Friday Farming. Um. . .large farmers.

N.C. Wyeth, The Farmer.  1911.

On Friday, this blog tries to post something about farming, but it often lets everyone down by failing to do so, posting instead on various other inanities, such as a legislative committee passing a goofball ignorant bill on chemtrails.

Och!

Anyhow, we've been watching the news as first soybean farmers, and then later cattle farmers, have come on the news and stated, effectively, "we didn't think leopards would eat our face!" after Donald Trump took the tariff club and beat them upside the head and then decided that the Golden Arches could serve up Big Mac's with carne molida rather than ground beef.

What a bunch of amadán breallach.  Oh well, it's hard to feel sorry for them.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Put that in your Happy Meal, bucko.

But this thread isn't on that.

Rather its on this.

We admire farmers and ranchers, as is rather obvious.  It's our true vocation, even if an unfulfilled one. And we are familiar with actual farming, not the Green Acres/Hallmark/Homesteading type of agriculture.

But we're also agrarians.

Anyhow, I can't help but note this, even though its rude.

The spokesmen for soybean farmers have, at least on some occasions, been enormously fat.

That's a bad look.  They're huge.  And they're not huge in the way that some large people are who are pretty fit, and I've known more than a few.  Indeed, I've known some outdoor employed people, both blue collar and in the sciences, who were really big, but quite fit.  You could tell that what was at work with them was genetics.  But many of these farmers, or at least the snipped I've seen, are just flat out fat.

This isn't the case with working ranchers.  

I guess that shows us the extent to which mechanized farming has become, well, mechanized.  At least one of these great big farmers has been interviewed in his farm machinery as he and it are working in his fields.  And that's just not conducive to living well.  Ranching is still a pretty physically active line of work.

With these guys, I suspect, but of course don't know, that they're still consuming a farm diet that developed prior to the 1980s.  Say, perhaps, before World War Two. Big breakfast, followed by heavy activity, big lunch, followed by heavy activity, and a  lighter dinner. . .sometimes followed by heavy activity.  Now, however, you can omit the heavy activity.

Which gets us back to, I guess, the state of the world in general.  Our technology is, frankly, killing us.  We really weren't meant to live that way, or much of the way our technological world is having us live.

And, as a minor fwiw, you really can't come on to television seeking sympathies for farmers if you look like, to use an analogy, a fat cat.  You guys have obviously been eating well.  Yes, that really shouldn't matter, and its not a moral failing, but it doesn't look good in the presentation.

Saturday, October 31, 1925. Subpoena for Coolidge?

Billy Mitchell's defense was considering subpoenaing Calvin Coolidge.

It was Halloween, and the Mills Tavern was having a party, with lots of elk.

That's a real curiosity, as generally it'd be very difficult to find a restaurant in Wyoming serving elk now.  Hunters can't have their elk served in restaurants, and market hunting as well as game farming is illegal in Wyoming.  Market hunting was illegal in Wyoming at the time, and in fact by 1925, was pretty much everywhere in the U.S.

An oddity of advertising in Casper appears here, I'd note.  At the time, advertisers routinely failed to note their addresses.  Where was the Mills Tavern, other than in Mills?

It's actually a little hard to find out.

The tavern seems to have opened, or reopened, in 1924.  It was operating as a restaurant, and it had private dining rooms.  By 1930 its focus may have changed, as it issued cigarette books with illustrations of scantily clad women on the jackets, although that was quite common at the time and at least into the 1950s.  Early on, however, it emphasized nightly dancing and chicken dinners.  Apparently the bands were good enough that a band appearing in Glenrock noted that it was "from" the Mills Tavern.

The focus may have changed sometime prior to that, actually, as it was hit in a prohibition raid in 1926, although only a small amount of alcohol was found.  Given that the amount was small, not too much can be presumed.

When the tavern opened in 1924, it noted that it was in the former Mills Hotel. That provides a pretty good clue as to its location.  An old hotel building still exists in Mills, no longer used for that purpose.  That was likely the location, and would explain why it had private rooms.

The new Ajax  was out:

Ajax automobiles no longer exist, of course.  Neither does the town of Salt Creek.

Ajax was made by Nash and was offered only in 1925 and 1926.

And, well, Coolidge looked safe.

 It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday, October 30, 1925. Not Guilty.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Billy Mitchell, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell

Thursday, October 30, 1975. King Juan Carlos I of Spain became acting head of state of the country after Franco conceded he was too ill to govern.

