The first step to maintained equality of opportunity amongst our people is, as I have said before, that there should be no child in America who has not been born, and who does not live, under sound conditions of health; who does not have full opportunity for education from the kindergarten to the university; who is not free from injurious labor; who does not have stimulation to ambition to the fullest of his or her capacities. It is a matter of concern to our government that we should strengthen the safeguards to health. These activities of helpfulness and of cooperation stretch before us in every direction. A single generation of Americans of such a production would prevent more of crime and of illness, and give more of spirit and progress than all of the most repressive laws and police we can ever invent — and it would cost less.
Who said it? Who prescribed such a “socialist” plan for our children? John Dewey? Hillary Clinton? Answer below the fold.
Herbert Hoover said it, in a campaign speech in St. Louis, November 2, 1928. Hoover won the 1928 election, succeeding Calvin Coolidge. Excerpt here from The Two Faces of Liberalism: How the Hoover-Roosevelt Debate Shapes the 21st Century, edited by Gordon Lloyd, M&M Scrivener Press 2007, pp. 46-47.
What current Republican would dare say the same?
Am I plugging this book? It’s a grand tour of the serious issues that divided Hoover and Roosevelt, and it is a preview of the fights of the late 20th and, now, early 21st centuries. It’s an excellent source for material for projects on the Great Depression and the New Deal.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
It’s still a great quote, one that makes us think about just what is a liberal education (hint: It doesn’t mean “liberal”) and what we should be doing for our children.
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This would have been a very powerful surprise except for one minor, teeny-weeny, insignificant goof.
You gave away the answer in your “categories.”
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