noble efforts for achievement of peace and security through this Conference.

No doubt this Charter will lead toward prosperity and happiness for all nations, great and small. We have all done our best here to fulfill our obligations to humanity. As long as we are united together in a spirit of cooperation, the hand of Almighty God will lead us. We shall always have His aid insofar as we help one another.

I wish to thank the people of this beautiful city, the

Final Plenary Session .

pride of the Pacific, for their hospitality, kindness and friendship. From now on, indeed, San Francisco should be called the City of Peace.

Let that faith which led the Conference to success guide our future footsteps. Let us practice and preserve the principles which we have here put down on paper. Once and for all, let us put an end to selfishness, greed, persecution, tyranny and oppression. Let this Charter be the solid foundation upon which we shall build our new and better world.

The President of the United States has honoured us and added luster to this Conference by personally attending this final session, and thus associating himself with our labours, and with an event which will stand out among the most significant of our time.

San Francisco is today in the center of the vast drama of war and peace which has dominated our time. Men and women on a world-wide scale have suffered as never before in history. However much they may try to remain cheerful they cannot help being gripped by secret fear for the future. They have seen the mounting horror of war, and science warns them to expect far worse in future war. Not even our overwhelming victory in Europe has stilled their fears. No wonder that for the last couple of months their eyes have been fixed on San Franciscotheir eyes, their hopes, their prayers. If the Charter we have drafted here should fulfill their longings for a peaceful world, it may yet come to rank among the greatest documents of history. What hopes have we delegates ourselves of our labours?

If I as an old veteran of the wars and of peace conferences, extending for almost half a century, should have to answer this question, I would do so as follows:

Our Charter is not a perfect document. It is full of compromises over very difficult and tangled problems. But at least it is a good practical workmanlike plan for peace a very real and substantial advance on all previous plans for security against war.

It provides for a peace with teeth; for a unified front of peace-loving peoples against future aggressors; for a united front among the great powers backed by the forces of the smaller powers as well. It provides also for lesser combinations for prompt defense on a regional or local basis. And it provides for central organization and direction of the joint forces for peace.

Looking for precautions and remedies against war beyond the war machine itself, the Charter envisages also a social and economic organization of the peoples, intended to raise the levels and standards of life and work for all, and by thus removing social unrest and injustice to strike at the very roots of war. Men and women everywhere, including dependent peoples still unable to look after themselves, are thus drawn into the vast plan to

prevent war, not only by direct force, but also by promoting justice and freedom and social peace among the peoples. No such far-reaching and ambitious plan for war and peace has ever been conceived before, and at this Conference no effort has been spared to broaden it into an effective machine both for security against war and for human advance. To this happy result the delegates in particular of the United Kingdom as the greatest colonial world power, and the delegates of the Dominions. especially Australia and New Zealand, as well as of India, have made outstanding contributions, for which I gladly pay my warm tribute.

Great as our achievement is, I feel that more, is needed than a machine of peace. Unless the spirit to operate it is there, the best plan or machine may fail. The human factor must play its part. It is for our peace-loving peoples to see that this great peace plan is backed with all their energy, all their heart and soul. All the social and political and spiritual forces of our peoples should be mobilised behind this plan. War today is total, totalitarian, all in. Similarly defense should draft and conscript and organize all the resources of the human spirit behind security against war.

For this total mobilization of the human spirit for peace we must look to all who labour in the wider sphere of our human advance-to the press, the church, the schools and universities, and to all intellectual forces, all the vast network of social and moral agencies, which are the support of our civilization. The great imponderables must also be enlisted for peace.

In this respect too we have set a good example at this Conference. Our work has been done in a spirit of goodwill, good comradeship, good faith, without which it could in fact never have been accomplished. Goodwill and good faith are written or implied in every provision of this great document. And in our trust of the future we expect that those who come after us, and who will have to carry our Charter in the generations to come, will also show no less goodwill and good faith in their part of the great job of peace.

And so in faith and trust we hand our Charter down to the future.

May Heaven's blessing rest on it.

Final Plenary Session . . .

Mr. Chairman and Delegates to the United Nations Conference on International Organization:

I deeply regret that the press of circumstances when this Conference opened made it impossible for me to be here to greet you in person. I have asked for the privilege of coming today, to express on behalf of the people of the United States our thanks for what you have done here, and to wish you Godspeed on your journeys home.

