New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-06-13
IN PRAISE OF PRINCETON
Or. Woodrow Wilson Emphasizes
Value of individuality.
SPEAKS OF UNIVERSITY LIFE
Feelingly Refers to Comradeship
of Men and Regard of Fac
ulty for Students.

Princeton. y. J., June 12.-Dr. Woodrow
Wilson, president of Princeton University.
in his baccalaureate address to the grad
uating class in Alexander Hall to-day, en-
phasized the value of Individuality and
spoke with deep feeling of the love of
Princeton men for their alma mater. The
address was long, but it was apparent that
1t had intense interest for the large audi
ence Dr. Wilson's voice vibrated with
emotion when. in directly addressing the
graduating class, he said:
You would not love this place If you felt
that it were mere market. You have not
dealt IN learning here. You have not been
formed by the facts you have gathered in
the classroom and the laboratory. These
Things would stir no affection in you, and
without affection or repulsion there is no
llfe If your minds have been awakened
here it has been by contact with other
minds. with that vital stuff, the minds of
your teachers or of your comrades. best of
all, of those of your teachers who hsv.
also been your comrades
In beginning his address DR.. Wilson sail.
Princeton does not consist, has never
consisted. of you and your Classmates
here men come and go, the men of her
FACULTY and trustees as well as the men
OF Ter classes, but her force is not abated
her men are formed from generation TO
generation as If by a spirit that survives
an persons and ali circumstances There
is a sense, a very real sense, not mystical
OUT plain fact of experience, in which the
spirit Of truth. of knowledge of hope. Of
reVeia!1on, dwells in place like this a s 1t
Cayed or demorahzed. It has made some
things certain for you, permanently and be-
YONG conjecture llj 1t has not left your
minds fluid, volatile, escaping all mould
and form.
Of the study Of literature and philosophy
DR.. Wilson said:
All the great books of any language are
records OF the human spirit, the voices of
men like yourselves who speak to YOU the
secrets of your own souls as well as theirs
You enter wide comradeship when you
read them. You are made free of the Gem
pany OF all men everywhere; as you are
also IN your study of philosophy, where is
the same thing unfo1ded in orderly and
formal fashion, with the insight of inter
probation, as If life were read for you by
men Of science.
The world can no longer be to you d place
Of vague conjectures and childish ifs and
butts, a play whose rules are guesses. And
ge Thl5 IS nSG ou 9o Ha1 T i+4 Is not
are a good deal a. sea in respect of your
facts. You are glad your definite exami-
certain only of what sort of world it is
you live in and how you should handle
yourselves in 1t. The things you have been
rendered certain Of are intangible but more
themselves. They represent the human
spirit in command of the facts. They are
are the spiritual processes and realities by
which we are made sure of life. Life is
made definite and manageable by rnys-
teries and convictions. and these are wha;
you have acquired, IL you have acquired
anything.
The value of individuality was a point
emphasized by DR.. Wilson, as follows:
1 have heard this called an age Of science,
in which individual choice counts for less
and less and law Cor more than ever before.
I have heard it said, by men who claimed
TO base their statements upon observation,
that this is an age in which individual men
of necessity fall into the background, an
age OF machinery. of combinations OF indi-
viduals, of massed and aggregate power;
and I marvel that the obvious facts should
be SO ignored. Perhaps not so many indi-
vidUals are of significance as formerly, but
the individuals who do tell more trenen-
dously, yield a greater individual choice,
command a power such as kings and con-
Querors never dreamed Of in the simpler
DAYS gone by. Their sway is the sway of
destiny over millions upon millions of their
fellow countrymen. over the policy and
fortunes Of nations. There never was
time when the spuit and character of in
dfvidual men was Of more imperial import
and consequence now The whole scale Of
action is altered, but with the scale are
themselves.
In ending the address Dr. Wilson turned
to the graduating class and said:
What sort of life has the university bred
in you that you should love her? -Four
wears has seemed a long time to you. but
2 very short time TO us who have sought
to lead and teach you Perhaps you lnln \
that TO US you are only many more in
the indistinguishable mass of youngsters
who pass before US IN annual PROCESSION,
the years through; but you are deeply
mistaken If that were true, you would
have taken nothing from US You nave
been the comrades of our thoughts, and we
watch you with very wistful eyes as you
turn AWAY and leave US. To-day we part,
not 10 forget and be strangers again, Tor
with 2 common heritage are We bound IN
nernetuai partnership. We can be part
ners only in that which we nave inherited
that precious stuff in which We have trad
ed in the things of the spirit, in the Things
which are not seen but which are eternal
Nav God bless you and keep you, ana CON
arm YOU in the vision of these tnlnsS-
rims in YOU will be Princeton's immortal
ity.