, 1921-06-18
a NOTABLE

AlN NLA1 AnANCLEAI - SYNOPSIS Is LEI K4rEQ-
!" are AZ the height of the annual eonmeneement
season when thousands of students 60 out from in
stisuti0ns all over the land and take up tho tasks for
which their years Of study have. been preparing them
l wish / could impress the young men and women of
every graduating class this year with my own acute
conviction regarding the obligation Of service that is
placed upon them They have been favored with the
privilege of special equipment and preparation such
as IS vouehsafed to an all too small proportion of the
their peculiar good fortune or of their special respon-
siblity unless they regard it as a trust to be held for
the good of the whole community"
The president admonshed the nations graduates
not to believe they knew it all with the possession Of
their diploma Il have often thought that II / knew
as much now as I thought l did on the day 4 grad
uated, i would make the finest president this coun-
try ever had" The entire address is an appeal to
student graduates to make service to humanity their
stitute the greater university in which ali you have
yet to complete, SO far as is humanity possible, your
education" said he 81 pray you to go out to it with
out too much thought Of personal rewards. of individ-
ual gains; and yet, not to thrust these considerations
entirely aside Be generous. but do not dissipate your
capital Of knowledge and ability in aimless, useless
generosities. Hold true to those ideals which vour
government and its institutions represent We Amer
leans viii best help mankind st large if we most earn
estiy sustain men Immediately about US" Again he
emphasizes this call to service by saying: I'VE look to
this months graduating classes to provide far more
than 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 gen
erations of your colleagues could have anticipated. l
would feel that ! had performed well the part that
has providentially fallen to me if 1 could impress upon
every one who goes out this year with a diploma the
thought that it is not a certificate Of right to special
favor and profit in the world, but rather a commission
Of service. Men all about you will need the best you
can give them
Closely intertwined with this thought Of service to
humanity was his exhortation 10 the student graduates
to have faith in our county and its ideals. Much
that has been esteemed elemental has been swept
ASIDE ne declared. Almost nothing remains that
we may safely think of as sacred, as secure from
the attacks Of the iconoclas;s. 1t is a time in which
men search their souls and assay their convictions, in
which they examine the very fundamentals Of institu-
lions immemorially accepted. in which no tradition
may be held immune from assaults of the skeptic and
the doubter. Nothing remains with us that is not
queried Therefore we need for the leadership Of the
coming generation an o~pen-minded willingness to
recognize the claim of the doubter, the innovator, the
axperimenter, the would-be constructionist. But
while we must give these adventurous ones their full
,hance,. we must seduously guard against the spirit
Of mere cynicism, the disposition to condemn all
things as they are because they are not perfect, the
tendency to tear down before any plan of reconstruct
ton has been prepared. The trained mind-proyided
It is not overtrained-is the one that must provide
the saving faculty of discrimination. The world must
go forward, and not backward; and it Will not go for
ward as the result of any philosophy of mere destruc-
ton. Interrogation points have been written in
the blood and suffering of countless millions at the
end Of a thousand statements of what a little time
ago we deemed the very basic principles of economics,
Of sociology, of international relationships, Of public
pohey and human Justice Let us make our
America the best place on earth in which men and
women may dwell. Let US make it an example to all
others, an inspiration and a model. 1t has been our
privilege to see this country which we love called
upon to redress the wrongs of the world, to restore
the balance of civilization. We could not have played
that part had we not first been true to ourselves, con-
ident of our destiny, assured of our righteousness and
Of the power inherent in our concept of righteous
ness. Let us go on, holding fast to what, in the great
trial, has been proven good, seeking to make it bet
ter, stronger and more unselfsh. Let US place a firm
reliance in our destiny and let US seek to realize that
destiny through unceasing effort and unfaltering de-
votion." |
He warned students not to put too much faith in
books or academic earning-that education was
something never completed. "The education that can
truly prepare for the demands of society in the time
before US cannot be given merely in academic halls.
The great world outside must contribute OF its prac-
teal experience, its intimate knowledge, its discipline
and disappointments to complete the equipment. We
can learn much from books, but if we learned only
from books we would learn only the wisdom of the
past. Books are tremendously useful if they be made
the servitors of the inquiring mind; they may be
deadening and worse than useless if they become the
master of the too receptive mind. He who has learned
how to use books, how to find what he requires in
them and then to apply 1t, without the necessity of
overlooking his mind with unnecessary detail, is the
one who has made his educational preparation most
useful. As a mere storage warehouse for facts, be-
hefs, Impressions, the human mind is an unsatisfac-
tory plant. 1t is too liable to error and too limited in
its capacity. But, on the other hand, when it is used
as a macerator of information, a molding, developing,
forming and reforming mechanism it does its best
work"
The president paid his compliments to the dem
ocracy of American educational institutions-one of
the finest thing about our educational system. There
is, thank God, no caste system here All kinds of ex-
perience, of social background, of ancestry, of tradi-
ton, of training are brought together in the melting
pot of the American college or university. Neither
social nor Intellectual snobbery is likely very long to
survive such experience. That is why education, when
democratizing influence we can find. 1t includes a
realization of true standards, an appreciation of the
fact that differences in estate and fortune are, after
all, but the superficialties. OF life as compared to the
fundamentals Of character. ambition. and determined