It gives me a great deal of pleasure to welcome the competitors in the Fifth International Oratorical Contest. This contest witnesses the consummation of the many thousands of other contests which have taken place throughout the high schools of the nations represented here. These debates have proved a great inspiration not only to the millions of high school students but to millions of our fellow citizens. They have advanced the knowledge and understanding of government, of history, of social and political questions. The representation here tonight of contestants from eight important nations bears still another high implication. That is the building of mutual understanding of these questions between the youth of our different nations.
I wish to congratulate each of you on the evidence of zeal and intelligence which has brought you thus far in this great contest. Whether you win or whether you lose in this immediate event, you have attained a high esteem in the minds of millions of your countrymen.
Note: The President spoke, at approximately 8 p.m., to the contestants in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The contest was won by Edmund Gullion of the United States.
Herbert Hoover, Remarks at the Fifth International Oratorical Contest Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/212117
