268 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

them. The state is what it is because citizens are what they are. There-
fore, we cannot expect to have better states until we have better men;
till then all changes will leave every essential thing unchanged. "

Can human natures change? Author William Ernest Hocking says
our human natures are the most plastic part of the living world, the
most adaptable, the most susceptible to education. And even if he
hadn't, sooner or later I would have found the faith I was searching
for, perhaps in the writings of the Swedish journalist, Victor Vinde, in
a passage that goes: "The American knows there will be a tomorrow.
He believes in tomorrow. "

I grant education has not tugged at our human natures enough to
change the world sufficiently, to make it a safer and better and happier
place. And I think the reason has something, if not everything, to do
with the fact that while education creates awareness, it has not yet
injected into us the spirit of commitment.

Some seventy years ago a visitor to our shores observed the indiffer-
ence of educated people to political involvement and just seven months
ago that same indifference was reflected in our national elections where
less than three percent of the people played an active part in working
for candidates or contributing to their campaigns. Educated people
are not volunteering an active intelligence to the advancement of
society and government, at least not in sufficient numbers. And if this
trend is allowed to continue we will not be a proud educated elite, but
a nation of educated recluses.

It no longer serves, as if it ever did, for educated people to contain
knowledge and understanding within themselves, treating it selfishly
and as something apart from society. Look what this has led us to.
Look at the lifeless society branded by a leading liberal who helped
to build it as "one big company town with the bland leading the
bland. " Look at the vacuous society with its long locks and lean faith.
Look at the conformist society where men harmonize with everything
but their inner selves. Look at the polluted society with its foul air
and filthy waters. Look at the indifferent suburbia and see in its wake
the city deserted, save for its dirt, its crime, its problems and its poor.
Look at the free society where men still deny others their freedom; the
affluent society where some with wealth cannot purchase a home in a
neighborhood of their choice. And now look at the great society, the
great implacable society of educated people who see the world, com-
prehend its message, and simply do nothing about it. See if in that
looking glass you see people you know... perhaps even yourself.