of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 699

LOYOLA COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES,
June 7, 1942
Baltimore

THESE are critical days. There are doubtful—and perilious—times
ahead. To graduates about to take the fateful step from the shelter of these col-
lege walls into the confused, war-torn world of today, the outlook might seem to
be a dubious one, at best. The old order has changed. Treasured civilizations,
the culture of a thousand years, have gone into the, discard through the mad
onslaught of godless, inhuman militarists. Yes, the very future of civilization
hanegs in the balance.

All present might consider the emergency, through which the world is pass-
ing, as the most critical period in all history. Perhaps future historians may
record it as such. It is likely, however, that those living during all the epochal
periods of the past have so considered the particular emergencies which con-
fronted them.

In 1917, for instance, the class of which your Reverend President and others
were members, received their diplomas at a war-time commencement similar to
this. They faced an outlook most unfavorable. Like you, they experienced
mental confusion, —doubt both as to their own future and also as to the con-
tinued security of the State and Nation. Like you, they questioned in their
hearts whether all the years of study within Loyola's classrooms had been spent
possibly to no avail.

Today, as on that other graduation day in June 1917, uppermost in the
graduate's1 mind and in the mind of every American, is the same thought, the
same objective that gripped minds them. America was at war and all felt the
inspiration, as you do today, to do everything to insure the victory that alone
could perpetuate those free institutions which every American valued as dearly
as life itself. If there were just reasons for such a will-to-win in 1917, how
much more reason today! For in 1917 there were lacking the underlying
threats to civilization, to our American way of life, to the freedom of all peoples,
to religion, that is contained in the Axis fury now raging through the world.

America means so much to all its citizens, and to other millions abroad-
America with its unmatched freedoms, its opportunities - - that the possibility
of an Axis victory is repugnant to our very beings. Only to look at conquered
France or Poland, or brave Belgium, convices us of this. But we require no
such proof. History has shown how great were the sacrifices of our forebears
who made this Country possible, how justified was the toil of succeeding genera-
tions who strengthened and developed the American system, and brought it to
its present eminence among the nations of the world.

Entirely fitting it is, therefore, that our men of every age are ready for the
test, willing to shoulder their part for civilization's defense. Fitting, too, is