of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 211

much emphasis, citizenship in such a country brings with it duties and respon-
sibilities which no one has a right to shirk if he or she desires to claim the
privilege of citizenship. We live in a democracy, which means a system of
government by the people themselves. Such a system of government mani-
festly can be only as good as the people who compose it. It isn't enough to
stand aloof, to refuse to take a part in the everyday administration of affairs,
and then to be bitterly critical of the results accomplished.

Every young graduate of today must be willing to accept and share the
responsibilities of citizenship if we are to have in the future the type of
intelligent leadership and support that will be so vital to possibly the very
existence of our Country. In the future the duty of sharing the responsibility
of government is one that lies with special force upon the heads of those who,
like yourselves, have been favored beyond others in the matter of education.
We have a splendid heritage here in America, but unless we do our share to
preserve it we shall not deserve to keep it.

It is a common plaint among unthinking people that the door of opportunity
its import escape you. It is the fundamental material consideration in your life.

Tonight, as you prepare to step forth from the portals of this institution
that has thrown its protective influence about you these past four years, make
up your mind to one thing: —that, come what may, irrespective of the amount
of success that may crown your efforts in the years that lie ahead, you will
treasure to your innermost heart the appreciation of what it means to you to
be an American. Resolve that you will never do, or say, or even contemplate
anything that might tend to weaken or destroy the system of free American
government that has meant so much to the world of the past century and a
half, and that is so infiintely important for the well-being of millions through-
out the world in the troubled period just dawning.

The plea I make is not intended to be a clarion call to heroic action, but
rather a rallying call for loyal Americanism expressed in the everyday routine
of your civic and business contacts. There is an immediate way of proving
devotion and of helping to preserve and perpetuate the system of government
that has become so truly a part and parcel of the American way of living.
And frankly, it is a phase in which all too many of our foremost citizens
frequently fail to live up to their duty.

It is a splendid thing to be a citizen of a country whose liberal institutions
set an example for the rest of the world, but, and I cannot say it with too
has been closed, and that men and women of today, particularly of the younger
generations have less incentive for their efforts than was the case in genera-
tions gone by. Perhaps at times as you tried to make up your mind about your
own individual futures, some such thought may have occurred to you. I am
sure, however, that when you consider current conditions in all important
phases of our national and economic life, you will agree that never before in
the history of mankind did the future offer such a challenge to youth as it
does today.

You have been fortunate to have had the opportunity of spending four
years within an institution so well equipped to prepare you in an especial way
for the competition of life. Those of you who can do so should give serious
thought to the possibilitiy of continuing your studies, particularly if you who
already have chosen the sphere of life in which you figure to accomplish the
most. Living, and making one's living, has become much more complex today