"To inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, State and nation, to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy and to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness."

ADDRESS BY DR. FREDERICK W. PARSONS,

Commissioner of Mental Hygiene

On the record of fine deeds done by the State of New York will be written large the fact that a grateful Commonwealth built and equipped one of the finest and most complete hospitals of its kind. The State today dedicates it to its high purpose, that of caring for such of its citizens who responded to the Nation's call and now suffer. That the establishment of this hospital was a gratuitous act is to the State's greater credit for it might have said that its citizens, by entering the United States Army, were and are the wards of the Nation. This State of ours did not take that stand but gave liberally and this Veterans' Unit is the result. She built a hospital the like of which cannot be found and we stand at the portico of one of the buildings of that group today unveiling a tablet of commemoration.

As the spokesman of the Department of Mental Hygiene a solemn obligation is placed in my keeping. I am to make good the expressed wish of the State to translate into service the will of the people and to give to the future patients of this unit, care of a standard never before attempted by the citizens of this State.

An unhappy situation prevents Governor Smith from voicing his sentiments in respect to what he conceives to be the duty of the State but those of us who know of his sympathies for the unfortunate realize his intentions concerning this structure and it remains for the department of Mental Hygiene to meet those views. That is the wish of a grateful people which intends that the resources of the State shall be devoted to the needs of the men and women who heard a call, answered and now pay a price. What I consider to be the wishes of the people is that the men and women who find refuge in these buildings receive all that a rich and powerful and likewise grateful State can bestow. The patients of this hospital deserve no less and that they shall have.

ADDRESS BY MONSIGNOR YORK,

Member of Board of Visitors, Kings Park State Hospital

Before uttering a dedicatory prayer I may be permitted to make a few remarks on the history of the hospital. I remember its establishment as an overflow from the old Kings County Insane Asylum on Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, in 1886. It was a county hospital, as all others throughout the State were at that time. Not until the early nineties did it become a State

COMMISSIONER PARSONS SPEAKING AT THE DEDICATION OF THE
VETERANS' MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AT KINGS PARK

hospital. And the one responsible for the State's taking over the county asylum was a noble woman, Miss Louise Lee Schuyler. She, single-handed and alone, aroused the interest of a small group of influential people to agitate for State control, and she won her cause. The old county system with its graft, cruelty and gross mismanagement passed forever. ****

Governor Smith has done the miraculous for the welfare of the insane. It was his inspiration and courage which put over the great bond issue of fifty millions of dollars a few years ago. He aroused the people from their lethargy and made them overlook the slight raise in State taxation which the issue would entail. We regret that sickkness keeps him away today. We pray for him, "The Lord bless him and give him life and make him blessed on earth and deliver him not into the hands of his enemies."

Like the brilliant sun shining over us attracting our gaze, so the brilliant deeds of Governor Smith, attract friend and foe alike throughout the Nation. And people who once misunderstood him and misjudged him and were bigoted towards him now see that he is a real human whose big heart goes out in sympathy to every case of distress.

And now we offer these buildings to Almighty God and ask Him to bless them and all who are housed here and all who labor here. They were His from the beginning, the elements which enter into them, the stone, wood, cement, iron, all are the Lord's, for "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." All men had to do was to assemble these elements into dwellings under the guidance of our State Architect, Mr. Sullivan W. Jones.

May Christ send the spirit of healing, of mercy and of patience on all who will minister here to the afflicted. May no one entering here leave hope behind. but entering in one door may leave through the other, sane and sound.

The tablet was then unveiled by General William N. Haskell, Commander of the New York National Guard, acting as the representative of Governor Smith.

ADDRESS BY GENERAL HASKELL

I feel very proud and highly honored in speaking to you today at such a glorious ceremony. I am happy to be here and only regret that Governor Smith is unable to be present and join with you on the auspicious occasion of dedicating this Veterans' Memorial Hospital and see the fruit of his labors.

Naturally you are all disappointed that the Governor is not here in person. today, but you may be sure that he is here in spirit. This public work is very near to his heart as are all those which look to the care of the unfortunate charges of this State.

I wish that you could know and see as I have seen from one end of the

State to the other, the accomplishments of this man that I represent here today. Everywhere in this State that we love so much, is evidence of his battle for better and adequate care for the poor, the sick, the weak, the defectives and the feeble-minded. How proud the citizens of New York should be of themselves for coming at last to the realization of their responsibilities in this respect. How proud they should be of the leadership that brought about and is bringing about in this State a proper regard for their own unfortunates.

I have recently been privileged to see many State institutions rising from the ground as mute but living testimonials of a consciousness awakened to a sense of responsibility.

Yes, money has been spent for these institutions, but we are richer in self-respect--and what more appropriate expenditure can be cited by any government than the decent care of its own people. That is a primary obligation of government.

We are a rich State-the richest State-should we not fulfill our moral obligations? Expenditures for adequate public institutions will never be seriously or successfully attacked. Where there is no wasted money, reasonable citizens will always approve intelligent vision and action, whether it be for new roads. prisons, hospitals, bridges, tunnels or for safety conditions for the public.

It takes vision to see and plan for the future, but courage of the highest order to carry such works to success. The people of this State need no longer hang their heads in shame when contemplating their own public institutions.

And here today is still another evidence of meeting our obligations.

I am especially interested in this particular institution because I have had the opportunity and the great honor to know intimately those courageous men from whom the inmates of this hospital will be drawn. Ladies and gentlemen, nothing could be too good for them. I saw them answer the call of their State and Nation, I saw the sadness of the disintegration of famlies, I received over 40,000 into Camp Upton not many miles from here; I saw them overseas, I saw them killed, wounded and mentally broken. No finer example of courage and sacrifice was ever given--no greater contribution of citizenship.

In a measure we are today trying to express the appreciation of a debt to those men that never could be paid.

As I look around, I wonder how long the people of this State would have waited if this most complete institution of its kind ever built should have depended and waited on current revenues. Probably beyond the lifetime of the generation which it was primarily designed to serve.

First proposed to the Legislature in 1920 by Governor Smith and then