with Stephens dog mr. vice president mr.
chief justice
ladies and gentlemen this is a notable
occasion for all of us here in
Washington and around the country and I
am very happy to greet all of you who
have come and who are taking part in
this great effort I hope that your is
proud of it
as I am and we're particularly pleased
to have with us as our guest tonight
Gustus Georgia the man under whose
administration this project was started
and he was giving it wholehearted
support ladies and gentlemen General
Eisenhower
[Applause]
general I'm sorry we're not all there
with you I want to assure the officials
of my administration tonight that this
demonstration of support for the arts is
modest and painless compared to what has
been required of past governments and
past administrations in 1664 louis xiv
in his own efforts to encourage the arts
dawn brilliant types and played in a
drama called furious rollin
before a happy court moreover he drafted
the highest offices of his
administration for the play so that
according to an account all clad in
brilliant tights themselves they passed
before the Queen in the court this was
suggested tonight but for some reason or
other the committee turned it down but
we're glad to be here in any case and
we're glad to be the guests of honor of
the representatives of much of the
finest in American culture much of the
finest in American life and we're very
much indebted to all the artists who
have so willingly taken part in this
work tonight for when Thomas Jefferson
wrote that the one thing which from the
heart en beat certain other nations that
was their art he spoke from a deep
understanding of the enduring sources of
national greatness and national
achievement but our culture and art do
not speak to America alone to the extent
that artists struggle to express beauty
in form and color and sound to the
extent that they write about man's
struggle with nature or society or
himself to that extent they strike a
responsive chord in all humanity today
Sophocles speaks to us for more than
2,000 years and in our own time even
when political communication
have been strained the Russian people
have bought more than 20,000 copies of
the works of Jack London more than 10
million books of Mark Twain and hundreds
and thousands of copies of Hemingway
Steinbeck Whitman and Poe and our own
people through the works of Tolstoy and
dusty St & Pasternak have gained an
insight into the shared problems of the
human heart thus today as always art
knows no national boundaries genius can
speak at any time and the entire world
will hear it and listen behind the storm
of daily conflict and crisis the
dramatic concentrations the tumult of
political struggle the poet the artist
the musician continues the quiet work of
centuries building bridges of experience
between peoples reminding man of the
universality of his feelings and desires
and despairs and reminding him that the
forces that unite are deeper than those
that divide the Tsar and the
encouragement of art is political in the
most profound sense not as a weapon in
the struggle but as an instrument of
understanding of the futility of
struggle between those who share man's
faith Aeschylus and Plato we remember
today long after the triumph of Imperial
Athens are gone daddy outlived the
ambitions of 13th century Florence
Gerdes stands serenely above the
politics of Germany and I am certain
that after the dust of centuries has
passed over all seas we too will be
remembered not for victories or defeats
in battle or in politics but for our
contribution to the human spirit
it was Pericles proudest boast
that mighty Athens was the school of
Hellas if we can make our country one of
the great schools of civilization then
on that achievement you'll surely rest
our claim to the ultimate gratitude of
mankind moreover is a great democratic
society we have a special responsibility
to the odds Laurent is the great
Democrat
calling forth creative genius from every
sector of society disregarding race or
religion or wealth or color the mere
accumulation of wealth and power is
available to the dictator and the
Democrat alike what freedom alone can
bring is the liberation of the human
mind and spirit which binds its greatest
flowering in the free society thus in
our fulfillment of these
responsibilities towards the our lie our
unique achievement as a free society