Mr. Vollmer is President of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company.
We live in a land of plenty, in a land of mechanical miracles and great scientific achievements. We are the best fed, the best clothed, and the best housed people in the world. Our vast material blessings have no equal in the long, turbulent history of civilization. The productive capacity of our farms, our factories, our mines is the envy and the hope of a free world.
Yet, at the peak of our prosperity and power, we find ourselves beset by fears, by doubts, and by uncertainties. The situation is a frightening one.
The seeds of this critical situation in which we find ourselves today were planted many years ago by a German named Karl Marx. The teachings of this man long lay dormant. But some years ago they came to life in such forms as fascism, nazism, socialism, and communism.
This Marx-bred philosophy is an anti-God concept of life. It denounces and smears the God-given rights and liberties of man. It denounces the basic faiths and rights contained in the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution. Under the Marxist idea, man has only one right—the right to follow blindly and unquestioningly the dictates of the State—and to slave and die uncomplainingly for it.
This theory of the all-powerful State is now locked in a death struggle with the concept of freedom, justice, and the dignity of man. It is a global struggle with a philosophy which seeks constantly and craftily to destroy everything we hold dear. It is a conflict between human dignity and godless tyranny, between freedom and slavery, between God-given rights and state-granted privileges.
A Time for Faith
Thus today we stand at a crossroads in the history of our great nation. The time has come when we must act, not procrastinate; when we must lead, not follow; when we must speak, not listen; when we must unite, not divide.
In this crisis, we have at our command the strength, the courage, and the inspiration which lay in the Four Great Faiths of our Founding Fathers:
Faith in God
Faith in Ourselves
Faith in Our Fellow Men
Faith in Freedom
Our nation was founded upon these Faiths. The men who signed the Constitution, the men—and the women—who braved the prairie and the mountain to pioneer our land lived and died by those Faiths. But what about us — and our Faiths?
Faith in God
In searching our minds and hearts for the answer to this question, let us remember that down through the ages, Faith in God has been an all-powerful force in the lives of men—that it has been a never-failing source of strength in time of trouble. Let us remember, too, that all of the great and lasting movements of civilization have been dedicated to, and founded upon, Faith in a Supreme Power.
When our Pilgrim Fathers waded onto the shores of New England, there was no government ready to give them aid or comfort or support. All they had to sustain them was a deep and abiding Faith. But it was sufficient.
In those early days the voices of the nation’s builders resounded through the hills with the great songs of Faith. In times of distress, of danger, of Thanksgiving, these ancestors always relied upon faith in God, which they fortified with faith in themselves, faith in their fellow men, faith in freedom. Upon these Faiths rests the foundation and the strength and the security of our nation today.
Most of the world’s two billion people have a firm Faith in the existence of a Supreme Power. Throughout civilization, that Faith has persisted. It has survived the efforts of tyrants and dictators to stamp it out.
This Faith is woven into the foundation and uprights of our nation. It has given us strength when we faltered, courage when we were afraid—united us when we were divided. Recognition of a Supreme Power and dependence upon that Power for guidance is contained in the Declaration of Independence and in our national and state Constitutions. So strong was their Faith in God that our forebears caused to be stamped on our coins the words, “In God We Trust.” To these Founding Fathers, to these men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, these men who pioneered our land, this phrase had real meaning. But what about us? Do these words, “In God We Trust,” guide us, inspire us, strengthen us?
If our country’s future is uncertain, if we are worried about tomorrow, then we should do as our forefathers did! We should turn again to the Faiths which made our nation great. Our country’s leaders throughout the years shared a sure belief in God. In crisis and in peace, they placed their Faith in God’s wisdom, in their own ability to work out their problems, in the great justice of a free people.
Between the America of yesterday and America of tomorrow stands our generation. To us has fallen the duty to preserve the Faith, the Honor, the Strength, and the Glory that is America. So guided, we will serve best America‘s destiny—and the world’s. By looking to God, by dedicating ourselves to His teachings, we and our children can be filled with renewed and strengthened Faith.
Faith in Ourselves
The Scriptures remind us that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” This Biblical admonition tells us that we cannot think in terms of failure, and then succeed; in terms of weakness, and then be strong; in terms of fear, and then be courageous; in terms of doubt, and then have Faith.
Our material well-being is ample proof that we have had Faith in Ourselves. It is proof, too, that “the Lord helps those who help themselves.”