King Juan Carlos I of Spain became acting head of state of the country after Franco conceded he was too ill to govern.

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 21, 1975. Franco approaches the end.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, 1975 World Series, baseball, Francisco Franco, Spain, Sports

Tuesday, October 30, 1945. Rushing the Nationalist North.

The Sheridan Press reported that the Nationalist Army, whom they reported as "regulars", were being rushed to Mongolia to fight the Communists.

That was correct.  The U.S. was aiding in that effort through air lifting.

A local brewer that no longer exists advertised in the issue:

The common belief is that most local breweries didn't survive the Great Depression, but Sherida Brewing did.  Casper Brewing did as well.

Out Our Way for this day:

This shows how rural the country remained at the time.  Out Our Way was a nationally syndicated cartoon, but you'd have to be a hunter to really understand the cartoon.  

Finally, from that front page:

Father 31?  Son 18.

That would mean the father was 13 when the son was born. . . 

Shoot, the father was well within the conscription age himself.

Last edition:

Monday, October 29, 1945. Noting the Chinese Civil War.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1945 Election, Chinese Civil War, It was because of World War Two, Wyoming (Sheridan), Wyoming Municipal Governments, Yeoman's First Law of History

Friday, October 30, 1925. Not Guilty.

 Billy Mitchell plead not guilty.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 29, 1925. No Free Speech.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Billy Mitchell, Daily Living, Food, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, Women, Yeoman's First Law of History

Arches.

Sigh. . . 

White House fires arts commission expected to review Trump construction projects

The move comes as President Donald Trump pursues efforts to build a White House ballroom and a triumphal arch in Washington.

So, if you've been distracted or are just sick of reading stories about the toddler in the White House, here's what this is about:

What we know about White House plans for an 'Arc de Trump'

The BBC article discounts Trump's ability to get this thing built, but that was penned before Trump showed that he'll just ignore the law in this area, as with everything else.

The United States needs a triumphal arch about as much as it needs to build its own version fo the Brandenburg Gate, which we should have blown to bit at the end of World War Two.  At least its not as butt ugly as McCreery's gigantic garden shed that will be a temporary "ballroom" attached to the White House.  That will get partially constructed and then ripped down, to be followed soon after by:

Did you work on illegal White House construction projects?  You were likely exposed to asbestos and should sue the ass of off Donald Trump, call . . . 

Anyhow, Triumphal Arches date back at least to the Romans, and they're particularly associated with them.  The gigantic one in Paris, the Arch de Triomphe, we can blame on Napoleon whom, we should remember was deposed by a coalition of non wacky powers in the 19th Century and sent to die on Elba, where he was likely poisoned.

Triumphal Arches have been emulated ever since the Romans built them, and they appear in many countries.  They are particularly associated with autocratic powers, which suffer from knowing they aren't worthy and therefore try to monument themselves into worthiness, but there are some in democratic states including in the U.S.

There's probably a smaller chance that construction gets started on this before Trump leaves office or collapse in his Happy Meal while babbling, but again, getting it rolling wouldn't be too surprising.  Keeping it up? That's another matter.

I give the White House Garden Shed about an 80% chance of being torn down.  If an arch goes up, I'd give it about a 40% chance.

A 2026 Election Storm Warning.

Donald Trump attempted to steal the 2020 Presidential Election and failed.  Having won the 2024 election, he's now working on stealing the 2026 mid terms.

The 2026 election will be the critical one.  Republicans are going to try to use everything they can think of, legitimately, nad illegitimately, to control the outcome of the 2026 midterms.  If they fail, they'll refuse to accept the results.

The 2026 election may well prove to be the election that breaks the republic.

Monday, October 29, 1945. Noting the Chinese Civil War.

The press noted the outbreak of a civil war in China. . . which in fact had been going on for a couple of decades, having broken out in August, 1927.

Sheridan was very obviously considering the City Manager form of government.

There are three types of municipal governments under Wyoming's law.  Strong Mayor and Council.  City Manager and City Commissioner, the latter of which has never been adopted by any Wyoming municipality.

Sheridan does have the City Manager form of government, although I don't know if they opted for it in 1945.  Casper and Laramie also have that form of government, and apparently Laramie did by 1945.  Here too I'm surprised, as I didn't realize the option went back that far.

