The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-20


 Those later years have been liv- ing years-fruitful years for the people of this democracy. For they have brought to us greater secur- ity and, hope, better under standing that lifes ideals are to be measured in other than mater ial things.
 Most vital to our present and our future is this experience of Democracy which successfully survived crisis at home; put away many evil things; built new struc- lures on enduring lines; and, through it all, maintained the fact of it's democracy.
 For action has been taken with in the three-way framework of the constitution of the United States. The coordinate branches of the government continue free ly to function. The bill of rights remains inviolate. The freedom of elections is wholly maintained. Prophets of the downfall of American Democracy have seen their dire predictions come to naught.
 Democracy is not dying.
 We know it because we have seen it revive-and grow.
 We know it cannot die-because 1t is built on the unhampered ini- tiative of individual men and wo- men joined together in 8 common enterpriSe-an enterprise under taken and carried through by the free expression of free majority.
 We know it because Democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of mems en- frightened will.
 We know it because Democracy alone has constructed an unlimit- ed civilization capable of infinite progress in the improvement of human life.
 We know it because, if we look below the surface, we sense it still spreading on every continent flor 1t is the most humane, the most advanced, and in the end the most unconquerable of all forms of human society.
 A nation, like a person, has 8 body-a body that must be fed and clothed and housed, invigor- ated and rested, in a manner that measures up to the objectives of our time.
 A nation, like a person, has a mind-a mind that must be kept informed and alert, that must know itself, that understands the hopes and the needs of its neigh bors-all the other nations that live within the narrowing circle of the world.
 And a nation, like person, has something deeper, something more permanent, something larger than the sum of all its parts. It is that something which matters most to its future-which calls forth the most sacred guarding of its pres ent.
 It is a thing for which we find it difficult-even impossible-to hit upon single, simple word.
 And yet we all understand what 1t is-the spirit-the faith of America. It is the product of cen- turies. It was born in the multi tudes of those who came from many lands-some of high degree, but mostly plain people-who sought here, early and late, to find freedom more freely.
 The democratic aspiration Is no mere recent phase i'll human his tory. It is human history. It per- meated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the middle ages. It was written in Magma Carta.
 In the Americas it's impact has been irresistible. America has been the new world in all tongues, to all peoples, not because this continent was new-found land, but because all those who came here believed they could create upon this continent a new life a life that should be new in free dom.
 Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower compact, into the declaration of independence, into the constitution of the United States, into the Gettysburgh ad- dress.
 Those who first came here to carry out the longings of their spirit, and the millions who fol- lowed, and the stock that sprang from them-all have moved for ward constantly and consistently toward an ideal which in itself has gained stature and clarity with each generation.
 The hopes of the republic can- not forever tolerate either unde- served poverty or self-serving wealth.
 We know that We still have far to go; that we must more greatly build the security and the oppor- tunity and the knowledge of every citizen, in the measure justified