Speech of Senator Harry S. Truman at Fulton, Missouri

Speech of Senator Harry S. Truman at Fulton, Missouri, September 23, 1938 TO BE RELEASED ON DELIVERY. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CAPITAL OF THE KINGDOM OF CALLAWAY: It is a very great pleasure to be with you this evening for the dedication of this fine temple of education. Your city has been well and favorably known to me as an education center for a long time. Two of Missouri's outstanding citizens, whom I consider warm personal friends, were educated here in Westminster College. Mr. William Southern, Jr., editor and owner of one of Missouri's finest newspapers, the Independence Examiner, and Mr. Benjamin Charles, now deceased, Missouri's greatest authority on municipal indebtedness, are those two men. Due to my friendship for these men, and also due to the many personal friendships which I have made here in Callaway County, I'll repeat I'm more than happy to be here. We are here to pay homage to education, to improvement of the mind and soul of the coming generations. There has always been a thirst for know- ledge and truth in the human race. From the earliest dawn of history mankind has been searching for knowledge as to the reason for the universe, and for an answer for the philosophy of living. Historical research among the ruins of Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as in China and India, indicate that those ancient civilizations maintained schools and places of learning for the young men of certain classes of citizens. The schools of ancient Greece and Rome have been the inspiration of our modern educational system in this great Republic of ours. This building is a monument to an ideal that is strictly American. An ideal that education and learning is the right of every citizen, regardless of his birth or his financial status. Education in times past, even up to a hundred years ago, was limited to the children of the rich and the privileged class. It is only comparatively recently that the feminine half of our RAUMAN NARA