Yet another war related loan drive.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 27, 1945. Navy Day.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, boats and ships, Harry S. Truman, Indonesia, Indonesian National Revolution, Navy Day, New York, the spoken word, U.S. Navy

Thursday, October 29, 1925. No Free Speech.

 Free speech didn't work as a defense for Bily Mitchell.

This isn't the full paper by any means, but there is some interesting items here and there.

Not to tread where we shouldn't, but the advertisement above for Kotex surprises me. 

So does the item on constant pain from pimples.

And the one on credit score. This is really before I thought there was a credit score.

And you don't need to add bran to Oatmeal.

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 28, 1925 Mitchell challenges Jurisdiction.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Army, Billy Mitchell, Blog Mirror, Calvin Coolidge, Cartoons, football, France, J.R. Williams, law, Marriage, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, U.S. Navy, Whatever It Is I'm against it

Who Is Timothy Mellon, The Reclusive Wyoming Billionaire Who Gave $130M To Troops?

 In what deluded headline writer's mind is Mellon a "Wyoming Billionaire"?

Who Is Timothy Mellon, The Reclusive Wyoming Billionaire Who Gave $130M To Troops?

Kathy Karpan, former Wyoming secretary of state, dies

Kathy Karpan, former Wyoming secretary of state, dies: An attorney and mentor to many, 83-year-old public servant is remembered for being an insatiable reader and a "wonderful friend."

Trump’s Argentine beef move causes ‘great concern, some panic’

Trump’s Argentine beef move causes ‘great concern, some panic’

Well, this is in the play stupid games, win stupid prizes category.  Most ranchers voted for Trump.  That he'd now be shitting on them isn't a surprise to anyone, except I guess to themselves.

Well that's embarrassing.

Trump was clearly clueless and walked right when the Japanese Prime Minister stopped to review the honor guard, leaving her to have to catch up.  People guided Trump around like a demented elderly person. . . which of course he is.

And the saluting.

Ronald Reagan started saluting at U.S troops.  It's moronic.  It was then, and it still is. Trump's a civilian, he shouldn't be saluting anyone.

The Agrarian's Lament: Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem. An East Wing Post Mortem. Outrage over our Gilded Overlords.

The Agrarian's Lament: Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem. Outra...: 

Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem. Outrage over our Gilded Overlords.

I've posted a fair amount on this story. 

Lex Anteinternet: An East Wing Post Mortem.:   Comparative air photos posted by CBS News. Put up under commentary and fair use exception. I've never seen the East Wing of the White ...

One of my old friends, whose become a hardcore right wing populist, while also interestingly being a hardcore corner crossing advocate (the two are in fact mutually exclusive), posted this on his Facebook feed:

The President, and "your President" decides to renovate the Whitehouse, with donations and on his own dime mind you, and he is “Destroying Democracy?” Some of your hypocrisy cancels your outrage. I’m so sick of this crap. It’s just another reminder that the other side has nothing to offer Americans other that staged outrage over bull. TDS much??

Some on the far right have completely swallowed that this is "staged outrage".  The irony is that the exact same people were outraged about everything that Joe Biden did, and Barack Obama did.  Some of that outrage was because they were told to be.

And here's the next thing. The ballroom is probably not going to be completed before Trump leaves office.  Frankly, as the matter is now in litigation, there's going to be some delay.  If a judge is really upset, which is unlikely due to the way courts work, there's precedent for returning the structure ot the status quo ante before anything goes forward, which would in and of itself likely take years.

That's unlikely of course, but there's going to be a district court ruling and then an appeals court ruling. All that will take six months on a project that would normally take several years to complete.

But that's not the point.

The next President, unless its J. D. Vance, is going to take this down, it it gets built  If its a Republican like Thomas Massie it'll gleefully be torn down.  If its a Democrat, it's also coming down.

Let's make it clear.

The ballroom, if its built, or however much of it that's built, will be taken down and erased from the public memory.

At that point in time, will those who support Trump in whatever he does state: The President, and "your President" decides to renovate the Whitehouse, with donations and on his own dime mind you, and he is “Destroying Democracy?”

Not hardly, even if no public funds are then used.  They'll be outraged about how its "destroying" the legacy of a "great" president.

So why does this bother me?

Well in part because I'm an agrarian and this entire project is an insult to agrarians.

