In 1976 America celebrates its bicentennial--the 200th anniversary of the birth of freedom on this continent. One hundred years ago, when America celebrated its centennial, the theme was the industrial revolution--the machines that run the country, not the people who built it.

This time it is going to be different. Machines, buildings, monuments are not what makes America great. It is her people--the workers who build, clothe, feed, communicate, entertain and transport us.

Present at the birth of this country were the craft workers of Boston, who refused to work for the British troops and demanded the same rights as landed English gentry. Prominent in the building of America were the mechanics of Philadelphia who formed a workingman's party to fight for free public education and an end to debtors prison.

It was precisely that free public education, secured by working people in the early 19th Century, that freed American workers from the tyranny of ignorance and permitted full development of this country's precious human resources.