Somewhere in this broad country, every one of you can find some of our citizens who are sons and daughters, or descendants in some degree, of your own native land. All our people are glad and proud that this historic meeting and its accomplishments have taken place in our country. And that includes the millions of loyal and patriotic Americans who stem from the countries not represented at this Conference.

We are grateful to you for coming. We hope you have enjoyed your stay and that you will come again.

You assembled in San Francisco nine weeks ago with the high hope and confidence of peace-loving people the world over.

Their confidence in you has been justified.
Their hope for your success has been fulfilled.

The Charter of the United Nations which you have just signed is a solid structure upon which we can build a better world. History will honor you for it. Between the victory in Europe and the final victory in Japan, in this most destructive of all wars, you have won a victory against war itself.

It was the hope of such a Charter that helped sustain the courage of stricken peoples through the darkest days of the war. For it is a declaration of great faith by the nations of the earth-faith that war is not inevitable, faith that peace can be maintained.

If we had had this Charter a few years ago—and above all, the will to use it-millions now dead would be alive. If we should falter in the future in our will to use it, millions now living will surely die.

It has already been said by many that this is only a first step to a lasting peace. That is true. The important thing is that all our thinking and all our actions be based on the realization that it is in fact only a first step. Let us all have it firmly in mind that we start today from a good beginning and, with our eye always on the final objective, let us march forward.

The Constitution of my own country came from a convention which-like this one--was made up of delegates with many different views. Like this Charter, our Constitution came from a free and sometimes bitter exchange of conflicting opinions. When it was adopted, no one regarded it as a perfect document. But it grew and developed and expanded. And upon it there was built a bigger, a better, a more perfect union.

This Charter, like our own Constitution, will be expanded and improved as time goes on. No one claims that it is now a final or a perfect instrument. It has not been poured into any fixed mold. Changing world conditions will require readjustments--but they will be the readjustments of peace and not of war.

That we now have this Charter at all is a great wonder. It is also a cause for profound thanksgiving to Almighty God, who has brought us so far in our search for peace through world organization.

There were many who doubted that agreement could ever be reached by these fifty countries differing so much

in race and religion, in language and culture. But these differences were all forgotten in one unshakable unity of determination-to find a way to end wars.

Out of all the arguments and disputes, and different points of view, a way was found to agree. Here in the spotlight of full publicity, in the tradition of libertyloving people, opinions were expressed openly and freely. The faith and the hope of fifty peaceful nations were laid before this world forum. Differences were overcome. This Charter was not the work of any single nation or group of nations, large or small. It was the result of a spirit of give-and-take, of tolerance for the views and interests of others.

It was proof that Nations, like men, can state their differences, can face them, and then can find common ground on which to stand. That is the essence of democracy; that is the essence of keeping the peace in the future. By your agreement, the way was shown toward future agreement in the years to come.

This Conference owes its success largely to the fact that you have kept your minds firmly on the main objective. You had the single job of writing a constitution—a charter for peace. And you stayed on that job.

In spite of the many distractions which came to you in the form of daily problems and disputes about such matters as new boundaries, control of Germany, peace settlements, reparations, war criminals, the form of government of some of the European countries-in spite of all these, you continued in the task of framing this document. These problems and scores of others, which will arise, are all difficult. They are complicated. They are controversial and dangerous.

But with united spirit we met and solved even more difficult problems during the war. And with the same spirit, if we keep to our principles and never forsake our objectives, the problems we now face and those to come will also be solved.

We have tested the principle of co-operation in this war and have found that it works. Through the pooling of resources, through joint and combined military command, through constant staff meetings, we have shown what united strength can do in war. That united strength forced Germany to surrender. United strength will force Japan to surrender.

The United Nations have also had experience, even while the fighting was still going on, in reaching economic agreements for times of peace. What was done on the subject of relief at Atlantic City, food at Hot Springs, finance at Bretton Woods, aviation at Chicago, was a fair test of what can be done by nations determined to live cooperatively in a world where they cannot live peacefully any other way.

What you have accomplished in San Francisco shows how well these lessons of military and economic co-operation have been learned. You have created a great instrument for peace and security and human progress in the world.

The world must now use it!

If we fail to use it, we shall betray all those who have died in order that we might meet here in freedom and safety to create it.

If we seek to use it selfishly-for the advantage of any one nation or any small group of nations-we shall be equally guilty of that betrayal.

