisis and get on their way again. Then, as now, the Republican Party was called by the people to displace a regime of men, who had grown tired, complacent and cynical in the business of government. Then, as now, the Republican Party was called upon to replace a party that was torn with dissension and in revolt against itself. Then, as now, the Republican Party was called by the people to furnish youth and vigor and vision.
Now, as then, the Republican Party will respond to that call. It will represent the nation, the whole nation and nothing but the nation. It will devote itself fervently to the problems of the people and in everything it does the Constitution of the United States of America will be its guiding star. It will function through established law and not through the caprice of bureaucratic regulation. There shall be one law for all men.
Its greatest concern will always be for those who have the greatest need. It will conduct government openly where the people can see, discuss and decide. It will operate less from the government down and more from the people up. It will make wise and careful use of the people’s money. It will keep the public’s books in such a way as to allow the people to see how their money is used. It will see that taxes are just, visible and designed to stimulate rather than punish. It will strengthen our great public school system, keep it under the control of state and local government, where it is responsive to the people, and prepare it to play a stronger part in the life of the Republic. It will promote peace in industry by stimulating goodwill between labor and management. It will free the agencies of public information from the domination of government. It will make fully effective the immeasurable strength of the nation by promoting goodwill and unity at home. It will not be cocksure in good times or depressed and cynical in bad times. It will direct our combined material and spiritual resources against the enemies of our country. It will make any sacrifice to achieve victory even one day sooner so our boys can come home. It will see to it that they are cared for when they do come home. It and we will honor them the rest of our lives.
But we will start building right now that finer America which during their night vigils they dream of as they look at the stars from their foxholes on land and from their gun turrets at sea and in the air; the America that to them spells happy homes and freedom of opportunity for all; the America that represents unity at home and peace with the countries of the world.
It takes faith to build such an America – a strong faith, the same faith that now sustains our fighting men; a faith that is truly “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
With such a faith – which is our faith – we shall march under God toward victory, toward opportunity, toward peace.
