Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23
CITES DEMANDS
OF CIVILIZATION
Or. Coffman Tells G. W.
Graduates of UniverSity's
Responsibilities.

Civilizations progress demands more
industry, organization and science, II
man is to become master of himself
and not the slave of the machine, Lotus
Delta Coffman, president of the Uni
versity of Minnesota, advised the II
graduates of George Washington Uni
gersity as they received their degree in
courses at the institutions midyear
eonvocation in Constitution Hall last
night.
DR.. Coffman. who received the hon.
ofary degree of doctor of science in edu-
caticn at the same commencement exer-
cises, reviewed the expansion OF knowl-
Edge and a university's responsibilities
toward meeting the challenge which
that progress entails and concluded:
"Hiot less industry, but more; not less
organization, but more; not less science,
bUe more, is what we need, If industry
and organization and science are dedi-
Gated to making man master OF himself
and not the slave of the machine. In
tho final analysis, the only poverty that
Is odious to face is the poverty Of life
itself"
Or. Coffman recalled that unversi-
ties have been compared to lighthouses,
che light of which radiateS to diSpel
darkness; to dynamos whose power
tines reach every community, and to
factories which are more interested in
quantity than in quality. He asserted,
however, that a university consists of
something more than a single SCI Of
factors; that by its very name, as well
as by its nature, it is universal in pur-
pose and IN scope"
Lighthouses Must Be Taller"
at sheds light" he declared; ''It
developes new power, and it transmits
knowledge But the light it radiates
Ia 3artA1nyNc aY1H tina ETnvfl-
edge it transmits do not remain fixed
and unchanging generation after gen.
Grafton. The lighthouses must be built
taller, the dynamoS more powerful and
knowledge must be disseminated over
wider and wider areas if progress is
to be made"
Continuing. DR.. Cofman declared
that the function of the university is
not to preserve the past but TO train
a generation Of youth for the work
of a new day, and unless their very
atmosphere is surcharged with the
spirit of unrest and intellectual dis
satisfaction, they soon become hoary
objects of tradition and reverence
rather than the instruments of
progress"
Commenting upon the contributions
of science to the field Of knowledge, Dr.
Coffman commended that educators never
walked so hun1bly as they do today.
The ability to think, he said, is what it
always has been, but scholarship and a
working knowledge Of many fields re-
quires more effort than ever before and,
he added, there are few who attain it.
New power, he explained, has liberated
mans mind and emancipated him from
much ancient drudgery, and manifeStS
itself In the existence Of countless ma
chimes which now do mans work for
him. With the industrial transforma-
ton the Minnesota university president
declared has come organization on a
grand scale through which Specialize
ton of function has arisen.
Relations Being Altered.
'The relations of men in every walk
of life are being altered" DR.. Coffman
asserted. Apparently we shall soon be
Salaried nation depending largely
upon organization rather than upon
individual resourcefulness for our live
ihood. The center of gravity OF human
interest has been shifting from politics
70 economics and from individual enter
prise to vast organization. The danger
Is that men will fall victim to routine
types of work and develop clerical
minds Efficiency is the modern pagan
god before whom they bow in order that
dividends may be paid"
Declaring that people have turned to
SSAAOOAS, COlLSE6S anu universities 1OT
guidance in the midst of the release of
human energy and spiritual forces
which the new economic freedom has
brought about, DR.. Coffman commended
that these institutions must live in an
atmosphere of freedom, undominated
and uncontrolled by any particular
group or interest; they must be free to
seek the truth and to teach it, free to
study and in interpret the forces Of life
and to expound them, otherwise they
cannot be lighthouses or dynamos for
those who seek light or desire power"
Besides DR.. Coffman, an honorary
degree-that of doctor of laws-was
conferred upon Col. Harrison Howell
Dodge, superintendent Of Mt. Vernon.
In presenting DR.. Coffman with the
hnorary doctorate of science in educa-
ton, DR.. Cloyd Heck Marvin, president
OF George Washington University, char
acterized him as teacher, scholar, lover
Of mankind; leader in whom wisdom
and virtues are one; an administrator