Toledo Union Journal

The Stevenson Talk

WITHOUT A DOUBT the best address in the opinion of most delegates, made at the joint AFL-CIO Convention was that of Adlai Stevenson's. The task before him was no easy one when he appeared at the last day. And with his usual wit and wisdom and grace, he recognized this by remarking that there were only so many combinations of the English language and he was sure they had all been used at the convention.

But while these things may have been said before, no one said them as well or as clearly and concisely as the aspirant for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

President Meany reflected the feeling of the delegates when he thanked Mr. Stevenson for his address and summed up their thanks by saying: "I am sure that we can all agree that, while there may have been attempts before this week to set forth the ideals and the aspirations of this great organization for not only its members but for the American people, if they were said, they were not said as well as he said them to us. . ."

Mr. Stevenson's talk was interrupted 27 times by applause and 10 additional times by laughter which his humor, now gentle, then biting, aroused. Unfortunately, space does not allow reprinting his complete talk. Nor would the printed word, cold and inflexible, do justice to his talk. It was not only what he said, but as the trite saying goes, how he said it.

A short section at the end of the talk seemed not only to lay down a challenge on what Americans need to do to improve their conditions, but also offered some constructive comments on how this can be done. So that our readers may have the opportunity to understand more clearly the mettle of this great American, we are reprinting here a part of this talk. We believe this is well worth retelling over and over again. We hope it will make our readers think - and thinking- act.

"WE CONQUERED the depression- working together. And we won the war-- working together. But we have not learned to work fully together to use the fruits of abundance for our broader welfare - for our program for education, for hospitals, for slum clearance and urban rehabilitation, for social security. None of these things which we must do together have kept up with our expanding national wealth.

"What then will it take to meet this challenge, to satisfy our hopes and our aspirations for something beyond the heaping up of material abundance?

"Well, it will take a willingness to do together what cannot be done by individuals alone. I think there is among us this full willingness today.

"It will take. too. a leadership which has faith in the future, and vision, and an understanding of what the people of America really want, and of how much they really want it.

"It will take a government which finds its mandates in consideration of the general welfare, and of no single interest.

"It will take a commitment that in our daily lives we live by the Bill of Rights we subscribe to as a nation. It will take a refusal ever to be satisfied, a vision of an America growing ever more beautiful and a freedom ever more complete, a deep conviction in the continued perfectability of the human spirit.

"It will take the full-hearted belief of all of us that we in America have only just begun to live!

"These, and nothing less than these, are our hopes and aspirations."