412 State Papers and Addresses

affairs of the world or the philosophies of its graduates. It must be a living
force in shaping and reshaping the purpose and will of individuals, the com-
munity and the Nation.

The coming decade may tell the tale of civilization's future. The time is
short. Our colleges and universities must provide a positive leadership, based
on a realistic appreciation of the facts of the present crisis. The American
way of life must be saved by an intelligent and understanding educated citizen-
ship from the destructive forces of world revolution and war.

The leadership of this day must be devoted to the preservation of civil
rights, the dignity of individual men and women, and the rights of minorities,
cognizant at the same time that the liberty of a democracy does not include
the liberty to destroy democracy.

An awakened America must know that the consequences of an Axis vic-
tory in the war would be stunning to our economy because it would bring
competition with monopolies administered by dictatorial governments. Knowing
these things, the new leadership must face realistically the problems of hemi-
sphere defense—political, economic, and military, which difficulties will be with
us for many years to come and until the rest of the world is set in order under
responsible and humane men.

These are some of the things which were not forseen back in the twenties.
They are stark realities which the men and women of today must face. They
are the challenge to the American college of today. There are those who are
now proclaiming the inevitability of a Fascist conquest of the world. They say
that our way of life is decadent and powerless to resist the "wave of the future"
which is sweeping over the earth. They assure us that history is an iron process
inflexibly dooming the status quo.

This fatalistic acceptance of doom was not the spirit of the men of
Plymouth Rock, nor was it the spirit of the men of '76, nor that of the
Signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was not the spirit of the
pioneers who settled the great Middle West. It was not the spirit of the far-
seeing educators who founded this college. On the contrary, American history
teaches that there are no inevitabilities in the affairs of men—that by and
large life on this planet is what men and women make it.

It is up to the college graduates of today to evolve and make effective a
program to save, in an era of transition, the values held as basic. The funda-
mentals of democratic government must be determined, and action taken to
save them, and to preserve a country free from religious bigotry and racial
persecution.. Above all, the spirit of tolerance and moderation must be kept
alive. Women deeply schooled in liberal democratic traditions, who are imbued
with respect for the dignity of people and devotion to the humanities, will not
easily be led down the road to ruin by those who would destroy us. On the
other hand, as important as devotion to American ideals, are the willingness
and capacity to see the faults of our present way of life, and the determination
to correct them. The new leadership must welcome social progress—indeed,
it must further it.

If the institutions and their graduates shall not rise to the demands for
leadership of the times, who shall? Men of trained intelligence, liberal outlook,