Each of us can help revive the spirit which built our country by renewing and revitalizing this Faith in Ourselves. We know that it has paid off in richer, in happier, in fuller lives. We know that it has brought us the greatest outpouring of goods and services the world has ever known. We know, too, that it can bring us peace and security.
The history of our country is the history of a people with Faith in Themselves. But in recent years we have lost some of this Faith. We have started leaning upon the government for aid and for assistance—we have started looking to the government for the solution of personal and community problems.
If we persist in this dependency upon government, we shall surely destroy one of the basic Faiths that helped to make our country free, prosperous, and strong. As dependence upon the government’s ability to solve personal and community problems increases, Faith in Ourselves is gradually weakened and eventually destroyed.
Faith in our own ingenuity, resourcefulness, and ability to take care of the basic needs of life is essential to the preservation of human rights and personal liberties. This kind of Faith in Ourselves is what our forefathers handed down to us. It is our responsibility to preserve it untarnished, undiminished.
Faith in Our Fellow Men
It follows naturally that Faith in God and in Ourselves leads directly to Faith in our Fellow Men.
Our forefathers possessed this Faith, too. They lived by it, fought for it, and died to foster it. They wrote it, too, in the Declaration of Independence, that all who followed in their footsteps never would forget these words: “With a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.” These are the words shaped by men who faced the future with a firm Faith in their Fellow Men.
Today, no less than long years ago, we must seek the strength such Faith in our Fellow Men yields. We, too, should pledge to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor” in working to revive the spirit of brotherhood upon which the foundation of our great nation rests. We must renew our Faith in each other, and in the inalienable rights of each other “to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The preservation of the basic Faith—this foundation of brotherly love—is our duty and our privilege.
Faith in Freedom
The fourth and last of Our Four Great Faiths is Faith in Freedom. Personal Freedom is the natural fruit of Faith in God, in Ourselves, and in our Fellow Men.
Our forefathers believed this. They believed that Freedom was more than an abstract dream. They believed it was a God-given right, not a state-granted privilege; and they believed it so deeply that they made Freedom an accomplished fact. That is why we have Freedom. That is why we, more than any people in the world, have been blessed so richly with so many of the good things of life.
Our nation truly has become a land of plenty in a world beset by poverty, hunger, and suffering. Freedom made this possible by releasing the fetters from our minds. Down through the years we have been free to dream, to explore, to invent. We have been free to work, to achieve, to accumulate. We have been free to venture—and if we failed—to venture again and again. We have been free to spend our money or to save it. We have been free to climb from lowly beginnings to positions of power, honor, and trust. We have been free to rise from rags to riches. We have been free to enjoy the fruits of our labors.
But as we enjoy these blessings, we should remember always that Freedom can be lost, and that it will be lost if we take it for granted. Freedom is a sacred trust—one which we must protect and pass on inviolate, unblemished. It is our children’s birthright, ours to hand on to them and to their children.
To do this, we must do as those before us have done. We must have Faith in God, who answers prayers, Faith in Ourselves and our work; Faith in our Fellow Men, their courage and honesty; Faith in Freedom, its strength and its comfort. But it is not enough merely to declare our Faiths. We must give them life and meaning, by our words, by our works, in our daily lives.
The dynamic Joshua, rugged warrior and man of God who was chosen to lead the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, provides an example of what we can do to give meaning to our Faith. At a critical period in the history of his people, old Joshua told them: “Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Another stirring example that points the way was given us by the great patriot, Patrick Henry, when he said: “I know not what course others may choose, but as for me give me liberty or give me death.”
The Faith of our pioneering ancestors was a living, vital force. It was what sustained and guided them as they toiled and fought to lay the foundation and carve the uprights of our nation. To these men and women, Faith was a daily, hourly substance—a constant source of strength and comfort.
That is the kind of Faith we need today to fortify our material strength. That is the kind of Faith we can have today if we are willing to look to God for guidance, to seek Him in his temple, to follow his teachings. That is the kind of Faith we must have if we are to achieve ultimately “on earth, peace to all men of good will.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re told that more than three million reprints of “Our Four Great Faiths” had been distributed between its first publication in 1952 and our recent acquaintance with it. The message seems so timely at the beginning of a new administration, a new year—or even a new day—that it is presented here for others who might never have seen it, and for those who want to read it again.
