Since that did not happen, there can only be partisan reasons for attacking only the National Socialist movement with accusations that are both unjustified and easy to refute. That forces me to say the following:
On the Value of Silence, Speech, and Action
I find the following sentences in the printed version of your speech:
“I have been accused of remaining silent for too long. Careful work seems to me more important than speaking, and I have confident that the German people prefer that which is factual, serious.”
Mr. Reich Chancellor! This opinion seems to me to rest on several not insignificant errors. It is certainly true that not every speech that is given in the world is a “factual matter” that one must approach seriously. Since German radio has regularly put itself at the service of governmental propaganda, I, too, can no longer close my eyes to the all too perishable nature of rhetoric. It would, however, be wrong to form a general opinion of the deficiencies of the intellectual content of all speeches in contrast to written elaborations based on examples from the present, even when those printed words have the good fortune or misfortune to pass through the machinery of lawmaking. The sum total of all laws ranging from those applying to the village school to those at the highest level demonstrate little evidence that they deserve to be seen as having greater importance than many speeches have, considering the conscientious and diligent work behind them. I will not deny that many laws are the result of hard mental effort, great determination, and admirable endurance. However, their final result and value is often less than the piece of paper that has the misfortune to have printed on it this blessing for mankind.