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-*Presented at the 1963 Annual Convention of the National Association for Retarded Children, Washington, D. C. October 26, 1963.-

Ten years ago the late Ray Graham, Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois, and one of the early and devoted friends of NARC among the educators, addressed our Fourth Annual Convention meeting in Chicago on the topic "Hold Fast to That Which Is Good."

A decade has passed since his eloquent speech and we have seen progress in the field of mental retardation far beyond the expectations of even the most optimistic among his listeners and with it our National Association for Retarded Children has grown to a position of unprecendented -sic- strength, and gained the respect and approbation of the Nation's leaders.

Yet as I come before you tonight to address you for the last time as your National Executive Director, I can think of no better theme than to reiterate Ray Graham's thoughtful and still timely counsel: "Hold Fast to That Which Is Good."

We are now riding a seeming crest of public support and acceptance, and I am often asked to what one can ascribe this phenomenal and indeed quite unique success of a voluntary association in so short a time. In my answer I always point to the very factors which in 1957 persuaded me to accept the call of NARC's Board of Directors: ours is an organization that from its very earliest, most humble and unpretentious beginnings was blessed with a national leadership that in farsighted wisdom, clarity of purpose and soundness in method is unsurpassed.

A common complaint heard with increasing frequency from our local, state and national leaders is: how can one possible keep up with all the new materials, books and articles and releases dealing with the many different aspects of the problem of mental retardation. Naturally this problem is yet more acute at National Headquarters, the central collection point for such materials from across the nation.

And yet during my years as your National Executive Director, I have from the very beginning seen to it that there was time for me to become acquainted with the history of our movement by perusing its early documents, so that I might hold fast to that which is good.

Some of you who took time out for some sightseeing in this beautiful Capitol city may have seen the building of the National Archives with its inscription: "What is past is prologue." The Archives of our Association are as yet only a simple filing cabinet but the treasures it contains from the early days of our Association's existence have proven time and again that they are an eloquent prologue of the future. If I have been able to serve you well as your Executive Director, it has been due to the guidance and the inspiration which I have gained from the words of our early leaders. And thus it is but fitting that on this occasion we remind ourselves of some of the statements that have served us well as beacons on our paths.

There is first of all, of course, the statement of purpose hammered out during the Convention in 1950 under the leadership of our first president, Alan Sampson and now incorporated in our Constitution. Would that everyone of our local associations once a year would take out time to have this statement of purpose read aloud at a general membership meeting to bring home the fact how far we still are from having met the challenge set by our pioneers in Minneapolis on September 29, 1950.

Along with this statement of purpose, I have read and reread many times the address of one of Minnesota's greatest governor's, Luther Youngdahl, whom we had the pleasure to welcome again at this Convention as a guest of honor. Just listen to what a great governor, a great statesman already saw so clearly on the very day our Association was born 13 years ago. This is what he said in his introductory comments:

"The point is this, ladies and gentlemen, the retarded child is a human being; above and beyond being a human being he is a child and for reasons for which neither he nor his family are responsible, he is retarded. He has the same rights that children everywhere have. He has the same right to happiness, the same right to play, the right to companionship, the right to be respected, the right to develop to the fullest extent within his capacities, and the right to love and affection. He has these rights for one simple reason ... he is a child, and we cannot discriminate against this child, deny to this child the rights other children have because of the one thing that neither he nor his family can help, because he is retarded. Whether he is in Minnesota or any other state in the country, or in any other country in the world, he is still a child but we have forgotten this and with rare exceptions throughout the country the provisions we have made for him are barbaric.

The retarded child has the right to social assistance in a world in which he cannot possibly compete on equal footing. He has the right to special education and to special institutions for the retarded child who cannot be taken care of at home. He has the right to be provided with the most modern training in an institution that is possible, in an institution marked not only by the pleasantness of its brick and mortar and lawns and play areas and educational services and child speciality and medical services, but by an atmosphere and by a group of people in attendance who will not only give that child patient understanding but to love and be affectionate to that child as other children get at home. He has a right to these things and his parents have a right to know that he has these rights. For they too are entitled to peace of mind about what is happening to a retarded child separated from them."

There are many other stirring passages in that speech of Governor Youngdahl's underlining his view that "The human being is an individual whose values cannot be measured adequately in terms of materialism, usefulness to the state, physical fitness or mental capacity."

