Full text of Statements and Speeches of Chester C. Davis : Democracy in Crisis : Address at the Luncheon of the Scottish Rite Club of St. Louis

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DEMOCRACY II CRISIS
Addroas by Cheater C. Davis, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St* Louis,
at the luncheon of the Scottish lite Club of 3t» Louia,
Wednesday, December 10, 19i*l«

Up to a year ago wa in the United States were certain of many things that
weren't true. We lived in a make-believe world comforted by illusions wa
thought were realities* Wa thought, for example, that a nation which minded it a
own buainess and respected the rights of Ita neighbors would bo loft free to
work out Ita destiny in lta own sphere*

Our actions proved that wo considered

peace among men the normal state of affairs•
These made np the keystone of our thinking on international matters*
That keystone weakened before the horror that swallowed the peace-loving
Scandinavian democracies and the well-ordered life of the Low Countries; that
has overwhelm d France, and swept over China, the Balkans, Greece and the
Mediterranean, and la new hammering away at the East*

Ita laat remains crumbled

away at Pearl Harbor Sunday morning*
A now rule in international affairs la being demonstrated today over the
earth*

It la the rule of military power in which nothing else counts*

demonstration hasn't ended yet.

It la atlll spreading*

The

There la no limit to

ita growth except restraint imposed by greater power*
The trouble is, we haven9t realized ** w* actually do not realize yet,
what this means* Wo are atlll under the spell of fooling that someday, somehow,
something will click, and we will find ourselves back onoo more In the
comfortable old groove*
It la time wo faood a few unpleasant truths. As groups and as individuals
wo want our privileges and immunities untouched. Be have talked of sacrifices,
but wo have really wanted the other fellow to make them*




-2In my months in St* Louis, about the only signs I have seen of roal deep
motional indignation or moral uneasiness have been over the shortcomings of
labor leadership in the defense crisis* Tot other groups have fought just as
bard at organised labor to preserve their privileges and immunities, and to
protect their future.
The time has oome when the special interests of all groups must be subordinated to our common goal of winning through to final victory*
The principal factor that is going to pinoh ma hardest aa civilians in the
months and years ahead, and that will limit the speed and scope of Armament
production, will be shortages of aluminum, steel and copper, produced at home •»
rubber, tin and other essentials, normally imported.

The metal situation la

not duo to a shortage of supplies underground) it Is mot due to a scarcity of men
to work the mines and smelters; but it is due to the workings of our economic
system whioh has been baaed on limitation of supply to the needs of a controlled
and profitable market, rather than on real needs founded on the potential
capacity of the people to absorb and use goods*
Up to date the people of this country have not appreciated the real
significance of this war. notwithstanding all warnings, we have continued to
think of this as a foreign war| something alien and apart from us. Most of us
have continued to think in 18th and 19th century terms©

We have talked about

total war, and all-out mobilisation, without the slightest realisation of what
we meant*
He are fast learning that the old concepts of international relations and
international behavior have gone, probably forever.
Because the dimensions of the world have shrunk, it was Impossible for any
nation to avoid the impact of the present struggle*




The conditions that confront

us are not to our liking and they are not of our choosing*

Ws earn only face them

with the determination to baok with national unity the leaders who bear the heavy
burdens of responsibility*

We can cement that unity wita understanding, and if ww

are fortunate, we say profit from lessons which the fast and present hare spread
plainly before us*
It is a mistake to oversimplify or belittle the challenge that confronts us*
The defeat of one dictator, or a set of dictators, la our first task, but it won't
end the job*

It will merely mark its real beginning. We do not want to fight

merely to restore once mere the old order in Errop© and Asia*

Wm hare had

convincing proof that it cannot work. I doubt if titers is a mam in this audience
Him is willing to die to reestablish it*

On the other hand, there are few who

would hesitate to lay down their lives if they knew that by that sacrifice they
were contributing substantially to a future that will provide Justice and peace.
Our greatest common mistake today is our failure to realize what is happening
in the world*
revolution.

Thia Isn't just a war in the mrnmm of past wars*

It is a world-wide

It Is a revolution, moreover, that feeds am this mistakes of democracies*

Hitler has had strength back ef him because of the economic failure of free,
democratic governments to substitute plenty for scarcity through providing full
employment for the manpower and resources of the world*
Hitler is hateful to every free man, but no truer word has been said tham
that you canft defeat him by force alone*

We can only understand that If we sea,

clearly and finally, that we are in a world revolution and that the basis struggle
Is liver its form and leadership*

Anything short of that understanding has no mora

meaning than has the mad struggle of a quarter century ago as we look baok upon it
mow*
We believe that democracies embodying the institutions of human freedom earn
guide that world revolution better than can dictatorships that deny freedom.
challenge is breath-taking*



But the

In the long run future democratic leadership cannot meet

—l^m

it unless it performs better than it has done in the past. It cannot meet the
challenge if it is content to rest on the efforts and the devices of the past
which have produced the parados of scarcity and want ifoere the materials and the
opportunity fur abundance exist*
The people of the United States must understand the implications of the world
orisia and they must sea clearly the consequences of our mm behavior. Without
that common, general understanding, leadership will he powerless to deal with the
tremendous difficulties that are ahead*

these are times when understanding and

vision are the only alternatives to discouragement*
cooperation, not disunityj it is the tim

This is the time for

whea we need clear-sighted, optimistic

courage*
fh# world iamft what we would like it to be*
as wa thought it was*
can*

It isn't anywhere near as good

But the destiny that shapes our ends sees farther than aw

As long as the spark of freedom and dignity for individual man lives* there

la hope that today's pain is hut a phase in the evolution of a wm and better
world - one in which freedom of thought and the institutions of free men have
survived*




*******