Ballrooms are the high school basketball courts of the super wealthy  A place where the extremely wealthy can meet and mingle and do those things Trump noted, have drinks in the foyer, etc.  The kind of place where you can talk shop and meet with the rich and powerful, and heads of state.  Maybe have the Saudi king over, or rub elbows with guests like Prince William. . . or maybe Harry and Jeff Epstein.  It's a public building, no matter whose tribute is used to pay for it, but you can't book your wedding reception of bar mitzvah reception there.

Because you are a peasant.

The entire concept of a massive ornate public building like this is that you peons will love it because you love to bask in the glory of your benighted leaders.  And those benighted leaders, having been born into wealth, really believe that.  You love them as they love themselves, and you are happy to serve the glorious benighted.

That's the antithesis of the American concept.

Here's what the White House grounds should return to, and I'm not joking.

The West Wing also dates back to TR's time in the White House with the construction of what was supposed to be a temporary structure.  That structure was expanded in 1909 and ultimately came to be the White House office space.  I don't doubt that they need office space, but as noted, maybe it can just be somewhere else.

And in fact, for the most part, it should be.

Taft family milk cow Pauline Wayne, one of two milk cows the Tafts kept and allowed to freely roam the White House grounds. What is now known as the Eisenhower building is in the background.  This is as things should be.

Sometime last week I was somehow the recipient of a real estate brochure entitled "Land".

I didn't get around to looking at it until today, even though I knew what it was going to be.  Agricultural land turned into the playgrounds of the rich.

That should end.  People who hold agricultural ground, or even large blocks of ground, should have to make their livings from it and nothing else.  The wealthy holding such ground hurts those who would make a living in this simple manner.

We live in a new Gilded Age.  That age gave rise to the Progressive movement and swept into office people like Theodore Roosevelt.  Something like that needs to happen again.

Yes, I'm outraged over the East Wing coming down for a ballroom, and the very concept of a ballroom outrages me.  I'm outraged that common people have fallen for outright lies and believe everything Donald Trump tells them.  I'm outraged that the extremely wealthy are running the show on everything while, at the same time, our Gilded masters tell us to hate the poorest of the poor.  I'm outraged that Congress will not do its job.  I'm outraged that our military is being ordered to murder people in the Caribbean.  And I"m outraged that our local politicians tell us to support this crap when they do so, in at least 2/3s of the instances, as it keeps them in their elected jobs.

Wednesday, October 28, 1925 Mitchell challenges Jurisdiction.

 

Billy Mitchell questioned the Army's jurisdiction to try him.

The Casper paper ran Out Our Way.

Turning down pie?

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Today -100: October 28, 1925: What sort of monster...: Since the French Cabinet can’t force Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux to resign when he rejects a capital levy, the whole Cabinet resigns i...

The age 25 year thing on marriage permission is really interesting. That's surprisingly high. 

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 27, 1925. Ethel: Then and Now.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Cartoons, Ethel Hays

A House of Dynamite

I suppose this film should not technically be in this category, as it takes place in contemporary times.  However, it fits into the Doomsday Thriller category of movie, and its in good company with some others we should touch on. Such filmes would include Fail Safe, Dr. Strangelove, On The Beach, The Bedford Incident, and War Games.

This movie, quite frankly, maybe the very best of them, although Dr. Strangelove would certainly give it a run for that.

Using a technique used in the recent movie Dunkirk, this film has a series of timelines all of which center around the same thing.  An inbound intercontinental missile, launched somewhere in the Pacific, has been detected and there's a mere 20 minutes to address the situation.  The launch was undetected, so its unclear who sent the single missile on its way.  At first it's assumed that its probably a North Korean test and will drop in the Pacific, but soon its clear that it is not.

The timeline involves an anti ballistic missile unit attempting to shoot the missle down, the senior leaders of the military attempting to figure out what is going on and how to deal with it, and the President of the United States, at a public relations event, struggling to determine how, if at all, the country should react to a missle that seems likely to hit U.S. soil.

It's very well done and frankly probably a lot more realistic than people may wish to admit.  Cell phone discipline breaks down nearly immediately, which on the cusp of a nuclear disaster, it likely would.  The individual reactions, from stoic to distraught, are likely fairly accurate too.  All in all, I can't find anything to criticize about this film, although government officials have, most particularly the U.S. Military which insists that in this scenario it'd likely have a 100% chance of shooting the inbound missile down.

Uh huh.

Which leaves this film a very disturbing one.

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 106th Edition A series of Zeitgeist predictions about New York City.

Mamdani is obviously going to win.