The successful use of this instrument will require the

united will and firm determination of the free peoples who have created it. The job will tax the moral strength and fiber of us all.

We all have to recognize-no matter how great our strength-that we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please. No one nation, no regional group, can or should expect, any special privilege which harms any other nation. If any nation would keep security for itself, it must be ready and willing to share security with all. That is the price which each nation will have to pay for world peace. Unless we are all willing to pay that price, no organization for world peace can accomplish its purpose.

And what a reasonable price that is!

Out of this conflict have come powerful military nations, now fully trained and equipped for war. But they have no right to dominate the world. It is rather the duty of these powerful nations to assume the responsibility for leadership toward a world of peace. That is why we have here resolved that power and strength shall be used not to wage war, but to keep the world at peace, and free from the fear of war.

By their own example the strong nations of the world should lead the way to international justice. That principle of justice is the foundation stone of this Charter. That principle is the guiding spirit by which it must be carried out-not by words alone but by continued concrete acts of good will.

There is a time for making plans-and there is a time for action. The time for action is now! Let us, therefore, each in his own nation and according to his own way, seek immediate approval of this Charter-and make it a living thing.

I shall send this Charter to the United States Senate at once. I am sure that the overwhelming sentiment of the people of my country and of their representatives in the Senate is in favor of immediate ratification.

A just and lasting peace cannot be attained by diplomatic agreement alone, or by military co-operation alone. Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and by social injustice. The Charter recognizes this fact for it has provided for economic and social co-operation as well. It has provided for this co-operation as part of the very heart of the entire compact.

It has set up machinery of international co-operation which men and nations of good will can use to help correct economic and social causes for conflict.

Artificial and uneconomic trade barriers should be removed to the end that the standard of living of as many people as possible throughout the world may be raised. For freedom from want is one of the basic Four Freedoms toward which we all strive. The large and powerful nations of the world must assume leadership in this economic field as in all others.

Under this document we have good reason to expect the framing of an international bill of rights, acceptable to all the nations involved. That bill of rights will be as much a part of international life as our own Bill of Rights is a part of our Constitution. The Charter is dedicated to the achievement and observance of human rights and

fundamental freedoms. Unless we can attain those objectives for all men and women everywhere-without regard to race, language or religion-we cannot have permanent peace and security.

With this Charter the world can begin to look forward to the time when all worthy human beings may be permitted to live decently as free people.

The world has learned again that nations, like individuals, must know the truth if they would be free-must read and hear the truth, learn and teach the truth.

We must set up an effective agency for constant and thorough interchange of thought and ideas. For there lies the road to a better and more tolerant understanding among nations and among peoples.

All Fascism did not die with Mussolini. Hitler is finished but the seeds spread by his disordered mind have firm root in too many fanatical brains. It is easier to remove tyrants and destroy concentration camps than it is to kill the ideas which gave them birth and strength. Victory on the battlefield was essential, but it was not enough. For a good peace, a lasting peace, the decent peoples of the earth must remain determined to strike down the evil spirit which has hung over the world for the last decade.

The forces of reaction and tyranny all over the world will try to keep the United Nations from remaining united. Even while the military machine of the Axis was being destroyed in Europe-even down to its very end-they still tried to divide us.

They failed. But they will try again.

They are trying even now. To divide and conquer wasand still is their plan. They still try to make one ally suspect the other, hate the other, desert the other.

But I know I speak for every one of you when I say that the United Nations will remain united. They will not be divided by propaganda either before the Japanese surrender--or after.

This occasion shows again the continuity of history. By this Charter, you have given reality to the ideal of that great statesman of a generation ago Woodrow Wilson.

By this Charter, you have moved toward the goal for which that gallant leader in this second world struggle worked and fought and gave his life-Franklin D. Roosevelt.

By this Charter, you have realized the objectives of many men of vision in your own countries who have devoted their lives to the cause of world organization for peace.

Upon all of us, in all our countries, is now laid the duty of transforming into action these words which you have written. Upon our decisive action rests the hope of those who have fallen, those now living, those yet unborn--the hope for a world of free countries-with decent standards of living-which will work and co-operate in a friendly civilized community of nations.

This new structure of peace is rising upon strong foundations.

Let us not fail to grasp this supreme chance to establish a world-wide rule of reason-to create an enduring peace under the guidance of God.