Anyone charged with proposing or judging national policies should have first-hand knowledge of the nation as a whole.
That is why again this year I have taken trips to all parts of the country. Last spring I visited the Southwest. This summer I made several trips in the East. Now I am just back from a trip from a trip all the way across the continent, and later this autumn I hope to pay my annual visit to the Southeast.
For a President especially it is a duty to think in national terms.
He must think not only of this year but of future years, when someone else will be President.
He must look beyond the average of the prosperity and well-being of the country, for averages easily cover up danger spots of poverty and instability.
He must not let the country be deceived by a merely temporary prosperity which depends on wasteful exploitation of resources which cannot last.
He must think not only of keeping us out of war today, but also of keeping us out of war in generations to come.
The kind of prosperity we want is the sound and permanent kind which is not built up temporarily at the expense of any section or any group. And the kind of peace we want is the sound and permanent kind, which is built on the cooperative search for peace by all the nations which want peace.
The other day I was asked to state my outstanding impression gained on this recent trip. I said that it seemed to me to be the general understanding on the part of the average citizen of the broad objectives and policies which I have just outlined.
Five years of fierce discussion and debate—five years of information through the radio and the moving picture—have taken the whole nation to school in the nation's business. Even those who have most attacked our objectives have, by their very criticism, encouraged the mass of our citizens to think about and understand the issues involved, and, understanding, to approve.