As you meet with the governor of your state or petition your legislature you will do well to reread Governor Youngdahl's words so that you may "hold fast to that which is good" and keep alive these stirring, and so timely, remarks.

The third in the line of great historic documents in NARC is an address entitled "Research and the National Association for Retarded Children" given at the Chicago Convention by our beloved friend Dr. Grover Powers whose presence here tonight is a singular honor to all of us. It was not just research Grover Powers was talking about that day but the impact of research on NARC and the impact of NARC on research; and to those among you who still claim that they do not understand what our research program is all about and to those of you who are challenged in your communities to explain and defend why NARC should have a research program and should seek support for it, may I suggest that you discover anew the strength of his clear and cogent arguments and the persuasiveness of his programmatic challenge. At the close of his address, Dr. Powers left this thought with us:

"You have heard, no doubt, that "Rome was not built in a day" and the problems of mental retardation, as old as human life itself, will not be solved in a day -- indeed, not in generations. What is important at this point is that you build a solid foundation for the magnificent work you have begun and so wisely carried forward. Your support of basic research is a large and essential stone in that foundation. Faith is another. In pointing out the characteristics and qualifications of the research worker I noted that he must have "faith in ultimate accomplishments and in discoveries of meritorious value." So must we all be imbued with faith in this great enterprise which we are undertaking, not just for mentally retarded children and their families but for the health and well-being of our total society."

Do I need to point out to you again what already has been brought home to you at this Convention by others, that the faithful and generous giving of some of our units notwithstanding, we are falling more and more behind in our support of research, of that "Large and essential stone" in the foundation of our work.

One of the bitterest pills I had to swallow as your Executive Director was to see letters of acknowledgement go out to units which had sent in for support of research paltry sums of money that hardly compared with what was spent for coffee and doughnuts at the monthly unit meeting. Dr. Powers has given us the most distinguished Research Advisory Board in existence in the field of mental retardation. We cannot afford to default on our obligation to support their work, and I have no patience with people who use weasel words and dilatory tactics to negate this obligation while mouthing pious phrases about the importance of research!

Next on my honor roll list is one of NARC's earliest and most unique publications prepared by the Publicity and Public Relations Committee in 1954. "Blueprint for a Crusade" was not fancily made up on glossy paper but between its modest covers there was, to my mind, more basic information, more guiding philosophy, more practical advice than we have ever put into one volume.

I am well aware that the wizards of Madison Avenue have succeeded in selling us that constant change to new gimicks provides the only assurance of progress but in my work I still found in 1963 good reason to consult my desk copy of this 1954 publication.

The author of the next document is also here tonight as one of our honored guests, my distinguished predecessor, Dr. Salvatore G. DiMichael, fondly known to us as just "DiMike." I had planned to have available at the Convention copies of his address, "speaking for Mentally Retarded Children to America." We have them at NARC Headquarters and you may want to write for one. If you watch it you will be amazed how much up-to-date his comments still are today, how keenly he identified in 1955 potential major weaknesses which still plague us today in our organization, how far we still are from achieving the total comprehensive program for all the retarded he presented. Because his speech is so all encompassing, it would be futile to try and pick out some highlights, suffice it to say I received much stimulation and guidance from this broad and bold program Dr. DiMichael laid out, but it also kept me humble to be reminded how short a distance we had travelled on the route mapped out many years ago.

The sixth document I want to single out was created in 1958 and though its official name is "Report of the Unit Relations Study Committee" it became known as "The Fettinger Report" in tribute to the wise imaginative statesmanlike leadership John Fettinger provided as Chairman of that Committee. The Committee came to life at a propitious moment in our history. The early years of Sturm and Drang of our Association had been followed by the stabilizing two years during which Clifford MacDonald had built for us in masterly fashion a sound organizational structure. The time was ripe then to develop a statement of basic policies, a philosophical frame of reference if you please, which could guide the National Association and its member units toward a more effective fulfillment of their respective responsibilities.

Giving full recognition to the significance autonomy on the part of the local member units had played in the initial organizational pattern of NARC, the "Fettinger Report" clearly and prophetically pointed up that with increasing achievement of our goals for the mentally retarded "recognition must be given to that degree of authority which will permit NARC to preserve its own position nationally" and to act on its own strength as an authorized effective spokesman of the total national membership. I would think that the events of the past months, indeed the past several days, have proven the soundness of this premise.

To me the greatest contribution of the "Fettinger Report" is a brief sentence of eight words: "Our task is to obtain, not to provide."

