It would be somewhat selfish if you were to go home and bottle up within yourselves the experiences that you have had here and the observations you have made. Now, fellows, let me tell you what to do: Go back to your various fields. Call in your associates and your assistants, take up your whole administrative family and try to inject into them a little of the enthusiasm, a little of the spirit, a little of the determination; give to them some of the ideas you take away from here.
I want you to go while you are still under the influence of the inspiration of the occasion, and I want to urge that each of you, as soon as you get home, take up with your administrative family the various things that have been discussed here, and try to instill in them the same renewed earnestness and enthusiasm that you possess this evening, and convey to them for us, this Board of Hospitalization and the great President of this United States of America, Warren G. Harding, the assurance that he appreciates every effort that you are putting forth.
Coming from a doctor’s family, he realizes more fully than you can possibly guess the difficulties that are confronting you every day; and be assured that when you act upon your best judgment that you will find him standing by whatever you may have regarded as necessary to the bringing about of the end-results in this war veteran’s case.
Let me emphasize once more that the concern that the Administration has is not how you may entertain them while they are in the hospital, is not how easy and sympathetic you may be with them, but it is how you engender in them a spirit of determination to get back into the world again as productive citizens. That is your job.
In closing, let me say that at the suggestion of Colonel Patterson and the Veterans’ Bureau which we are serving, that we are hoping that somehow before another year shall have passed around that we will have a real place to which we may invite you to participate in the most interesting program that could possibly be produced. Fellows, I thank you for your presence.
COMMANDER BOONE: I am sorry we are not able to raise our glasses to a toast to the Chief Coordinator and the members of the Federal Board of Hospitalization. The least we can do is to stand for a rising vote of appreciation.
All stood up.
The meeting adjourned at 4:45 P.M.