Roosevelt's Quarantine Speech, 1937

In the wake of the rearmament of Germany, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, and finally the Japanese invasion of China, Roosevelt visited Chicago, the heart of isolationist sentiment in America, on October 5, 1937, to make what has generally been dubbed his Quarantine Speech. Look carefully in the following excerpts for the promises or pledges that the president sought to exact on the issues of peace and war.

I am glad to come once again to Chicago and especially to have the opportunity of taking part in the dedication of this important project of civic betterment ....

Without a declaration of war and without warning or justification of any kind, civilians, including women and children, are being ruthlessly murdered with bombs from the air. In times of so-called peace ships are being attacked and sunk by submarines without cause or notice. Nations are fomenting and taking sides in civil warfare in nations that have never done them any harm. Nations claiming freedom for themselves deny it to others ....

The peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality ....

There is a solidarity and interdependence about the modern world, both technically and morally, which makes it impossible for any nation completely to isolate itself from economic and political upheavals in the rest of the world, specially when such upheavals appear to be spreading and not declining.

It seems to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading.

When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease.

War is a contagion, whether it be declared or undeclared. It can engulf states and peoples remote from the original scene of hostilities .... We are adopting such measures as will minimize our risk of involvement, but we cannot have complete protection in a world of disorder in which confidence and security have broken down.

If civilization is to survive the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored. Shattered trust between nations must be revived.

Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peaceloving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a cause. There must be positive endeavors to preserve peace.

America hates war. America hopes for peace. Therefore, America actively engages in the search for peace.

[U.S. Department of State, Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy, 1931-1941 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943), pp. 384-387.