Evening star., 1934-10-20

Gator. AS education grows II becomes
the partner Of government.
when jefferson wrote his Notes on
Virginia. he discussed the education
then prevailing at William and Mary,
pointing out the essentially liberal edu-
cation that this college was giving to
its students. He observed that in order
to provide a more advanced type of
education, the subjects OF the six pro-
fessorships had been changed after the
Revolution.
1T is a matter OF very great i'm
portance to all of us that one of the six
was the professorship of law and of
what is now called political science.
THE teaching of law and of the
science of government thus established
as an academic discipline in this insti-
tuition was made significant by the in
tellectual leadership of George Wythe,
who was appraised by Jefferson as one
Of the greatest men of his age
1.-THE study of this subject, because
essentially it touches every human,
problem. becomes one Of the greatest
means for the broad education of men
who enter every walk of life. 1t can
become the touchStone Of universal
culture.
Law in itself is not enough. Man
must build himself more broadly. The
purpose of education, shown by these
various subjects Of instruction indi-
Gated by the builders of william and
Mary was not to train specialists, but
to educate men broadly. They were
Oft 70 merely doc
tors, lawyers and business men, but
broad-gauged men of the world
They were, in short training men for
citizenship in great republic.
This was in the spirit of the old
America, and it is, I believe, in the
spirit of the America of today. The
necessities of our time demand that
men avoid being set in grooves, that
they avoid the occupational pre-
destination of the older world, and
that in the face of the change and
development in America, they must
have a sufficiently broad and COM
prehensive conception Of the world
in which they live to meet its chang
ing problems with resourcefulness
and practical vision.
There is in the spirit Of liberal
education something of the self
confidence and the adaptability that
is characteristic of our country. The
pioneer does not call his life q fall
ure If he comes to the end of one
path. He knows that there are
others, and with a sense Of direction
and will to persevere, his life can
go on with confidence into the un-
certainties of the future.
Need for Educated.
But at the same time there is a
definite place in American life-an
important place-for broad, liberal
and non-specialized education. Every
form of cooperative human endeavor
cries out for men and women who in
their thinking processes will know
something of the broader aspects of
any given problem. Government is
greatly using men and women of this
type-people who have the non-spe-
cialized pcint of view and who at the
same time have a general and ex-
traordinarily comprehensive knowl-
| eORc. nOt Oh Ll1C OSGdlkS, Oot O1 t1AC
progress and the purposes which
underlie the work Of the specialists
themselves.
"The noble list Of those who have
gone out into life from the halls of
William and Mary is in greater part
distinguished because these graduates
| came to know and to understand the
needs of their Nation as a whole
They thought and acted-not In terms
Of specialization, not in terms Of
locality, but, rather, in the broad sense
of national needs. In the olden days
those needs were confined to q mar
row seaboard strip. Later the needs
gradually extended to the Blue Ridge
and across through the mountains tc
the fair lands of Tennessee and Ken
lucky. Later still they spread though
| out the great Middle West and across
the plains and the Rockies to the
Pacific Ocean.
"It is in the realization of these
needs in their national scope of today
that the present and future genera
tions of william and Mary can best
carry forward the fine traditions OF
their centuries.
$50 would extend my heartiest
good wishes to the College Of William
and Mary, built early in the morning
| of American life, dedicated to the ed
ucation of the makers of q great re-
public, seeking to enrich. and broaden
the meaning Of education and seek
ing above all things to recognize that
repIIblican institutions are in the last
analysis the application to human af-
fairs of those broad, humane ideals
that a liberal education preserves, en-
riches and expands In our beloved
land"