WAR & PEACE: My Last Address

To U.S. citizens who still had faith in themselves and in their nation the words of Charles Augustus Lindbergh last week were a shock. Warning an America First rally in Fort Wayne, Ind., that “it may be my last address,” Mr. Lindbergh reported in a strained voice:

>”If free speech ends in this country,* it means that we are no longer a free people. It means that we are about to enter dictatorship and probably foreign war.”

> “[The people] have been deceived . . . [by] the false promises of the interventionists and of our Administration.”

> “Congress, like the Reichstag, is not consulted.”

> “We are approaching a point where we are no longer governed by the will of the people.”†

> “If the time comes when we can no longer meet face to face as free men in a free country we will meet together at the elections next year. . . . But what if there are no elections next year?”

> “We must face the fact that you and I and our generation have lost our American heritage.”

>-“I do not speak out of hate for any individual or any people. … I have tried… to give you the truth without prejudice or passion.”

Said young, martyred Mr. Lindbergh: “This is not a life that I enjoy. Speaking is not my vocation and political life is not my ambition. … I have done this because I believe my country is in mortal danger.”

*Refused a press pass into Mr. Lindbergh’s meeting, LIFE Photographer Wallace Kirkland slipped in, was ousted.

† According to a Gallup poll last week, 70% of the U.S. (compared to 60% last January) have decided that it is more important to defeat Hitler than to keep out of the war.