Republicans will freak out.  

Mike "Smarmy Smile" Johnson will be in full bullshit mode for weeks.  "I'm not keeping the House in perpetual recess because I'm afraid of the Epstein files but because a Communist Marxist Islamist has been elected to Mayor in New York and that means that we can't look at the Epstein files".  

Trump will wax poetic, "My Mommy, that's what I call him, mommy. . . I loved my mommy, she was from Scotland, where they invented golf.  Are we in Mar A Lago, no, well, the Communists, Marxists, Monarchical Islamist don't want me to build a ballroom, that's because they can't dance and their legs are thin. The Wonderful thing about Tiggers is Tiggers are wonderful things tops are made out of rubber their bottoms are made out of springs Their bouncey, trouncey, ouncey, pouncey fun, fun, fun, fun, fun But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'm the only one. Tiggers are cuddily fellows Tiggers are awfully sweet everyone el'es is jealous That's why I repeat and repeat The wonderful thing about Tiggers Is Tiggers are marvelous chaps They're loaded with vim and vigor they love to leap in your laps They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy fun fun fun fun fun But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers Is I'm the only one I-I-I'm the only...-oof Ouch.  I've decided to kill the entire population of South America. . . "

John Thune will say something, with an earnest looking John Barrasso behind him, but nobody will remember what it was, as nobody was paying attention to him to start with.

And then a weird thing will happen.

Mamdani will probably govern more or less from the center, as he'll have to, which is likely to make his administration a success.

Which is the biggest Republican nightmare of all.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 105th Edition. What's up with the rush on the White House?

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2025 White House Vandalization, Architecture, Catholic, Christianity, Democratic Party, Illiberal Democracy, National Conservatism, The Second Trump Administration, Vandals, Washington DC, Wyoming, Zeitgeist

Saturday, October 27, 1945. Navy Day.

 

Stamp issued on this day in 1945.

Today is Navy Day, and has been since the day was first established.  This was, of course, the first Navy Day since the end of World War Two and was a huge deal accordingly.

Ships anchored in the Hudson for Navy Day.

President Truman commissioned the new aircraft carrier the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In so doing, he delivered this address:

Mayor La Guardia, ladies and gentlemen:

I am grateful for the magnificent reception which you have given me today in this great city of New York. I know that it is given me only as the representative of the gallant men and women of our naval forces, and on their behalf, as well as my own, I thank you.

New York joins the rest of the Nation in paying honor and tribute to the four million fighting Americans of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—and to the ships which carried them to victory.

On opposite sides of the world, across two oceans, our Navy opened a highway for the armies and air forces of the United States. They landed our gallant men, millions of them, on the beachheads of final triumph. Fighting from Murmansk, the English Channel and the Tyrrhenian Sea, to Midway, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa—they won the greatest naval victories in history. Together with their brothers in arms in the Army and Air Force, and with the men of the Merchant Marine, they have helped to win for mankind all over the world a new opportunity to live in peace and dignity—and we hope, in security.

In the harbor and rivers of New York City and in other ports along the coasts and rivers of the country, ships of that mighty United States Navy are at anchor. I hope that you and the people everywhere will visit them and their crews, seeing for yourselves what your sons and daughters, your labor and your money, have fashioned into an invincible weapon of liberty.

The fleet, on V-J Day, consisted of 1200 warships, more than 50,000 supporting and landing craft, and over 40,000 navy planes. By that day, ours was a sea power never before equalled in the history of the world. There were great carrier task forces capable of tracking down and sinking the enemy's fleets, beating down his air power, and pouring destruction on his war-making industries. There were submarines which roamed the seas, invading the enemy's own ports, and destroying his shipping in all the oceans. There were amphibious forces capable of landing soldiers on beaches from Normandy to the Philippines. There were great battleships and cruisers which swept the enemy ships from the seas and bombarded his shore defense almost at will.

And history will never forget that great leader who, from his first day in office, fought to reestablish a strong American Navy—who watched that Navy and all the other might of this Nation grow into an invincible force for victory—who sought to make that force an instrument for a just and lasting peace—and who gave his life in the effort—Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The roll call of the battles of this fleet reads like a sign post around the globe—on the road to final victory: North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, and Southern France; the Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Solomons; Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf; Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Nothing which the enemy held on any coast was safe from its attack.

