WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.750
I think the Congress is one of the greatest educational institutions in the world. 

2
00:00:05.750 --> 00:00:09.750
And a bunch of kids had a chance to participate in that.

3
00:00:09.750 --> 00:00:15.000
And if they study history, and read—and of course, I was always a tremendous reader—

4
00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:24.250
they could learn. And they could add the learning that they got by reading, to

5
00:00:24.250 --> 00:00:29.750
the learning that they got by watching, and seeing and listening to debate and

6
00:00:29.750 --> 00:00:39.000
reading the papers. And so, it, it, it made a remarkably educated bunch of Americans. 

7
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:46.250
And not only did it do that, but it, it gave them an understanding and an appreciation 

8
00:00:46.250 --> 00:00:52.250
of the ideals and why and how the question was, how the country was created. 

9
00:00:52.250 --> 00:00:56.250
For example, we used to go down to the Archives 

10
00:00:56.250 --> 00:01:00.000
and look at the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. 

11
00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:07.500
How many kids have a chance to do that? And we'd see all of these buildings. 

12
00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:11.250
When the President come up, make the State of the Union, we'd see it.

13
00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:15.500
When the President come up for his Inauguration speech, we'd see it. 

14
00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:22.750
When Roosevelt was, was buried, we could, we could see 

15
00:01:22.750 --> 00:01:28.500
some of the ceremonies associated with that. When, when 

16
00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:37.250
the debates on important bills were going on, the Declaration of War or the

17
00:01:37.250 --> 00:01:42.000
other events that were associated with that, or the extension of the draft, or

18
00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:50.750
the American Firsters' or debates on any of the issues there when I was a Page boy.

19
00:01:50.750 --> 00:01:57.000
Or more recently the debates, you know, when the, when the Pages were still here. 

20
00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:03.500
They had a chance to learn and see and . . . and, and, and, and it was, it had a life 

21
00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:10.750
and a meaning to it, that you don't see if you're just taking this in a course. 

22
00:02:10.750 --> 00:02:17.000
And, you know the, the teachers of government, they do their best to 

23
00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:23.000
put it into understandable ways, and to describe it

24
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:27.000
as it should be described, about what is going on when this happens. 

25
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.500
And how does a bill move from committee to the, from the hopper, 

26
00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:36.000
to the committee, to the floor, to the President's desk. 

27
00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.000
But there you'd actually see it work, and you'd get a feeling of 

28
00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.000
what is happening here. Something that you don't get out of looking at a book.