I appreciate most highly the hearty welcome which you have extended to me to night. I have been here on several occasions and you always have been cordial and good to me; and I appreciate it. I was here when the United Nations Charter was finally signed and delivered. I talked to the citizens of San Francisco at that time on that subject. I am proud of the opportunity which was afforded me as President of the United States on that occasion to take part in the birth of the organization which, I am confident, will one day bring a just and lasting peace to the world.

I have heard from time to time comments by well-meaning but misinformed Americans that the United Nations is not working. I think I can understand their concern. All of us have been disappointed in the slowness with which the world is settling down after World War II. However, I am firmly convinced that our progress toward peace is much faster than it would have been without the United Nations.

Let me recall for you briefly just what it was we had in mind when we set up the United Nations. The United Nations was established for three basic purposes. The first was to prevent future wars by creating a kind of economic condition throughout the world which is necessary for peace. The second purpose was to provide the kind of organization which would help countries settle their differences peacefully without shooting each other. The third purpose was to provide an organization by which the peace-loving countries could act collectively against threats to peace by an aggressive country.

Now that you have in mind the reasons why the United Nations was set up, let us look at the record of what it has accomplished. I am sure you will agree that the United Nations has proved its worth. It has been meeting all three purposes. I think we can hope for peace in the future.

When the United Nations was less than a year old, the Security Council was faced with the problem of Soviet troops invading the small and weak country of Iran located south of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. Action by the Security Council helped to persuade the Soviet Government to pull its troops out of Iran. Iran remained an independent country.

The Security Council of the United Nations protected the independence of two other small countries in the Middle East when it persuaded the British and French Governments to withdraw their troops from Syria and Lebanon.

Greece is still another small nation whose independence has been maintained with the aid of the United Nations. The United Nations has taken action against Greece's northern neighbors. Among other things it has sent a commission to Greece whose job it is to patrol and to make sure that Greece's neighbors do not invade that country again.

The Security Council of the United Nations secured a truce in the conflict between the Dutch and the Indonesians. A United Nations committee brought about an agreement between the Dutch and the Indonesians on a set of principles which are being used as a guide for the creation of a United States of Indonesia. This act alone involved the peace and security of almost 60 million people. The two new countries of India and Pakistan brought their dispute over Kashmir to the United Nations. The United Nations has not yet ended the dispute, but it has succeeded in keeping violence from breaking out into open war.

I have described only a few of the actions which the United Nations has taken since it was founded, but I am sure that those I have mentioned are evidence of the way in which the Security Council and the General Assembly are helping maintain peace in the world.

There are many other activities of the United Nations besides the General Assembly and the Security Council. There is the International Refugee Organization which is taking care of refugees in displaced persons camps in Europe. There is the International Trade Organization, which is working to increase the flow of trade among all countries. And there are still other organizations, like these two, connected with the United Nations which are successfully working to improve the welfare of all the peoples of the world.

Of course, looking back over the first 3 years of the United Nations, to ignore the problems which the Soviet tactic's have caused would be foolish. I have never, for one moment, since I became President underestimated the multitude of the problems which the Soviet Union could cause if that country were unwilling to join with other nations in working for peace.

At the same time I am so firmly convinced that all the plain people in the world want peace, that I have never regarded the Soviet Union's present policies as insuperable obstacles to peace.

Twice in one generation the United States has had the opportunity to lead the countries of the world to peace. After World War I we shirked our responsibilities. World War II taught us a lesson.

All of our efforts for peace-the European recovery program, aid to China, and Greece, and Turkey, support for the western European Union, the Inter-American Defense Pacts-all these are in accord with the principles of the United Nations, and are in support of its aims.

We shall do everything in our power to strengthen the United Nations, for I believe that the overwhelming majority of the people of this country have confidence in the United Nations that eventually it will be a grand success and will continue to work.

The Security Council now, and the General Assembly are meeting in Paris. They have some grave questions before them.

General Marshall and his staff and our delegate to the United Nations are in Paris now representing this great country in its sincere effort to bring peace to the world.

It has been the policy of the United States under this administration to keep foreign policy out of politics; that is, politics within the United States. It is necessary for us as a nation to go to the water's edge with a solid front. We must go there as the United States of America. It has been the policy of the Government ever since I have been President to see to it that that policy is pursued, and I shall continue to do just that.

It is necessary for us, under the Constitution of the United States, to get out and have a scramble for the Presidency. We are having that right now. I am going around all over the country, facing such wonderful people as you, to tell you exactly what the domestic issues are in this campaign, and try to convince you that the Democratic Party is the party of the common people, and that the Republican Party is the party of special interests as it always has been. It can be conclusively proven, if you study the various instances which I have cited since this campaign started.

It was my privilege to start out in Detroit, Mich., on Labor Day and I discussed there the tactics of this Republican 80th "do-nothing" Congress towards labor. I told the laboring men exactly where they stood, and where they would stand if by any mischance the Republicans got complete control of the Government.

And I went to Des Moines and I discussed the farm problems with the citizens of Des Moines, and I told the farmers just exactly what this 80th Congress had done to them, and what they intended to do to them if they had the Opportunity to control the whole Government.

Just yesterday, at Salt Lake City, Utah, I set out to this part of the world just exactly what that Republican Congress had tried to do to the people of the West. You ought to study that situation. It is your interest that is at stake. It is the interests of the whole country that are at stake. It means that if you get Republican control of this Government, you might just as well turn it over to the special interests, and we will start on a boom and bust cycle, just like we did in 1920. We will end up with a crash which in the long run will do nobody any good but the Communists.

The situation is a grave one, and I am asking you to face it and face it realistically. Think of your own interests when you go to the polls on the 2nd of November. You will not only vote for me but you should vote for yourselves. Vote for your own interests. Vote for the interests of the laboring man vote for the interests of the farmer-vote for the interests of the white-collar worker-vote for the interests of the little businessman vote for the interests of California-vote for the interests of the Nation as a whole, and you can't help but elect a Democratic Congress with a Democratic President.

I could stand here all evening and go over all the fundamental issues of this campaign and point out to you just where your interests lie, but I will tell you what you will do. If you will listen to me and read each time you get a chance-if you will read my speeches in toto, not some times as they are reported but in toto as they are said, I don't think you can do anything else but on November the 2nd vote the Democratic ticket straight.

NOTE: In the course of his remarks on September 22 the President referred to Pat McCarran, Senator from Nevada, Vail Pittman, Governor of Nevada, Vern Hursh, Mayor of Sparks, Walter S. Baring, Democratic candidate for Representative at Large from Nevada, Francis R. Smith, Mayor of Reno, Harold T. Johnson, Mayor of Roseville, and Dewey Mead, Acting Mayor of San Francisco.