Now we are in the process of demobilizing our naval force. We are laying up ships. We are breaking up aircraft squadrons. We are rolling up bases, and releasing officers and men. But when our demobilization is all finished as planned, the United States will still be the greatest naval power on earth.

In addition to that naval power, we shall still have one of the most powerful air forces in the world. And just the other day, so that on short notice we could mobilize a powerful and well-equipped land, sea, and air force, I asked the Congress to adopt universal training.

Why do we seek to preserve this powerful Naval and Air Force, and establish this strong Army reserve? Why do we need to do that?

We have assured the world time and again—and I repeat it now—that we do not seek for ourselves one inch of territory in any place in the world. Outside of the right to establish necessary bases for our own protection, we look for nothing which belongs to any other power.

We do need this kind of armed might, however, for four principal tasks:

First, our Army, Navy, and Air Force, in collaboration with our allies, must enforce the terms of peace imposed upon our defeated enemies.

Second, we must fulfill the military obligations which we are undertaking as a member of the United Nations Organization—to support a lasting peace, by force if necessary.

Third, we must cooperate with other American nations to preserve the territorial integrity and the political independence of the nations of the Western Hemisphere.

Fourth, in this troubled and uncertain world, our military forces must be adequate to discharge the fundamental mission laid upon them by the Constitution of the United States—to "provide for the common defense" of the United States.

These four military tasks are directed not toward war—not toward conquest—but toward peace.

We seek to use our military strength solely to preserve the peace of the world. For we now know that this is the only sure way to make our own freedom secure.

That is the basis of the foreign policy of the people of the United States.

The foreign policy of the United States is based firmly on fundamental principles of righteousness and justice. In carrying out those principles we shall firmly adhere to what we believe to be right; and we shall not give our approval to any compromise with evil.

But we know that we cannot attain perfection in this world overnight. We shall not let our search for perfection obstruct our steady progress toward international cooperation. We must be prepared to fulfill our responsibilities as best we can, within the framework of our fundamental principles, even though we recognize that we have to operate in an imperfect world.

Let me restate the fundamentals of that foreign policy of the United States:

1. We seek no territorial expansion or selfish advantage. We have no plans for aggression against any other state, large or small. We have no objective which need clash with the peaceful aims of any other nation.

2. We believe in the eventual return of sovereign rights and self-government to all peoples who have been deprived of them by force.

3. We shall approve no territorial changes in any friendly part of the world unless they accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.

4. We believe that all peoples who are prepared for self-government should be permitted to choose their own form of government by their own freely expressed choice, without interference from any foreign source. That is true in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, as well as in the Western Hemisphere.

5. By the combined and cooperative action of our war allies, we shall help the defeated enemy states establish peaceful democratic governments of their own free choice. And we shall try to attain a world in which Nazism, Fascism, and military aggression cannot exist.

6. We shall refuse to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power. In some cases it may be impossible to prevent forceful imposition of such a government. But the United States will not recognize any such government.

7. We believe that all nations should have the freedom of the seas and equal rights to the navigation of boundary rivers and waterways and of rivers and waterways which pass through more than one country.

8. We believe that all states which are accepted in the society of nations should have access on equal terms to the trade and the raw materials of the world.

9. We believe that the sovereign states of the Western Hemisphere, without interference from outside the Western Hemisphere, must work together as good neighbors in the solution of their common problems.

10. We believe that full economic collaboration between all nations, great and small, is essential to the improvement of living conditions all over the world, and to the establishment of freedom from fear and freedom from want.

11. We shall continue to strive to promote freedom of expression and freedom of religion throughout the peace-loving areas of the world.

12. We are convinced that the preservation of peace between nations requires a United Nations Organization composed of all the peace-loving nations of the world who are willing jointly to use force if necessary to insure peace.

Now, that is the foreign policy which guides the United States. That is the foreign policy with which it confidently faces the future.

It may not be put into effect tomorrow or the next day. But nonetheless, it is our policy; and we shall seek to achieve it. It may take a long time, but it is worth waiting for, and it is worth striving to attain.

The Ten Commandments themselves have not yet been universally achieved over these thousands of years. Yet we struggle constantly to achieve them, and in many ways we come closer to them each year. Though we may meet setbacks from time to time, we shall not relent in our efforts to bring the Golden Rule into the international affairs of the world.

We are now passing through a difficult phase of international relations. Unfortunately it has always been true after past wars, that the unity among allies, forged by their common peril, has tended to wear out as the danger passed.

