Evening star., 1938-08-11
Text ofRooseve|t's Athens Speech
6~ the Associated Press.

Es~ the Associated Press.
ATHENS Ca. Aug. ll.-Here is the
text Of President Roosevelt's address at
Athens today:
It is with particular pride in and in
creased devotion to this State that
become today an alumnus OF the Uni
versity of Georgia. During many years
I have had important contacts with
your trustees and faculty and can
therefore appreciate the excellent serv-
ice which you are rendering to the
cause of education not only in Georgia
but in the Nation.
Many years have gone by since ! first
came to Warm Springs, and got to
know and to love the State and its peo-
pie. I wonder if you, who live here all
the time, can realize as well as I, who
have been coming here once or twice
year, the amazing progress that has
been made here in a short decade and
q half-and especially in the past five
years. If you see a person morning,
noon and night you do not note the
changes Of growth or health of that
friend as readily as If you see him only
at intervals. and that is why I feel
that can speak with perspective.
In my earlier years here saw
South in the larger sense forgotten in
the midst of an unhealthy national
speculation-a boom era which thought
In terms of paper profits instead of
human lives. And for those days what
has the South to show today? A few
fortunes, perhaps, but most of the
profits went north.
Depression Brought Tragedy.
Then came the tragic years of ,the
depression. Closed banks in almost
every community, ruinous crop prices,
idle mills, no money for schools or
roads-a picture of despair
Yet, through all those years, the
South was building a new school of
thought-a group principally recruited
from younger men and women who
understood that the economy of the
South was vitality and inexorably
linked with that of the Nation, and
that the national good was dependent
equally on the improvement of the
welfare of the South. They began
asking searching questions Why is
our pay-in other words, our earning
capacity-so low? Why are our roads
so bad? Why is our sanitation and
medical care so neglected? Why are
our teachers so inadequately paid?
Why are our local school buildings and
equipment so antiquated?
Il do not mince words, because, first
of all, have right-a Nationwide
right, State right and withal SYM
pathetic and understanding right-to
speak them, and, secondly. because
you as we'll as know them to be true
Rises From Depths.
1T may not be polite, but it is good
American idealism to recognize. to
state boldly. that in 1882 the condi-
tions of human life in Georgia and in
other States of the Lower South were
as q whole at the bottom of the ma
tional scale. At the same time let
US rejoice and take pride in the un-
doubted fact that in these past six
years the South has made greater eco-
nonic and social progress up the scale
than at any other period in her long
history. 1t is my objective and yours
to maintain that march and to accel-
crate its pace.
On the side of education, long
experience teaches us that the i'm
provement of educational facilities is
inevitably bound up with economic
conditions. Years ago I was told by
distinguished citizen of Georgia that
public school education was well pro-
vided for because there was law
or perhaps 1t was in the State consti-
tuition itself-providing that every
child should have full school year
and that attendance for each school
year through grade school was COM
pulsory. But soon discovered school
after school in the rural districts
and most of them are rural districts
where the school was open only four
months or five months year-or was
too small to hold all the children
or couldn't employ enough teachers
or where children. whose parents
wanted them to work, could stay away
from school with complete immunity
Mans Dictum Failed.
Apparently a law or a clause in
the constitution was not enough.
What is law without enforcement?
Apparently the divine method "let
there be light, and there was light"
did not work as mere mans dictum.
Then began to analyze: Was it
due to lack of interest? No, it was due
to lack of money. Every man and
woman talked with deplored the
wretched school conditions, wanted
better schools. better trained and bet
ter paid teachers. wanted more teach
ers, wanted full school year. But
the answer was always the same-we
cannot get more money from taxes.
And why not? The answer is SIM
pie: The taxable values were not there.
The tax rates were not too low, but the
actual going values of property were
20 meager that when taxes on those