Herbert Hoover: Message to the 33d Convention of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers.

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64 - Message to the 33d Convention of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers.
May 5, 1929

Herbert Hoover
1929

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[Released May 5, 1929. Dated April 1, 1929]

YOUR PROGRAM covers the broad relations of the home, the school, the church and the state. You ask me for a message about the relation of the state to the others.

The state is all of us. Some of us have no home, some have known no school, some are outside the church. The state alone embraces us all. It is the one family to which we all belong, either by birth or by adoption. It is the one loyalty we all acknowledge, the one shelter we all enjoy, and the one discipline we must all accept.

Let me emphasize its discipline. We have achieved so much of liberty that we are seldom conscious of restraints. We resent restraints when we encounter them. I would not see our freedom less; but self-government implies that those who govern themselves shall not only make their own laws, but shall also obey them. We have repudiated the right of others to rule us; then we must rule ourselves. The alternative is anarchy.

Obedience to law is thus the first duty of the citizen of a self-governing state. As with other disciplines, it must begin in the home and be continued in the school. No conception of one's personal duty to the state needs more emphasis just now. The growth of crime threatens us all. It is in large degree the result of belief of some that the people do not wish to have the laws enforced or that we cannot enforce the laws made by the people; or that a citizen may choose what law he will obey. Unless such illusions can be dispelled the whole of our liberties are lost.

Therefore, it is not only by precept to the young, but also by the example of their parents and teachers, that obedience to law should be taught as the first lesson in self-government.

Note: The message was read at the convention in Washington, D.C.

Citation: John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=22096.

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