of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 425

that you will be derelict in you* duty if you do not give the Nation the full
benefit of the exceptional abilities and capacities that are yours.

As you dwell on the traditions that glorify the name of Georgetown, as you
realize the splendid and heroic deeds of its men of the past, remember that
many of those who studied in the very halls where you have spent the last
four years, have given their effort, yes, their lives, to preserve for you the
opportunities of which you have availed yourselves.

x These men were so imbued with ideals that they were willing to give and
did give their all in their defense., If America is to be preserved as a Nation,
as the one outstanding example of Democracy that has stood as an inspiration
to oppressed peoples the world over, you must "face up" to your obligations,
must be resolved to accept the burden of your responsibility and to bear it
willingly. .,

Millions of young men in ravished Poland, in the Baltic States, in the Low
Countries, in occupied France, would give years of their lives, would pledge
themselves to undying effort, if they might enjoy your advantages, if they
might face a future as hopeful as yours.

To them America is the land of opportunity, as it was to our forefathers
in days of old. As long as there is hope that they, too, some day may taste
the saving cup of American liberty, life still holds something worthwhile for
them, hopeless though their present condition may otherwise be.

While America's Democratic institutions endure, hope will live on among
the down-trodden nations of the earth. While the beacon of American liberty
still blazes in the sky, the eyes of" all the conquered people of the world will
catch its gleam and take new heart.

There is not sufficient room in all this wide universe for two conceptions
of government so completely adverse as Democracy and Totalitarianism. They
cannot exist side by side because the one denies the other. Democracy is the
antithesis of an ideology that denies the dignity of man.

No dictator-ruled government could expand as its master would desire,
if its coerced subjects had before them the vision of a sovereign state, where
men were equal and free to live unfettered by decrees or restrictions, were
privileged to enjoy to the fullest their God-given rights.

Unless you take away with you from Georgetown's hallowed halls the
true appreciation of Democracy, American style; unless you value Democracy
so thoroughly that you will undergo any sacrifice rather than to yield it, the
sons of Georgetown who gave their lives in previous defense of this form of
government, may have made their sacrifice in vain.

The challenge to you is that you carry aloft the ideals and practices, the
principles to which you have been exposed. Yes, it may be an unfriendly and
cheerless horizon that is now faced. Yes, there are appalling happenings
around and about you. But courage is not a temporal measure. It was in
young Americans in years gone by; it is in their successors of 1941. For worlds
and great rewards are not won by chance happenings or even by golden op-