Convocation Address

President Dickey Opens Dartmouth's 182 nd Year at Exercises in Webster

MEN OF DARTMOUTH: The opening of college is one of the occasions of life where the somewhat banquet-worn words "a pleasure and a privilege" can be used both honestly and precisely. There is something solidly good which underlies the pleasure of just being gathered together in Hanover once again and of welcoming into the fellow- ship of this community the men who, in this-182nd year of Dartmouth life, come to us as Freshmen in the Class of 1954. And as for the privilege of it, believe me, few among us ever know any privilege greater than that of being a Dartmouth student. I assure you I speak those words neither loosely nor sentimentally. They bespeak only the reality of truth which many good men and some great ones have distilled from the experience of full lives.

There are two further words that might be said on this occasion about the privi- lege which is Dartmouth. In a measure it is great just because it is a shared privi- lege. Most of us who serve this College as teachers and workers do so because we prize the life of joining with other men of good-will and gentlemanly manners in the pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful. Many men make some sacrifice to enjoy the privilege of the teacher, but whatever the sacrifice, we owe it to you on at least one occasion in the year to say straight-out that your company in this pursuit is our privilege and ordinarily our pleasure.

The other word relates to the protec- tion of your Dartmouth privilege. It is the more familiar word whose bite all too of- ten is only felt when the privilege of being a Dartmouth student is sadly and abruptly ended. No man comes to Dartmouth and no man remains at Dartmouth as a matter of right. The privilege of admission into this fellowship was won by each of you on your merits and let it be said that there probably have never been brought to- gether in the history of the College four classes with greater promise than those represented here this morning. The fulfill- ment of that promise and the protection of your privilege is in the keeping of your own hands. You will be known, yes, gen- tlemen, you will be judged in some meas- ure for all the years to come by your work, by your character and by your con- duct here. A free man is entitled to no less and he asks no more.

I am sure that over the years there have been many convocation talks here and elsewhere, which in their references to the state of the so-called "outside world seemed far, far removed from the life of the campus or even from the life ahead which a particular student had cut out for himself. I doubt, however, that there are many of us here today who are not sharply aware that this particular perch in the universe which we call earth is rapidly becoming a precarious place for raising human beings. And if, as one fine Dart- mouth man put it in the title of his book a few years ago, there is "no place to hide," the only course left open to men who are not yet ready to roll over and die is to face it. It is about that "facing it" that I want to talk with you this morning. Although I approach the immensity of the business with humility and misgiving, I do believe there is a grace in the universe which stands with men who face front. I also believe that a man is helped in the hard business of facing front by his understanding why he faces what he does. It is to help you in working out that understanding for yourself that I venture a few thoughts from my view of it.

A healthy starting point is found in the reminder that mortal organisms have been facing trouble larger than themselves since life began. This it seems to me is the foundation of all religion and most philosophy. One may argue about the meaning of that ultimate fact, but one cannot argue with it. Thomas Carlyle, I think it was, put it about as well as any one. A friend of his remarked one day that Margaret Fuller "accepted the universe." To which Carlyle replied, "By gad, she'd better!"

What of this world which we face where no man may live more than one life nor need die more than one death? Its errors and evils are not new. A student of history finds their counterpart in every recorded society. What is new is not the evil in man, but the range of its opportunity and the immensity of its consequences. Within the last fifty years alone the destructive potentialities of human error and evil have been increased beyond calculation. I shall cite here only three of the principal factors in that development:

First, the opening of the widest chasm of ideological conflict the world has ever known.

Second, the fantastic increase in the destructive power possessed by men as contrasted with the relatively static state of the moral and political controls governing such power.

Thirdly, the rise of the mass media of communication, making the emotions and minds of millions the constant prey of the few.

We could discuss for a long time the bearing of these and other comparable factors on the task of education today. It is an aspect of the world we face which is still perceived but dimly and sometimes not at all. We cannot probe the vastness of that subject now, but I will venture this far: these are the frontiers where the decisive battles of education at every level of life must be waged in our time. Dim and grim as the outlook has been on these frontiers, there have been happenings which seem to me to say that the way ahead is still open and that if you must fight, the cause can be worthy of your best.