I am well aware that not just from state to state but indeed from community to community, we face striking differences not only in the availability of programs and services for the retarded but also with regard to the potential of improving that situation. Yet, to quote this report "We need only to think in terms of 35 to 50 million dollars annually for total programming for all the retarded in an average state in order to appreciate the real magnitude of our responsibility and the fact that this can only be achieved through support by tax-payers' dollars or through services of public and private agencies in the community. Herein rests the future potential of a total program for the retarded."

Of course the Unit Relations Study Committee saw clearly that the maxim "our task is to obtain, not to provide" had to be tempered by the recognition that the establishment of pilot or demonstration projects by local units might well be in particular situations an essential part of the process of "obtaining." But here again I wonder how many of you are aware how clearly the Committee outlined six specific elements which justified initiation and continued support of pilot demonstration projects.

Let me give you one final excerpt from the "Fettinger Report" because it seems to me the problems it deals with are as acute today as they were in 1958.

"Most member units start out as special interest parent groups and it is not until they become involved in the broader aspects of programming that they are able to subordinate special interest tendencies. While it is possible for a member unit to become divorced from special interests, there often continues a protective tendency to remain a parent group ... If we are to achieve our program of community sustained programming for the retarded, we actively must enlist the services of all available non-parent lay and professional assistance in the community to help us in our cause. In this manner, our reservoir of community assistance will become strategically strengthened, thus insuring greater member unit potential over a given period of time."

By this time I am sure I have conveyed to you all what great significance I attribute to the early years of our great Association and for this reason I want to mention as the last item on my honor list Elizabeth Boggs' brilliant evaluative report "Decade of Decision," which she prepared for the 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth. Every new president or officer of a unit, indeed every new member, should have an opportunity to read this exciting account of NARC's first ten years, so he may be better prepared to "hold fast to that which is good."

I am fully aware that some of the old-timers in this room may well think of other articles and speeches that should have been cited here; in preference to those I have selected and there are of course more recent significant statements and I would predict that Mr. Fitzpatrick's splendid speech we heard on Wednesday night will go down as a classic.

I have brought you these many references to past writings not because it is permissible to indulge in gratuitous historical reminisences on an occasion like this but because I wanted to underline to you that my role at NARC has very largely been that of stewardship. When you hired me as your Executive, your Board of Directors and my distinguished predecessor provided me with a veritable treasure house of documents and guides which served me as beacons. These beacons are still showing us the way of our journey, emphasizing that we cannot stand still nor rest until we can be assured that every retarded child, every retarded adult is helped to obtain his own level of fulfillment. Thus, although this is not the appropriate occasion for lengthy dissertations, let me leave with you some references to areas where I see particular need for new or renewed emphasis by our National Association.

Foremost is my concern: that you will recognize and effectively deal with new frontiers in our field of mental retardation. A good case in point is the economics of mental retardation, both as this applies to meeting the needs in an entire state or providing security for a severely retarded individual who cannot contribute to his maintenance. There are those who feel that we need to increase significantly the number of available beds for residential care of the retarded, yet merely to build enough facilities to accomodate five rather than four per cent of the retarded in residential care would involve an initial construction outlay considerably in excess of half a billion or five hundred million dollars not counting annual expenditure for the care of the residents. So far there has been a minimum of sound cost accounting in terms of large numbers and long range needs, yet without this we cannot responsibly continue to recommend public expenditures.

By the same token I still see frequently references to the development of private facilities which seem to be predicated on a far too unrealistic appraisal of cost factors that can and will develop over the life span of a fully dependent mentally retarded person.

Sending one's child to a private institution should certainly remain the privilege of those who can afford it, just as a few families with intellectually normal children prefer to send their youngsters to a private school; but I am greatly concerned when I see local associations use their precious time and resources for such projects which can only serve the few in preference to meeting the realistic needs of the many.

I see an urgency for this Association to develop a clearer understanding of how our Nation's programs of social insurance and public assistance fit into the economics of mental retardation. I certainly believe strongly in the benefits of a supplemental private insurance program but in contradistinction to mental illness where we have increasingly the possibility to return the patient to his accustomed productive life after a brief intensive period of in-patient or out-patient treatment that could be covered by a hospitalization plan, the life-time chronicity of mental retardation makes full coverage by private insurance an economic impossibility.

