Editing 78-03-B5 (section)

= Treaties =

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=== Transcript ===
"A man's home is his castle." That is a time worn truism, but
it was born of a right we all have and take for granted with little
thought of how it came to be.

When our Founding Fathers--(that little band of men whose like
the world has seldom seen)--gathered to draw up the Constitution , the
right of an individual to own property was very much on their minds.
In most of the world prior to that time the rulers, be they king,
emperor or tribal chieftain, could award someone title to property and
could also cancel the title. The framers of our Constitution had seen
colonists' homes seized on the whim of George III. They had decided
this must no longer happen. So the Fifth amendment to our Constitution
reads,--QUOTE--"No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property
without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation. --UNQUOTE--

The American worker with his house and lot, the farmer plowing
his own ground, the shopkeeper--we have all accepted this as part of
the very basis of our freedom. But, I'm afraid we've forgotten it was
not always this way. Now of course we've become aware that under a
different banner rulers in large parts of the world have returned to
the age old policy that land belongs only to the government. The
banner is called Marxism.

For many years the United Nations has had before it two covenants,
the Covenant on Civil and Political rights and the United Nations
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Both specifically
omit the right to own property or to be protected from arbitrary
seizure without compensation. Ownership of property is not--according
to the covenants--a basic human right.

Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford
steadfastly refused to sign these covenants because of this omission
which is so contrary to American tradition. In 1966 there was an
effort made to amend the covenants to include property ownership as
a human right. It was voted down. Obviously the Socialist and
Communist countries could not accept such an affront to their
totalitarianism. Right now one of the biggest obstacles to normalizing
relations with Castro's Cuba is his seizure of American-owned property
without compensation.

What is apparently little known by the American people is that
President Carter has signed both of these United Nation covenants
which, in effect, nullify the inalienable right of an individual to
own property--If they are ratified by the United States Senate, United
Nations treaties become the law of the land superseding all other laws.
We'd all better be ready to write our Senators when these treaties
are submitted for ratification.

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>02/20/[[Radio1978|1978]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan.27s_Path_to_Victory|RPtV-273]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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