You will understand, I am sure, that the word "fight" is not used rhetorically. You and I know all too well we are gathered here today in the shadow of an awful armed strife which in a moment could become a world conflict for you to fight. However that may be—and I think it is not yet a foregone thing—I see no probable prospect that this generation of college students can escape the heavy personal burden of bearing arms in their country's service. Whether that means war or a part in the prevention of war is at best a close thing and the decision does not rest with this nation alone.

The foreign policies of a nation can produce a war; they can sometimes lessen the chance of war; they can assist in winning a war, but in a world of nations the foreign policies of any one nation cannot of a certainty prevent war. Let us be clear about it; if the leaders of the Soviet Union want war, the world will have war; and in that unholy event the all-important question for the rest of the world is the basis on which any. such conflict is fought and won. I put it that way because I believe that the basis on which any future conflict is fought will largely determine both who wins and what future may be left for this civilization.

I suggest to you that in the long view of history the core tragedy of World War II was not simply that warcame again, but rather that when it came it was not fought as a League war against the aggression of an outlaw. The United Nations is still a most dubious "union," but imperfect as it is in theory, structure and practice, the fact is, I think, that the events of the last three months may conceivably have brought the world to the point where collective security can become a demonstrated reality and where even if there must be further international strife, it can at long last be fought and won on Lin coin's basis—the preservation of a union.

If this be a possibility within the reach of today's diplomacy, it is only so because of what appears to me to be at least the most colossal blunder in the history of Soviet diplomacy and possibly better explained as a Providential intervention in the affairs of men at a truly critical juncture. I refer, of course, to the fact that the Kremlin, through what must have been a bureaucratic blunder of unparalleled proportions saw fit to deprive itself of a voice and thereby of a veto in the Security Council of the United Nations at the very moment that it gave the North Korean Communists the go-ahead signal for armed aggression. Here was one of those "breaks" in life which no man COUIQ foresee and no informed person in his right mind could even imagine happening. But it did. Moreover, let it be noted that never has American diplomacy shown to better advantage than it did that night in taking this case of aggression and the cause of peace to a UN capable, for the moment at least, of meeting its highest responsibility. And it did. It just could be that the future can be so fashioned that June 1950 will be one of the great dates in human progress. I know of no greater irony in all history than that this possibility should have come about through the fortuitous juncture in Soviet policies of the special brands of aggressive wickedness and bureaucratic weakness seemingly inherent in totalitarian government.

I have spoken with you about one bright and significant happening in the urgent business of building the moral and political controls necessary to suppress the aggressive use of the ultimate physical power now possessed by nations. Under today's circumstances that is putting first things first, but mark this well, no self-delusion could be more self-de- structive than for the free and well-fed people of the West to imagine that that is the whole answer to the great issues of war and peace. Every thoughtful wotker in the field knows that our institutions of private freedom and public democracy can only be carried to these far lands by posi- tive, cooperative programs which will re- capture the hopes of their peoples, man by man, family by family, for making a better living for themselves.

You are not the first group of Dart- mouth men to gather in Hanover on the threshold of a national crisis. The men of Dartmouth served the cause of the Ameri- can Revolution and they have well and calmly met every national call made on them for almost two centuries now. A few of you had a part in the last call and all of you can take pride in knowing and never forgetting that today and for some years to come men holding the honored Hopkins Scholarships will attend classes here on Hanover Plain, as Dartmouth cares for the sons of her sons whose lives were given in World War 11.

Gentlemen, these are the kind of days when men are tried for size. May you be worthy of the privilege of being judged as a Dartmouth man at such a time.

And now, men of Dartmouth, as I have said on this occasion before, as members of the College you have three different but closely inter-twined roles to play:

First, you are citizens of a community and are expected to act as such.

Second, you are the stuff of an institu- tion and what you are it will be.

Thirdly, your business here is learning and that is up to you. We'll be with you all the way and "Good Luck!"

PRESIDENT DICKEY, whose opening address on the international siiuation attracted wide attention, shown in an informal pose in his Parkhurst office.