My dear Dr. Baruch:
I send cordial greetings to those gathered at the Centenary Banquet to honor the memory of the great Goethe. His rounded genius should inspire all modern men to realize that the most skillful practice of the noblest forms of art does not preclude a practical activity in the immediate concerns of government of one's country, and equally that a profound absorption in philosophy and science may be successfully united with the liveliest sense of obligation to discharge the full duty of the citizen. Goethe's contributions to modern thought have borne fruit far beyond the confines of his German fatherland, and have touched significantly the lives of all nations, including conspicuously our own.
Yours faithfully,
HERBERT HOOVER
[Dr. Emanuel de Marnay Baruch, President, Goethe Centennial Committee, 57 East 77th Street, New York City]
NOTE: The message was read at a dinner which was sponsored by the society and held in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
[Released April 18, 1932. Dated April 15, 1932]
Herbert Hoover, Message to the Goethe Society of America Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/207681