372 State Papers and Addresses

dom—their rights) as an individual—but at the same time they seek to eradi-
cate the one saving influence that establishes man as an individual with in-
alienable, God-given rights—namely, religion. If once they can root out
religion from the hearts of our young people, then it will be a comparatively
short step to deny individual rights, and to allot all rights to the State, to be
used—or rather, abused— as Dictator-minds may decide.

How far this onslaught on religious principles has progressed in this
Country is amply evidenced by the frightful toll of broken homes that Divorce
has wrought, and by the mounting total of youthful crimes, resulting from the
disruption of family ties and the general flouting of religion and morality by
press and screen and magazines of unspeakable filth. Recently such an au-
thority on youthful lawlessness as J. Edgar Hoover, Chief of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, told a graduating class that "What we need in America
today is a return to the God of our* fathers and a most vigorous defense
against the minions of godlessness and atheism, which are allied with the
powers of destruction that today threaten America's future. "

We are old-fashioned enough to believe that certain elements—living vital
elements are essential if society is to endure. A nation may be strong and
prosperous, the sentinels of its outposts may report that no peril is nigh. But,
if irreligion, sensuality and dishonesty reign in the hearts of the people, then
the strength of that nation has departed. Monarchies or kingdoms may rely
upon the virtue, the wisdom, or the character of one person. But a Democracy
depends for its substance upon the-great mass of people, and unless decency and
morality predominate, then that democracy is destined for failure.

Where is this lawlessness taught, where are these subversive principles
implanted in the minds of our future citizens? All too complacently have we
sat by and said: "They cannot harm us". We have permitted our young
people to be instilled with doctrines that bore the apparently harmless label
of "modern ideas". All too willing have we been to permit men, and women
too, to enter and continue in our schools as teachers, simply because they car-
ried the necessary degrees, and without any check whatsoever upon the doc-
trines and principles they passed out to their pupils along with the studies
outlined for them by our school authorities.

What other country in the world but ours would carelessly pay out the
taxpayers' money to teachers whose primary purpose and design is to lay
waste and destroy everything those same taxpayers hold near and dear? We
certainly owe it to ourselves, to our Country that has given us so much in the
way of liberties, we owe it particularly to the thousands of upright, conscien-
tious men and women who have entered upon the teaching profession as a
sacred duty and trust, to discover and uproot from the educational institutions
of America that unholy group of educational propagandists who are seeking
to poison the minds of America's future citizens and leaders. Today we must
be alert to see all the teachers in our schools instill into the minds and hearts
of our young people love of country and appreciation of what America offers
in freedom from oppression, in religious toleration, and in all those spiritual
elements that truly make this a land of the free.

Proudly can we proclaim to all America, yes, to all the world, that American