182

State Papers and Addresses

will give me, more genuine pleasure and satisfaction than are attendant upon
my presence here today. I feel that I am deeply indebted to your Board of
Visitors, and to Mr. Ignatius Bjorlee, your Superintendent and Principal, for
their consideration in suggesting my appearance before you today. An oc-
casion such as this strikes a truly responsive chord in my nature.

One of the things about your school which impresses me most favorably
is the high regard in which it is held unfailingly by the citizens of this Country.
This is due, undoubtedly, to the behavior of the pupils, to their fine morale and
to the generally satisfactory atmosphere that prevails throughout the institu-
tion. Such county-wide approval, moreover, is a splendid tribute to those in
charge of the school, and particularly to Professor Bjorlee, whose work among
you for the past twenty years has attracted attention throughout the Country.

Under your splendid faculty the pupils have, for the past two decades,
been the recipients of the most up-to-date education thought that has been
developed for such schools as yours. I can truthfully say that the administra-
tive officials of the State are particularly gratified at the way this institution
is functioning, and that we have the utmost confidence that under the present
staff the pupils of this school are receiving, and will continue to receive, the
very finest education and training that could possibly be provided.

This is your graduation day, it is an important event in the lives of you
young people. For some of you, no doubt, it is but a stepping stone to further
educational opportunities. To others, however, it may mean the termination
of your formal education, as a prelude to your entrance into the serious business
of making a living.

Today, you are filled with ideals. Tomorrow, in the struggle for a living
in which you will find yourself, it may be difficult at times to maintain un-
sullied the ideals which you cherish so fervently now.

You will find it an involved, uncertain world into which you will be enter-
ing. You will find confusion of thought. You will find, too, all sorts of new
theories prevalent with regard to government. And you will have to be on
your guard, because many of these new ideas are phrased so skillfully as to
deceive you, if possible, into accepting them as panaces for all the ills that
beset the world today. Many of the new doctrines flatly refute the American
concept that government is for the people and that the State was created for
its citizens and not the citizens for the State.

You will meet with people in the daily course of your lives who will try to
convince you that the government owes you a living, and that you are foolish if
you don't rely entirely on this promise, instead of striving vainly to carve out
a place in the world for yourself. But there is no reason for pessimism; to
the contrary the future can hold much of promise and attraction.

Fortunately, in your years here in Maryland School, the traditions of our
State, and the doctrines of true democracy have been inculcated into you. As
you go through life, it will be your duty not only to live according to these
American principles, but it is also incumbent upon you to spread the knowledge
of, and belief in, these principles, so that instead of falling before the on-
slaughts of disloyal people and subversive doctrines, our Country may, on the
contrary, grow stronger and preserve for ages unborn, the salutary principles
that have made it the wonderful land that it is.

In all the clamor abroad in the world today for more and more participa-
tion of government in all the activities of its people, and looking towards