The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-13


 Valley Conference as important an annual event to adult education as the Stockbridge Festival Is to music, officials of the Valley Con- ference are already planning next years discussions to be held the last two weeks of August, l942, in the Regional High school at Falls Village. The high school Is in Litchfleld County on Route 2, the entrance to the Berkshires.
 Bradford Perrin, director of the Conference has outlined program for l942 which emphasizes long term planning to meet the problems of the future, A wide field is em- braced by the tentative program, in- cluding religion, education, political Issues, the industrial future of Con- nectieut, and city planning in Con- necticut.
 MT, Perrin has already been prom iSed the support of the State De- velopment Commission and in his portfolio are letters from national ly-known participants In the l94l discussions, wholeheartedly endors- ing the scheme and predicting Con- ference growth to the stature of the Stockbridge festival.
 Mumaord Sees Future
 Lewis Mumford, the architectur- al critic and author, wrote to Mir, Perin, An institution such as you have started takes time to get root- cd, like all other enduring things; but trust that the support you need will be generously forthcoming; for with all the current talk of adult education, there has been far too little of 1t in the open country and in the less favored centers beyond the metropolis.
 "A century ago the farmers around here could hear Emerson in the Lyceuml and what Is better and more important, they could see him face to face. We need con- ferenees like this. bringing together the thinkers and doers, in every rec gion; and If the present initiative continues for as little as five years, l predict 1t will have e marked ef- feet upon the quality of life through out this region"
 Mortimer J. Adler, associate pro- lessor of law at the University of Chicago and author of the best- seller How to Read e Book" wrote, 1T wanted to tell you how very much I enjoyed participating in the Housatonie Valley Con- ference of August, le4l. The forum which took place after the speeches was one of the liVeliest and best I have ever taken part In. ! It was very gratifying to get that much reaction from an audience. If the other sessions, which I did not have the pleasure of ate tending, were as lively and as interesting as that Friday night on education, the Conference must have been Q great success all around and very much to your credit as Its organizer.
 T hope you are not only grat- filed with this achievement but also that you will be prompted by 1t to try again next summer. If you are planning another Con- | AGkG4ASCs A AAtRGi y0A WaAA AAAAA G place for me in it."
 Full cooperation was promised by Rabbi Abraham P. Feldman, of the Congregation Beth Israel, Hartford, an active Conference supporters. He, too, saw the Con- ference blossoming into a per- manent institution.
 BIlven Lauds Enterprise
 Bruce Bliven, editor of the New Republic, wrote of the "hlgh quail ity of the audiences" at last years meeting and told MT. Perrin that he had started a fine enterprise"
 Horace D. Taft, founder and headmaster emeritus of Taft school in Watertown, wrote to MT. Perrin immediately after last years meeting at which Sir Nor- man Angel, Noel peace prize winner, William McDonough Agar, Fight for Freedom leader, and Carl J. Friedrich, professor of govern ment at Harvard, spoke on cur- rent political issues.
 MT. Taft wrote, If you had done nothing more than to gather such an audience to listen to such speeches as we heard last night your enterprise might be counted !. e great success. I speak from the standpoint of the good of the public"
 The 1eAl Conference gave "live- ly pleasure" to Stringfellow Barr, president of St. Johns College at Annapolis, Md. Discussions of the sort you furnished at Falls Village" he wrote, ''are just the thing to take the curse off vaca- tions. The use of the mind in the evening should improve ones tennis score the next morning"
 pr. Hugh Cabot, the noted Boston surgeon, saw the Conference as an attempt to make the democratic principle work. Democracy and freedom" his letter said, ''have lie ! partnership neither can exist with- out the other. The program which lyou provided was wall planned and