Evening star., 1940-10-06

| to belong to one party and I be-
longed to the other. But I think
both of us can agree that on mat
ters that relate to education in this
State of ours and in this country
of ours, there's very little that is
decided or done or thought OF on
lines of party politics. Education
is over and beyond party politics
and sometimes I wish that other
things were, too.
AS have been sitting on the plat
form here today, I have been think
ing of the time nearly century
and a half ago when Gov. Morgan
Lewis, who lived here in the town
of Hyde Park, was chiefly reSpOn-
sible for starting the union free
school system for the children of
the State of New York. This town.
ship, therefore, can claim a kind
of sponsorship for free and univer-
sal school education in New York.
My mind has gone back also to
the days when l used to spend many
hours as a small boy, holding my
fathers horse in the village of Hyde
Park while my father attended
meetings of the School Board. Long
| before those days-back about 1870
my father had helped, with very
great pride, to build the red brick
schoolhouse over in the village,
where it still stands: and it was
considered a model for its day.
These three new schoolhouses en-
phasize how much more complex
our civilization is today than it was
10 years ago. Education now re-
quires equipment and instruction
that was unthought of then. For
that reason we were all under the
necessity-the painful but willing
necessity-of paying out many hun
dreds of thousands of uollars to
substitute modern equipment for
what We must admit was out Of
date.
Spirit Of Cooperation
OF Trustees Praised.
May bear tribute to the taxpay-
ers of this town of Hdye Park and
of part of the town of Poughkeepsie
| and Pleasant Valley and Clinton for
their willingness to do a new job of
school construction rather than a
repair job If our old schoolhouses,
scattered throughout the districts,
remained useful to the community
for three-Score years and more, we
can be confident that in all human
1 ~ L
| houses will still be used and busy
100 years from now. To the trustees
of the consolidated district also. all
of us owe a deep debt of gratitude,
for they have shown the finest spirit
of cooperation. Personally I am
very happy that without any addl-
tional cost, we have built these
buildings of the native field stone
of old Dutchess County. And let us
remember that most of the stones
that 20 into these buildings we're
stones which for nearly two CEN
turies served a useful purpose to the
early settlers of this county as a
part of our famous stone walls. They
are historic reminder of the people
who came here back in 1870, 1740
or 1850.
Finally, we are all hapnv that the
trustees, with rare fore 3 yht, have
secured adequate acreage for the
schools, enough for expansion in the
century to come that I have spoken
Of. Every boy and girl in these
schools will have elbow room. plenty
of space and plenty of air for sports
and games and recreation of all
kinds. The next generation will not
have to worry about buying athletic
fields or about the high cost of ad-
joining property.
These three new schools symbolic
two modern Government functions
in America, each of which is prov
ing itself more and more vital to the
continuance of our democracy.
One of them is an old function,
based on the ideal and the under
standing of the founding fathers
that true democratic Government
cannot long endure in the midst
of widespread ignorance They rec
ognize that Democratic Government
would call for the intelligent par
ticipation of all of its people, as en-
| lightened citizens-citiZenS equipped
with what we used to call "a school,
| ing" from their time to our own,
| it has always been recognized as
responsibility of Government that
every child have the right to a free
and liberal education. These build
ings can we'll be dedicated to that
old function-the American insti-
| tuition of universal education.
In the last decade this right of
| free education, which has become a
part of the national life in our land,
has taken on additional significance
from events in certain other lands.
For large portion of the world the
right no longer exists. Almost the
first freedom to be destroyed. as
dictators take control, is the free
dom of learning. Tyranny hates
and fears nothing more than the
free exchange of ideas, the free
play of the mind that comes from
education.
Children to Be Taught
Without Censorship.
In these schools and in other
| American schools the children of
today and of future generations will
be taught, without censorship or
restriction, the facts of current his
tory and the whole context or cur
rent knowledge. Their text books
will not be burned by dictator
who disagrees with them, their
teachers will not be banished by a
ruler whom they have offended,
their schools will not be closed if
they teach unpalatable truths and
their daily instruction will not be
governed by the DEGREES of any CEN
trail bureau of propaganda. They will
get not all of the story part of the
time or only part of the story all
of the time-they will get all of the
story all of the time.
Here will be trained the young