Evening star., 1932-10-23
The Winning Grafton
address Of Georges Pol Domino Of France, Victor in
International High School Contest,
Is Published.

TINE winning grafton in the Inter
national High-School Oratory
Contest, delivered ,ast night by
i Georges Pol Domino of France
follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
1T is with some trepidation that I
approach my self-imposed task, namely,
to discern and to reconcile two ccnflict-
ing tendencies existing in the minds Of
French youth-love Of progress and en-
thu. iasm for the future, on the one
hand. and, en- the other attachment to
the traditions of the past and desire
to preserve the spiritual heritage slowly
accumulated during bygone ages.
But a few years ago I might have
rescrted to oratory and dealt with COM
monplac5s. by comparing material pro-
gress, for instance, with the intellectual
values created in the past.
To-day. however. there are 10000
of unemployed scattered throughout the
world, penniless and hopeless; in these
troub.ous days of cri Is and bankruptcy,
when everything Is unsettled, when each
new day is fraught with anguish and
uncertainty-it would be out of place
to indulge in futile witticisms about
vital question, and with your permis-
sion. ladies and gentlemen, 1 shall re-
nounce big words and fine phrases in
favor of preeiion and truth.
Since in your country, even as In
Frame. peaceful and comfortable en-
vironment has impaired to many a
spirit of resigned fatalism that leads
them to turn with bored indifference
from the examination of these vital
questions, shall, first of all, refer to
them.
Because progress has provided them
with a certain 6egree of comfort and
they can glibly speak of the variou,
makes of automobile and aviation
records, they like to call themselves
modern, although to the past, of
which they know nothing or which they
despise, they owe all that makes them
what they are-customs and habits, ways
of living and thinking. Let us not de-
spise them, for these slippered petits
bourgeois together with the peasant
youth bowed over the soil so that they
cannot see anything beyond the immedi-
ate horizon, are the firmest props OF an
order and stability for which their
country is sometimes enviej.
Nor should we despise those. more
generous than wise, perhaps. and more
enthusiastic than numerous, whom
family tradition or the deep wound OF
some social iniquity has led to en-
brace such extreme solutions as these
Either to abandon as completely as
possible the fruits of deceptive civili-
zation, to turn back toward and try to
recover and live over again passionately
admired past. or, forsaking the outworn
traditions of centuries SO unlike our
own, to boldly seek to build the ediflce
of a new future on the ruins of bygone
ages.
And, finally. there are those others
all who do not want to go to such
extremes. For them the past Is
neither a decayed skeleton whose ashes
have been scattered in the dust of the
road, nor is it wonderful mummy that
they would like to revive. It is re-
vered father who Is departing after
having nodded us, body and soul, but
is leaving to us his treasures and his
example in order that we may live In
our turn, and. adding to his owr ef-
forts and achievements for the welfare
OF those who shall follow us, beat
path for them.
Beat q path? Yes, but whittier?
Ladies and gentlemen, our hearts are
filled with great uncertainty. for we re-
call only too well those learned econo-
Ailsto, siiOcc SIcdt buSiliCso leuOCio ohu
illustrious statesmen whose alluring
voices thrilled our youth by promising
the world to lead It at last to that state
of contentment which 1t had awaited for
so many centuries, and who now, seeing
their statistics proven false, their fac
tories lying idle and their people suf-
fering, can only repeat, 1T Is the de-
preston
AFTER witnessing the fall of so many
idols, the failure of so many prophe-
cies and the scornful abandonment Of
so many dogmas. and beholding the
confusion. misery and distress in which
the whole world is groaning, why should
we not hesitate?
"But make no mistake; these hours
Of doubt and suffering are fruitful and
have really taught US some very salu-
tary lessons.
when, in our own time, filled with
vanity over our precarious success, we
relegated the whole past, with sancti-
monicus disdain, to the halls Of dusty
but magnificent museums, the crisis
made us again aware Of the lasting
value Of our ancient traditions. At