The Washington herald., 1921-06-09
Harding Says Success Today Means More
In Terme of Human Service Than Dollars
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their numerical share of leaders for
the nation in a future not far ahead.
You will play your parts In a world
in many ways unlike any that
former generations of your COL
leagues could have anticipated.
Diploma n Commission Of Service.
! would feel that had performed
well the part that has providentially
fallen to me IL / could impress upon
everyone who goes out this year
with a diploma the thought that IL
is not a certificate of right 20 spe-
cial favor and profit in the world
but rather a commission of service.
Men all about you will need the best
you will be able to give to them.
Never, l firmly believe, was there
time when the call was SO insist
ent as that to those capable OF Civ
ing unselfish. broad, comprehending
direction to public thought.
You OF the next generation of
leadership will live in a time of re-
adjustment and reorganization.
Much that has been esteemed ele-
mental has been swept aside. AL
most nothing remains that We may
safely think of as sacred. as secure
from the attacks of the iconoclasts.
1t is a time in which men search
their souls and assay their convic-
tions. in which they examine the
very fundamentals of institutions
immemorially accepted, in which no
tradition may be held immune from
the assaults of the skeptic and the
doubter.
Leadership OF Coming Generation.
In such a time i cannot but feel
that the great need which proper
education can supply is embraced
in the broadest culture. the most
inclusive vision. the most clear
eyed comprehension of the terms
which mankind's problem today
presents. There was a time. and
not very long ago. when we were
wont to think of education as a
sort OF specialized training for some
kind of special service. We es-
teemed 1t as an intensive process
of equipping fortunate persons for
doing particular things particularly
well along established and accepted
lines. Today we may say that
there are few accepted lines. Moth
ing remains with us that Is moi
queried. Therefore we need for tbs
leadership of the coming genera
tion an open-minded willingness e.
recognize the claim Of the doubter
the innovator, the experimenter. the
would-be constructionist.
Guard Against Mere Cyniciss.
But while we must give these
adventurous ones their full chance
we must sedulously guard against
the spirit Of mere cynicism, the dis.
position to condemn all things al
they are because they are not per
feet. the tendency to tear down be.
fore any plan of reconstruction ha,
been prepared. The trained mind
provided II is not overtrained-is
the one that must provide the saw.
ing. faculty of discrimination. The
world must go forward, and MOI
backyard, and it will not go for
ward as the result of any philos'
ophy of mere destruction. Aftel
all, unsatisfactory as some earnes'
people regard the present structure
of society and existing human re-
lationships, a reasonably conscious
world has been a long time travel
ing as far on the road toward idea
conditions as it now has reached
History has afforded many illustra
lions of societies crumbling and 60
ing to pieces, and the process ha,
invariably been attended with su
perlative disaster to great masses
of humanity.
\
. 1t Is commonplace that at thi'
time the world stands on the brinl
of what looks much like a precipice
1t must not be allowed to take th'
fatal plunge. 1t will not II It shal
be able to summon to It's leadership
in the coming generation men ant
women who will unite a necessar,
measure of Conservative purpos,
with an equally necessary portion
Of willingness to consider new ex
pedfents, to test out old formulas
to apply the scid test even to wha
we have learned to believe is pur'
gold.
Practical Experience Essential.
The education that can truly pre-.
pare for the demands Of society d
the time before us can not be giver
merely in academic halls. Th'
great world outside must contrib.