Address to the graduating class of 1946 by Carl Frederick Wittke, dean of Oberlin College

Wittke, Carl Frederick

English

Lawrence University

Lawrence UniversityLuxCommencement Addresses University Archives1946Things That RemainCarl Frederick WittkeFollow this and additional works at: http://lux.lawrence.edu/addresses_commencement© Copyright is owned by the author of this document.This Speech is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives at Lux. It has been accepted for inclusion in CommencementAddresses by an authorized administrator of Lux. For more information, please contact colette.brautigam@lawrence.edu.Recommended CitationWittke, Carl Frederick, "Things That Remain" (1946). Commencement Addresses. 25.http://lux.lawrence.edu/addresses_commencement/25When l'ames Bryce made his last revision or The American Commonwealth, certainly one of the best appraisals of American institutions ever made• and by one o:r our greatest admirers. he v~tured the prophecy that the United States was destined to enter soon upon a "time of mists and shadows.• Two years ago, one of m.y most thoughtful students wrote me a letter, just before graduating, which contained this paragraph, "Those of us of the present college generation• during our 'thinking' enstance, have seen only depression._ turmoil and war. We have come aJ.__T11ost to accept such a state of affairs as no:rmal . We have been hardened to a degree where we can pass off disagreeable faet ·without much bother. We have recognized 11 ttle which is • good1 and growing, to which we could compare this dismal scene , and trom which e eould get ancoura._gement . • -2-Is there any one among us to-day who is not baffled and confused by the pressure of the world-shattering events of the last two deoades. Mil-lions of our fellow-men have been but recently looked in the elllbrace of death. Millions more race starvation, frustration and despair. Millions ory f'or bread, and the roads are choked with the homeless and the dispossessed. It doesn't matter whether they are Poles or Hungarians, French, Germans, Jews or Chr1stians--the1r drawn and haggard faces are the faces of human beings like you and me, and no matter who was responsible for their miseries, they stare across the sea to us for help and underetnnding. They are not abstractions, to be described in terms of this or that nationality-they are all the victims ot a criminal. appeal to force. It is becoming apparent that the Potsdam settlement is no settlement at all, because it is based on blind vengeance and dismembement, and it continued, can only mean paralysis for Central Europe. The Atlantic Charter has been submerged tn a resu.rgenee of national rivalries and old-fashioned power politics. After centuries of painful effort to produce a so-called Christian society, we are still far away fran a rule of reason and justice and brotherhood. An age seems to be ending in terror and death--an. age to which we made the last contribution in the form of the greatest instrument for destruction which the world has ever sean• and a weapon,. hich by 1 ts very nature, will be essentially a weapon of aggression. But if it be true that one age is coming to an end, then we must also be witnessing the birth or another, ~or history is a s~amless web . It is the re~ord ot what human beings have heen able to do ebout a long series -4-or emergencies which mankind has had to face over the years. In all the long history of civilized man, somewhere, somehow, there has always persisted an irrepressible desire for a scheme of living which should rest on truth and honor, equal opportunity and peace. In all ages. there have bean larger or sni.aller groups who oaught the vision of a aociety which should lift the weight of econoreic injustice from the shoulders of the com:m_on man, and make 11:f'e richer and nobler through intelligence and a. devotion to social Justice. Ours is neither the first nor the J.ast generation to face the task of preserving the world's loyal.ties to something better than cheap materialism and barbarian forae. History 1s i"ull of examples when, amid a shattered temporal order, new leaders be.Te clung tenaciously to certain permanent, inner values, handed them on to now generations . and provided the perspective W-hich aan only be provided by man 1:ho are idealists -,v1 thout illusion, and realists without cyniciS'lll.. Hu.ina.n beings alone can deal with human probleJ'!lfh- The important thing is not to be resigned, uot to feel sorry for onrselves,. a.nd not to become cynical. Men and women who ha.ve had the e.dvanta.ges of education. are under a special obligation to face the future with fortittlde, for they must provide the spiritual oxygen that will keep the flame of humane living from snuffing out. Truth .. integrity. tolerance, freed.om. and the seareh for beauty are virtues that :me.n reco6nize as good today, as t hey have always recog-nized them. It is inconceivable that they should perieh frOl.11 the earth• -s-as long an this planet endures. The u.r16e :for fieace and happiness · s tar more fundamental in. the hearts of men. than the desire to destroy an<l kill. and the couviction continues to grow with each gonerati.on. and especially with outs, that ,".Tar is the most oruel and the most stt1pid. way to eal w1'1;h human problems.. Perhap,'3 our very fe-a'l:'s magnif'ied a thousand fold 'y th.1.s ls.st war, vrill push us al-0:t1.5 the :road to world goverl'll!lent. But spiritual and mo::.