The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-11-13
SchoolSuperintendent Eulogizes Education
Emphasizes Value of Americon Freedoms In Appeal for Tolerance, Respect of PriviIeoes-Cites MoroI Code

Efforts of local educators to se- cure tolerance, cooperation, and re- spect of freedom from public school pupils are decribed by Dr. John C.. Gilmartin in an open letter written in connection with Education Week.
 The school superintendent, who titles his letter ITO You Who Suf- fered in World War IT." contrasts the plight of people in Europe with the conditions here.
 His statement follows:
 This is American Education Week. We have set 1t aside, especially, in order to pay tribute to education. In our country, Freedom Of Educa- tion like Freedom of Worship, Free dom to Assemble, Freedom of Speech is a duty and a privilege. We Americans accept these privileges nonchalantly. The terror and the darkness into which we would be plunged were we to lose these rights, seldom or never rise to the surface of our conscious minds.
 Not so long ago, millions of per- sons in Europe and Asia lost their privileges. Peering across the murky oceans, We can discern some of the consequences suffered in those afflicted lands.
 As the bright flame of Freedom, which flickered so dangerously low during the turbulent regimes of Hit Ter, MusSolini, and Hirohito, be- gins to glow again, we commence to tabulate the cost of that catas- trophe-the eclipse of Freedom. We estimate the destruction of nat ural resources and material as- sets. We find the sum incompre- hensible. Through records and eye- witnesses, we learn of tortures, mass-murders, pseudo scientific ex- periments, and countless wrecked bodies and minds.
 Spiritual Losses
 Beyond these horrible material losses, however. lies 8 greater one: the shriveling of spiritual values in the lands oyerrun by Nazi and Fas- cist armies. No one can evaluate the frightfulness which accompanies loss of faith in God. No one can figure the evil arising from the total bankruptcy of inspiration, courage, confidence, and self-re- Spect. No one can place a cost ticket on the dictators' soul-crush- ing substitutes: nopelessness and fear. Such debasement can be meas- ured by Supreme Power only.
 AS we read or listen we wonder why millions of people were so cas- fly overpowered. We wonder why a group of master criminals, loyal to neither God nor Man, gained con- trol of public offices and treasuries, of societies and schools, of homes and churches.
 Investigation reveals that the people were lulled by tales of rich awards, by tales of race-supremacy. Briefly, they were content to sell their birthright (belief in God and in the Rights of Man) for a mess of pottage.
 With the treachery and moral collapse of these men and women, DISASTER fell upon the earth.
 Might this happen in America? It might and 1t will happen if we permit the red peoples of forgetful- ness to Supplant the white lilies of sacrifice!
 Tn our public schools weA have and always have had a moral code comprised of seven points to which we subscribe:
 1. Federation
 2. Individual Worth
 3. Character
 4. Cultural Appreciation
 5. Cooperation
 G.. Home and Community Improve Inent
 2, Cordial Affiliations with Relisi- ous Institutions