NARC will not be able to lay claim to being the national voluntary citizen organization speaking for the field of mental retardation if we continue likewise to overlook the social frontiers of mental retardation. The President's Panel Report (and I sincerely hope there is not a single person here in this audience here tonight who has not taken time to read this report in its entirety most carefully and repeatedly) has certainly amply documented the extent to which mental retardation is related to socio-economic and cultural causes alongside of the Biological factors, to us much more familiar. Socio-economic factors and cultural deprivation may sound to you like fanciful theoretical formulations but they refer to things that happen in your own communities and it is certainly your responsibility to point them out to your fellow citizens and insist on appropriate civic action programs with just as much conviction as you put into your efforts to persuade state health departments to promote universal PKU testing programs.

I am well aware that we have in our membership groups those who would rather avoid being in touch with public welfare programs lest they might get "tarnished" by them. To this I can only say let us not have in mental retardation a "wrong side of the track" to which we abandon those who are economically and socially deprived. You who have fought so hard the discrimination directed at the mentally retarded can hardly afford to discriminate on your part by establishing your own criteria as to who is worthy of your efforts. Just as we have learned to work with the field of public health so now we must recognize our responsibilities in the field of public welfare (and, I might add parenthetically that I have taken occasion to point out to the public welfare field their responsibilities to understand better and meet more effectively the needs of the mentally retarded and their families.)

Another issue you must be prepared to meet squarely in the future is also closely related to the Report of the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. I refer here to the emphasis on shifting from state care to community care of the mentally retarded. I do not mean to be sarcastic when I say that this is a noble purpose, but I do mean to imply that in this area we will face a long road from intent to realization. My concern pertains to the need to look for quality as much as for quantity, in short to the urgent need for us to help establish standards and insist that these standards be safeguarded in developing community programs through appropriate application of licensing, supervision and consultation from the proper state departments. May I remind you as I recently reminded the White House Conference on Mental Retardation and other professional groups I had the privilege to address that we should have learned from long and bitter experience that it just is not so that that government is best which is closest to the people and that some of the worst abuses we have had in the field of health and welfare have occurred when counties, townships or small cities assumed responsibility for program. It has been most heartening to me to see how our Education Committee under the leadership of Dr. Baldini has formulated with clarity a policy statement as to why we cannot do justice to the mentally retarded unless the programs we sponsor and espouse encompass good standards. I am quite well aware that there is by no means common agreement on this point within our Association or even within the group assembled here and all the more I wish to leave with you on this occasion my strong conviction that to compromise with standards is to endanger our reputation and with it our effectiveness as a group to which citizens, professional groups and government agencies may look for leadership and guidance.

Those among you with whom I had the privilege to work closely will not be surprised when I say that there are many other, to me, most urgent and important problems which I would like to highlight here tonight but fortunately it was just at this point that I was reminded of Eunice Kennedy Shriver's charming story of how she had advised her brother, the President, to put more fire into his speeches whereupon he allowed that it might be good if she would put more speeches into the fire.

As you know it was two years ago that I came to the conclusion that it would be in the best interests of both NARC and its Executive Director if there would be a parting of the ways after seven years which to me were seven good, immensely satisfying years. I am ready to leave and to devote my attention to other challenges in the field of mental retardation, nationally and internationally. Accordingly, I bravely started several months ago to delegate some of my responsibilities, but I begin to have an inkling that no matter how ready I am to leave, I shall not be able to shed the concerns which we have shared jointly during these past years no matter how eloquent a farewell address. My thoughts will always be with you but so will be my worries.

And now speaking both for Mrs. Dybwad and myself I want to thank each and all of you for the privilege you have accorded me in letting me work these past seven years as your Executive Director. Naturally, particular appreciation goes to the presidents under whom I was privileged to serve and never in the history of mankind could you gather five more different individuals than Cliff MacDonald, Alton Lund, Queen Bess, Vince Fitzpatrick and the old worrier and warrior, John Fettinger.

To the staff I owe a debt that I never can repay. They were ever ready to help along so that our task might be done.

And while we are giving thanks let me say that it was with particular appreciation that I served as your Executive during a time President Kennedy mobilized the Nation to combat mental retardation. It has been a challenging task to cope with these rapidly increasing demands from the President's Panel, from HEW, from the Kennedy Foundation and Mrs. Shriver and more recently from Dr. Warren, the President's Special Assistant on Mental Retardation. These have been unforgettable years and I shall always feel indebted to you and to the many people with whom I was privileged to work toward the end that the mentally retarded, too, be given the right to self-fulfillment.