The world cannot afford any letdown in the united determination of the allies in this war to accomplish a lasting peace. The world cannot afford to let the cooperative spirit of the allies in this war disintegrate. The world simply cannot allow this to happen. The people in the United States, in Russia, and Britain, in France and China, in collaboration with all the other peace-loving people, must take the course of current history into their own hands and mold it in a new direction-the direction of continued cooperation. It was a common danger which united us before victory. Let it be a common hope which continues to draw us together in the years to come.

The atomic bombs which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be made a signal, not for the old process of falling apart but for a new era—an era of ever-closer unity and ever-closer friendship among peaceful nations.

Building a peace requires as much moral stamina as waging a war. Perhaps it requires even more, because it is so laborious and painstaking and undramatic. It requires undying patience and continuous application. But it can give us, if we stay with it, the greatest reward that there is in the whole field of human effort.

Differences of the kind that exist today among nations that fought together so long and so valiantly for victory are not hopeless or irreconcilable. There are no conflicts of interest among the victorious powers so deeply rooted that they cannot be resolved. But their solution will require a combination of forbearance and firmness. It will require a steadfast adherence to the high principles which we have enunciated. It will also require a willingness to find a common ground as to the methods of applying those principles.

Our American policy is a policy of friendly partnership with all peaceful nations, and of full support for the United Nations Organization. It is a policy that has the strong backing of the American people. It is a policy around which we can rally without fear or misgiving.

The more widely and clearly that policy is understood abroad, the better and surer will be the peace. For our own part we must seek to understand the special problems of other nations. We must seek to understand their own legitimate urge toward security as they see it.

The immediate, the greatest threat to us is the threat of disillusionment, the danger of insidious skepticism—a loss of faith in the effectiveness of international cooperation. Such a loss of faith would be dangerous at any time. In an atomic age it would be nothing short of disastrous.

There has been talk about the atomic bomb scrapping all navies, armies, and air forces. For the present, I think that such talk is 100 percent wrong. Today, control of the seas rests in the fleets of the United States and her allies. There is no substitute for them. We have learned the bitter lesson that the weakness of this great Republic invites men of ill-will to shake the very foundations of civilization all over the world. And we had two concrete lessons in that.

What the distant future of the atomic research will bring to the fleet which we honor today, no one can foretell. But the fundamental mission of the Navy has not changed. Control of our sea approaches and of the skies above them is still the key to our freedom and to our ability to help enforce the peace of the world. No enemy will ever strike us directly except across the sea. We cannot reach out to help stop and defeat an aggressor without crossing the sea. Therefore, the Navy, armed with whatever weapons science brings forth, is still dedicated to its historic task: control of the ocean approaches to our country and of the skies above them.

The atomic bomb does not alter the basic foreign policy of the United States. It makes the development and application of our policy more urgent than we could have dreamed 6 months ago. It means that we must be prepared to approach international problems with greater speed, with greater determination, with greater ingenuity, in order to meet a situation for which there is no precedent.

We must find the answer to the problems created by the release of atomic energy—we must find the answers to the many other problems of peace—in partnership with all the peoples of the United Nations. For their stake in world peace is as great as our own.

As I said in my message to the Congress, discussion of the atomic bomb with Great Britain and Canada and later with other nations cannot wait upon the formal organization of the United Nations. These discussions, looking toward a free exchange of fundamental scientific information, will be begun in the near future. But I emphasize again, as I have before, that these discussions will not be concerned with the processes of manufacturing the atomic bomb or any other instruments of war.

In our possession of this weapon, as in our possession of other new weapons, there is no threat to any nation. The world, which has seen the United States in two great recent wars, knows that full well. The possession in our hands of this new power of destruction we regard as a sacred trust. Because of our love of peace, the thoughtful people of the world know that that trust will not be violated, that it will be faithfully executed.

Indeed, the highest hope of the American people is that world cooperation for peace will soon reach such a state of perfection that atomic methods of destruction can be definitely and effectively outlawed forever.

We have sought, and we will continue to seek, the attainment of that objective. We shall pursue that course with all the wisdom, patience, and determination that the God of Peace can bestow upon a people who are trying to follow in His path.

The Battle of Surabaya began in Indonesia.

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Friday, October 26, 1945. Cowards.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Albert Einstein, Allied Occupation of Germany, Bulgaria, Communism, Nazi Germany, Nazi Party, Nuremberg Trials, War Crimes, Weapons