ADDRESS, COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND OVERSEAS PROGRAM

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

May 30, 1959

This is a happy event and a delightful experience in my life, it being
my first visit to Germany and the first opportunity I have had to make a
first-hand observation of this remarkable undertaking of the University
of Maryland.

As Governor of Maryland, I have, just as every citizen of the State
has, a deep pride in the achievements of our University, and particularly
in this vast overseas educational program in which it has pioneered so
estimably. It is another and the latest of a long succession of "firsts" to
be inscribed upon the record of this institution. It is evidence that the
University intends to honor its heritage and continue its role as a leader
in the field of higher education. It is a pleasure to me to bring to the
faculty, officials and students of this European division of our "university
of the world" the cordial good wishes of the people of my State. Warm
greetings are extended especially to the 1959 graduates, and may I say
that we consider you as Marylanders, regardless of your residence or
place of birth, now that you have spent this time with us in our
University.

In a community of scholars such as this., a student imparts as much
as he acquires in knowledge and wisdom, and therefore we are indebted
to you for assisting us in our mission to expand learning and understand-
ing for the betterment of mankind. In ways in which you in your ex-
perience would understand better than I, you have been fortunate to be
able to carry on this phase of your formal education on foreign soil. It
was Francis Bacon, who said that "Travel, in the younger sort, is a part
of education, " and another author, writing on the philosophy of travel,
who said that visits to foreign lands would "soften prejudices, religious
or political, and liberalize a man's mind. "

To those of us who are sensitive to the drama of history, there is some-
thing thrilling and inspiring about an American university holding a
commencement exercise for soldier students in a spot like this. All of us,
I am sure, are deeply impressed by these surroundings—by these ancient
citadels of learning, where men have battled ignorance and sought the
light of truth for six centuries. For Heidelberg and the other great seats
of learning on this continent, in a very real sense, were the fountainhead
of our modern universities in America.

In an essay he did on the development of American universities, Dr.

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