of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 183

greater and greater dependence of people upon government, it seems to me
that institutions such as yours are symbols of the proper course that govern-
ment should take in such matters.

This great Country, developed beyond all human expectations, is truly
a monument to individual human initative. It isn't the result of government
coercion or control. It couldn't have been! Only the creative urge of the
intrepid men and women who swept beyond established frontiers to open up
new territories, who worked and! fought and planned that new cities might be
established, that new industries be started, that new needs be satisfied, to
raise the living standards of our people to the highest plane in all the world
today, only these things could have produced a country so magnificent, so self-
sufficient, so satisfying to all the urges in the minds and hearts of its residents.

People who have been born and have grown up in such an atmosphere of
accomplishment, or people from other lands who are assimilated into such, are
quick to appreciate the advantages of such an economic system for themselves
and for those to come after them. They don't want government clothing them,
feeding them, regimenting them in every way. All they ask is a reasonable
chance to do for themselves what their forbears did: to work out their lives
and their destiny in the way in which they prefer. They want to be dependent
upon no one, least of all upon the government.

In such a society as ours it is to be expected that different methods of
education and training would have to be provided to fill the requirements of
those who, for one reason or another, need special attention. People ask nothing
unreasonable from the government; all they seek is a proper opportunity to
prepare themselves, by education and training, to make the most of the abilities
they have in abundance. Such has always been the aim of your school, and of
similar schools throughout the State and Nation. The object of such schools
has been to fit their students to become self sufficient members of society, and
once having accomplished this, experience has shown that no one need have any
further worries.

To this end regular courses of study, including high school branches,
have been made a part of your curriculum, in addition to which every boy
before graduation has had full opportunity to learn some trade, while the
girls have had thorough courses in those fields that are particularly available
to them.

In keeping with advanced thought and practices, the State has made every
effort to see that vocational training departments are supplied with modern
equipment, and that all the educational and mechanical helps that are your
right have been supplied.

All of these efforts on behalf of state and national administrations are
strictly in keeping with the modern concept of humanitarian government,
which is to offer every reasonable guidance and assistance, without attempting
to take over the detailed direction of one's individual existence.

It is this particular phase of our educational system, and the marked
difference it presents from educational concepts in totalitarian countries, that
seems to me worthy to occupy our minds for a few moments today. In this
Country, and under our established free system of government, no one need
ever feel condemned to a life of uselessness and inactivity, no matter what
his or her physical handicap may be. For some years our State and National
Government realizing their definite responsibilities along this line and have, by