DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER 



Freedom and Scientific Knowledge 



Through the growth of scientific knowledge we in America 

 have profited immeasurably. We have done so because we are 

 free. Freedom is the central concept of our society, and this 

 freedom of each to try, to fail, and to try again is the mainspring 

 of our progress. 



Freedom is both cause and effect; by sustaining it we pre- 

 serve the essential condition of learning, while the benefits that 

 flow from knowledge work to keep us free. As we have long 

 known, freedom must be earned and protected every day by 

 every one of us. Freedom bestows on us the priceless gift of 

 opportunity — if we neglect our opportunities we shall certainly 

 lose our freedom. 



Our immediate task, America's first responsibility, is to 

 see that freedom is not lost through ignorance, complacency, 

 or lack of vigilance. This applies both to our domestic problems 

 and to those abroad. It is important that in our daily lives at 

 home we so conduct ourselves in politics, in business, in educa- 

 tion that liberty is not impaired. Equally, we must be alert 

 to our duty of assuring that neither we nor other free nations 

 succumb to an ideological system dedicated to aggressive force 

 and governed by fear. 



That we succeed in this task — that we successfully pre- 

 serve freedom amidst an uneasy climate of disquiet and tension 

 — depends more than ever upon the readiness of each of us to 

 advance American science and engineering. It is in this strong 

 conviction that I particularly stress the freedom of the scholar 

 and the researcher. 



The Tradition to Promote Learning 



From the very outset of our Republic, the government of 

 the United States has sought to encourage science and learning. 



i 3 6 



