Canandaigua Academy - Academian Yearbook (Canandaigua, NY)

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THE ACADEMIAN lst Prize-Phelps and Gorham Prize Speaking Contest 'Ilime, moving ever forward with mon- otonous, relentless, perpetual regularity. Progress, variable, desultory progress. Progress retarded by the agressions of an oligarchism advanced through the importation of Utopian ideals. Prog- ress, recorded upon th emilestones of republics. Within the system of this institution of education, these milestones have been 'passed annually. known to those acquainted with the functi-ons of Can- andaigua Academy, as the Phelps dz Gorham Speaking Contest. At no other time during its magnid- cent existence of 130 years, have the democratic liberties of this nation. vis- ioned and wrought into the reality of our forefathers, been so seriously threatened. But for what worthy pur- pose did these men, interested solely in the welfare and stable economic devel- opment of a growing democratic repub- lic, have in instituting into this Acad- emy a prize fund suitable for fostering into our curriculum an activity worthy of confirming the democratic ideals of its creators. 'Perhaps it was to test the eloquence of those students wishing to become public orators, but upon peering far- ther into the moral standards most outstanding involved in the personali- ties of Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, I discover beyond all shadow of doubt that it was for the supreme purpose of vesting in the minds of the students participating, an incentive to gain a more wholesome and enriched understanding of the necessities for maintaining the idealistic summits es- tablished through the Transcendent Excellence of a Genuine Representative 'Republican Form of Government Effec- tually Securing Equal Liberties Founded on the Rights of Man. Before endeav- oring to understand the problems threatening our American ideals, it is first necessary to become acquainted with the true dennition of a democratic republican regime. If asked to define Democracy, most people would say it was a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Yet before it is 'possible to comprehend the true meaning of this definition, there are several fundamental essential factors which must be considered. A State is a body of free persons as- sociated together for the common bene- fit. It has three essential elements- first, a community of people socially united: second. a political machine or government administered by a body of officials, and last, a Constitution either written or unwritten, under which a government operates. Our government is composed of forty- eight smaller factions or states union- ized under one supreme head. each fac- tion securing equal liberties through representation in the three depart- ments. These departments were estab- lished by the 'Constitution in such a manner that each might maintain a check or balance upon the other two. However, in spite of all perfection and suggedness vividly characterized in the structure of our government, political, social and economic oo-operation is absolutely essential to the progress of a democracy. Communism, Nazism, Fascism and several other isms offer an immediate obstacle to the future of the republics. But it is not the tangible, brutal c-omponent of force that ob- structs the stability of our future: rather it is th-e invisible element, name- ly. the lack of co-operation and inter- est of the individual citizen. If this condition is allowed to become too prev- alent we will gradually slip into a leth- argy in which Mr. Average Citizen will be unconscious of political operations and will allow himself to be easily led astray by propaganda and false incrimi- nation that the road of progress directly ahead of our democracy will be blocked by an obstacle iplaced there by the bel- ligerent foreign powers. It is not for- eign wars nor political propaganda that will bring about the defeat of our dem- ocracy, rather it is the lack of the ac- tive, exuberant and unprejudiced inter- est an-d co-operation of the individual citizen. -Richard W. White