212 State Papers and Addresses

than they were in the past. Education correspondingly has become much more
important than in times gone by, and the young man or woman who carelessly
passes up the opportunity to pursue his or her education, very likely will come
one day to regret seriously such action.

When I say that the future holds a challenge to Youth, I mean that there
exist today in the field of scientific research and in the realm of social adjust-
ment, problems begging for solution, and new discoveries waiting for release to
the world, such as should fire the imagination and spur the ambition. At the
same time the generation that is approaching maturity today stands face to
face with far-reaching questions of economic stabilization, and in the immediate
future undoubtedly will have the tremendously important task of political
reconstruction.

Life is moving at a faster tempo today in every field of endeavor, and it
is up to the young people of today to step up their initiative, and to develop
to the fullest their capabilities, if they are to have any hope of coping success-
fully with the problems that 'life is preparing to present them.

As educated members of our American citizenry, it will be your patrotic
and civic duty to help detect and put down subversive activities, as well as to
oppose vigorously financial panaceas that, on their very face, are bound to be
hurtful to our national economy. Economic laws have not been out-moded, even
though these panacea groups will try to convince you otherwise. We can play
with these economic laws as we will, but the fact still remains, that nothing
worthwhile in life ever has been, or ever will be, accomplished without hard
work, backed up by thorough knowledge gained through deep study.

If you were ever tempted to believe that opportunity is dead, and that
there are no more uncharted fields for Youth to discover, you might give thought
just for a moment to the field of transportation, where the airplane has revolu-
tionized man's every concept of distance, and where undoubtedly future de-
velopments will be just as startling. Or I will refer you to the field of chemis-
try, where discoveries in the last two decades have merely begun to indicate
the vast field that lies untouched awaiting serious-minded men and women, and
offering unlimited rewards for such research efforts. In the field of electricity
a similar condition prevails, as well as in many other phases of the practical
sciences.

You hear vastly more today than ever before of social justice and of social
adjustment. You know that a great start has been made by the Federal
Government in cooperation with the states, looking to betterment of working
conditions generally, and towards assuring a reasonable expectation of compe-
tence for our citizens in their later years. But again, 'the surface scarcely has
been scratched. America has wakened to the possibilities of improved living
conditions for everyone by judicious application of the precepts of social
economy, but realization of this ideal will be in the hands of the graduates of
today, and of the generation of which they must be the leaders.

And so may we agree that a better America may be possible, and a civiliza-
tion based upon sounder principles which will find a more enduring place among
our institutions, and our happiness will result from that which you are privileged
to give, and are invited to give to it, the participation of your minds and of
your abilities in the life of your Country.