I think most farmers understand that soil conservation and rural
electrification and agricultural research are not frills or luxuries, but
real necessities in order to boost our farm production.
I think most workers understand that decent housing and good working
conditions are not luxuries, but necessities if the working men and women
of this country are to continue to out-produce the rest of the world.
I think our businessmen know that scientific research and transportation
services and more steel mills and power projects are not luxuries, but
necessities to keep our business and our industry in the forefront of
industrial progress.
I think everybody knows that social insurance and better schools and health
services are not frills, but necessities in helping all Americans to be
useful and productive citizens, who can contribute their full share in the
national effort to protect and advance our way of life.
We cannot do all we want to in times like these--we have to choose the
things that will contribute most to defense--but we must continue to make
progress if we are to be a strong nation in the years ahead.
Let me give you some examples.
We are going right ahead with the urgently needed work to develop our
natural resources, to conserve our soil, and to prevent floods. We are
going to produce essential power and build the lines that are necessary and
that we have to have to transmit it to our farms and factories. We are
going to encourage exploration for new mineral deposits.
We are going to keep on building essential highways and taking any other
steps that will assure the Nation an adequate transportation system--on
land, on the sea, and in the air.
We must move right ahead this year to see that defense workers and
soldiers' families get decent housing at rents they can afford to pay.
We must begin our long deferred program of Federal aid to education--to
help the States meet the present crisis in the operation of our schools.
And we must help with the construction of schools in areas where they are
critically needed because of the defense effort.
We urgently need to train more doctors and other health personnel, through
aid to medical education. We also urgently need to expand the basic public
health services in our home communities--especially in defense areas. The
Congress should go ahead with these two measures immediately.
I have set up an impartial commission to make a thorough study of the
Nation's health needs. One of the things this commission is looking into is
how to bring the cost of modern medical care within the reach of all the
people. I have repeatedly recommended national health insurance as the best
way to do this. So far as I know, it is still the best way. If there are
any better answers, I hope this commission will find them. But of one thing
I am sure: something must be done, and done soon.
This year we ought to make a number of urgently needed improvements in our
social security law. For one thing, benefits under old-age and survivors
insurance should be raised $5 a month above the present average of $42. For
another thing, the States should be given special aid to help them increase
public assistance payments. By doing these things now, we can ease the
pressure of living costs for people who depend on those fixed payments.
We should also make some cost-of-living adjustments for those receiving
veterans' compensation for death or disability incurred in the service of
our country. In addition, now is the time to start a sensible program of
readjustment benefits for our veterans who have seen service since the
fighting broke out in Korea.
Another thing the Congress should do at this session is to strengthen our
system of farm price supports to meet the defense emergency. The "sliding
scale" in the price support law should not be allowed to penalize farmers
for increasing production to meet defense needs. We should also find a new
and less costly method for supporting perishable commodities than the law
now provides.
We need to act promptly to improve our labor law. The Taft-Hartley Act has
many serious and far-reaching defects. Experience has demonstrated this so
clearly that even the sponsors of the act now admit that it needs to be
changed. A fair law, fair to both management and labor, is indispensable to
sound labor relations and to full, uninterrupted production. I intend to
keep on working for a fair law until we get one.
As we build our strength to defend the freedom in the world, we ourselves
must extend the benefits of freedom more widely among all our own people.
We need to take action toward the wider enjoyment of civil rights. Freedom
is the birthright of every American.
The executive branch has been making real progress toward full equality of
treatment and opportunity--in the Armed Forces, in the civil service, and
in private firms working for the Government. Further advances require
action by Congress, and I hope that means will be provided to give the
Members of the Senate and the House a chance to vote on them.
I am glad to hear that home rule for the District of Columbia will be the
first item of business before the Senate. I hope that it, as well as
statehood for Hawaii and Alaska, will be adopted promptly.
All these measures I have been talking about--measures to advance the
well-being of our people--demonstrate to the world the forward movement of
our free society.
This demonstration of the way free men govern themselves has a more
powerful influence on the people of the world--on both sides of the Iron
Curtain--than all the trick slogans and pie-in-the-sky promises of the
Communists.
But our shortcomings, as well as our progress, are watched from abroad. And
there is one shortcoming I want to speak about plainly.
Our kind of government above all others cannot tolerate dishonesty among
public servants.
Some dishonest people worm themselves into almost every human organization.
It is all the more shocking, however, when they make their way into a
Government such as ours, which is based on the principle of justice for
all. Such unworthy public servants must be weeded out. I intend to see to
it that Federal employees who have been guilty of misconduct are punished
for it. I also intend to see to it that the honest and hard-working great
majority of our Federal employees are protected against partisan slander
and malicious attack.
I have already made some recommendations to the Congress to help accomplish
these purposes. I intend to submit further recommendations to this end. I
will welcome the wholehearted cooperation of the Congress in this effort.
I also think that the Congress can do a great deal to strengthen confidence
in our institutions by applying rigorous standards of moral integrity to
its own operations, and by finding an effective way to control campaign
expenditures, and by protecting the rights of individuals in congressional
investigations.
To meet the crisis which now hangs over the world, we need many different
kinds of strength--military, economic, political, and moral. And of all
these, I am convinced that moral strength is the most vital.
When you come right down to it, it is the courage and the character of our
Nation--and of each one of us as individuals-that will really decide how
well we meet this challenge.
We are engaged in a great undertaking at home and abroad--the greatest, in
fact, that any nation has ever been privileged to embark upon. We are
working night and day to bring peace to the world and to spread the
democratic ideals of justice and self-government to all people. Our
accomplishments are already remarkable. We ought to be full of pride in
what we are doing, and full of confidence and hope in the outcome. No
nation ever had greater resources, or greater energy, or nobler traditions
to inspire it.
And yet, day in and day out, we see a long procession of timid and fearful
men who wring their hands and cry out that we have lost the way, that we
don't know what we are doing, that we are bound to fail. Some say we should
give up the struggle for peace, and others say we should have a war and get
it over with. That's a terrible statement. I had heard it made, but they
want us to forget the great objective of preventing another world war--the
objective for which our soldiers have been fighting in the hills of Korea.
If we are to be worthy of all that has been done for us by our soldiers in
the field, we must be true to the ideals for which they are fighting. We
must reject the counsels of defeat and despair. We must have the
determination to complete the great work for which our men have laid down
their lives.
In all we do, we should remember who we are and what we stand for. We are
Americans. Our forefathers had far greater obstacles than we have, and much
poorer chances of success. They did not lose heart, or turn aside from
their goals. In the darkest of all winters in American history, at Valley
Forge, George Washington said: "We must not, in so great a contest, expect
to meet with nothing but sunshine." With that spirit they won their fight
for freedom.
We must have that same faith and vision. In the great contest in which we
are engaged today, we cannot expect to have fair weather all the way. But
it is a contest just as important for this country and for all men, as the
desperate struggle that George Washington fought through to victory.
Let us prove, again, that we are not merely sunshine patriots and summer
soldiers. Let us go forward, trusting in the God of Peace, to win the goals
we seek.
***
State of the Union Address
Harry S. Truman
January 7, 1953
To the Congress of the United States: