The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-06-14
HARDING APPEALSTO
GRADUATING CLASS
ASKS AID OF GRADUATES IN
SAVING CIVILIZATION
America Can Best Help World by
Holding on to Her Own Ideals
and Her On Security

Washington, June S.-Declaring
that "almost nothing" remains secure
today from the attacks of iconoclasts,
President Harding appealed to the
graduating classes of the nations
universities and colleges in an address
here today to dedicate themselves to
an unselfsh service in the preserva-
tion of civilization.
eve look to this months gradual
ing classes" said the president speak
ing at the commencement exercises
of the American University to ''pro-
vide far more than their numerical
share for the leaders of the nation in
the future not far ahead. Almost no.
thing remains that we may safely
think of as sacred, secure from the
attacks of the iconoclasts. It is time
in which men search their souls and
assay their convictions, in which they
examine the very fundamentals of in
stitutions immemoriaAy accepted, in
which no tradition may be held i'm
mune from the assaults of the skeptic
and doubter."
The president said the nation must
constantly be on guard against the
tendency to tear down established in
stitutions before plan Of reconstruc-
ton had been devised.
Foreign relations were also touch
ed on briefly, Mr.. Harding asserting
that America could best hep man-
kind if it held fast to It's own ideals
and its own security.
'I wish," said the president, that
corid impress the .youag men AND
women @. livery grada.sio; cla-s tkis
year with my own acute conviction
regarding the obligation of service
which is placed upon them. They
have been favored with the privilege
of special equipment and preparation
such. as is vouchsafed to an all too
small proportion of the people. They
will not prove themselves worthy Of
their peculiar good fortune or of their
special responsibility unless they re-
gard it as a trust to be held for the
good of the whole community.
"You of the next generation of
leadership of the coming generation
have an open minded willingness to
recognize the claim of the doubter,
the innovator, the experimenter, the
would be constructionist. But while
we must give these adventurous ones
their full, chance, we must sedulously
guard against the spirit of mere Gym
icism, the disposition to condemn all
things as they are because they are
not perfect the tendency to tear down
before any plan of reconstruction has
been prepared.
"After all, unsatisfactory as some
earnest people regard the present
structure of society and existing hu-
man relationships, reasonably con-
scious world has been long time
travelling as far on the road toward
ideal conditions as it now has reach
ed. History has afforded many illus
trations of societies crumbling and
going to pieces and the process has in
variably been attended with superla-
tive disaster to great masses Of hu-
manity.
"It is a common place saying that
at this time the world stands on the
brink of what looks very much like
a precipice. 1t must not be allowed
to take the fatal plunge. 1t will not,
if it shall be able to summon to its
leadership in the coming generation
men and women who will unite nee
essary measure of conservative pur-
pose with an equally necessary por-
ton of willingness to consider new
expedients to test out old formulas,
to apply the acid test even to what
have learned to believe is pure gold" ="