y identified with American ideals
and with American statesmanship. No more potent instrumentality for
this purpose has ever been conceived and no other is practicable of
establishment. The reservations placed upon our adherence should not be
misinterpreted. The United States seeks by these reservations no special
privilege or advantage but only to clarify our relation to advisory
opinions and other matters which are subsidiary to the major purpose of
the court. The way should, and I believe will, be found by which we may
take our proper place in a movement so fundamental to the progress of
peace.

Our people have determined that we should make no political engagements
such as membership in the League of Nations, which may commit us
in advance as a nation to become involved in the settlements of
controversies between other countries. They adhere to the belief that
the independence of America from such obligations increases its ability
and availability for service in all fields of human progress.

I have lately returned from a journey among our sister Republics of the
Western Hemisphere. I have received unbounded hospitality and courtesy
as their expression of friendliness to our country. We are held by
particular bonds of sympathy and common interest with them. They are
each of them building a racial character and a culture which is
an impressive contribution to human progress. We wish only for the
maintenance of their independence, the growth of their stability, and
their prosperity. While we have had wars in the Western Hemisphere, yet
on the whole the record is in encouraging contrast with that of other
parts of the world. Fortunately the New World is largely free from the
inheritances of fear and distrust which have so troubled the Old World.
We should keep it so.

It is impossible, my countrymen, to speak of peace without profound
emotion. In thousands of homes in America, in millions of homes around
the world, there are vacant chairs. It would be a shameful confession
of our unworthiness if it should develop that we have abandoned the hope
for which all these men died. Surely civilization is old enough, surely
mankind is mature enough so that we ought in our own lifetime to find a
way to permanent peace. Abroad, to west and east, are nations whose sons
mingled their blood with the blood of our sons on the battlefields.
Most of these nations have contributed to our race, to our culture,
our knowledge, and our pro