-al ;iowar is not measured by mechanical devices.. It ts relatively easy to draw diagrams of the perfect v.;orld organization, and I would not ror a IllOl~~nt speak disparagingly of the efforts made at San Francisco, Bret ton Woods, London and Nei1 Yo:rk to bring 011 der nnd pence to this chaotic world_. but let us not forget that if we seek s;,i.lvat1on by politics tp:d di:pla:naoy• it is the spirit in the hearts of men ,1h.iah will proVG -1-decisive. The conviction is also growing that :!.'aciSlli a:nd mtioncl.isrn. must yield to a Lew concept ot the oneness of civilization and the moral unity of all mankind. Tho l'eeo::-d or lt..IU.e.rl ca in this respect is such ·tint it shonld be capi:ible o.f proir1d1ng leadership f1:>r the r est ot ·the 'i:rorld. Fol' three hUll.dreJ ya.lrs, this has been a continent of many ra.oes, and the Uni tc)d States to-day ia a. poll ti cal un.t ty built up?n cul tu:eal di ve1:·ai ty • with a patriotism that really: represents a kind of cultural pluralism. Our political unity was not created by a politi or-J. theol'ist or a goverrnuent ':mroff.rcrat. It ·as Welda·~ o,1t cf t!i.e sati sfyi.ug expe:t·ienoes of Olll' :l:'-:i.thers ai:.i thoir for0:fathe1~s who aa:ii.e here. bocaus::i they chose this land above their tatherland, as a country where m.en of many diverse origins could build a nation based on the respect of each for the other's equal rights, and where the right of each immigrant to use his own language,. and cherish for a time his own cultural origins. was regarded as one of the civil rights wbieh .America guaranteed to all her native and adopted citizens alike. We have escaped the bitter divisions of Europe. We are all Americans be-cause we all have helped build America, and because we are united by a 11ke...mindedness of devotion to :f'reedom, equality, opportunity and personal liberty. Indeed, it was immigration which led us to expand our vision of democracy until it became a haven or refuge for all the peoples of A.. the western world. We may thank the gods that we bave never hadl\ •pure race• in .Aaerica. and we may take pride 1n the history of a people that -9-kept its doors open to the weak and the oppressed of all the world. Perhaps because of this unique experience, the .American people eventually .may have a special contribution to make to the building of that concept of •one worldtt which must subordinate the life and desires of all individual nations to the greater good of the- common human enterprise. There a.,;-e many things that are good and beautiful and of good report which must and will remain in a world as shattered to its foundations as ours 1s today. There are many institutions which seek to preserve these abiding values, but none are more important than those dedicated to learning. ~or the primary concern of ecrueation is the quest for the good life in a world that shall be a good world to live in. No matter what happens, in titutions like the one tram which I come, -10-a.n.d this one of which I now have bseom.e a part, must be preserved, undefiled by passing crises and unyielding to :popular hysteri1!N:l, as islands of refuge for the bum.an spirit and as reservoirs of faith from which we may draw new strength for every genuine humanitarian effort. The right kind of education seeks to anchor a people in righteousness and justice. It trains its students :for contemplation., a.swell as for action • . It is not content with the perfection of meoha.nioal skills and it will never surrender its right to examine.- to reflect and to act courageously in matters of public morality. We must demand for our educational institutions complete academic freedom in peace and in war for their first obligation is to find an~ teach the tnth. They must provide the sounding board and the proVing -J.1-ground tor majorities and minorities alike. They bolons to no race or dl.aas or creed. They are instruments of the body politic• by which it seeks the good lire. The freedom they ~ant to teacher and student is a sacred privilege, and it should not be surrendered in any emergency, and 1t must be used with a deep sense of responsibility. Liberal arts colleges like this are especially important, for we need institutions w~ill defend to the utmost in this machine age their conviction that history, law, art, philosophy, pure science, and literature, are, in. the long run,. more important and :.nore enduring than technocracy, and even this mecll.anioal civilization must be made to serve e. noble hum.an venture. The 111'eral a1"'1ia collegGShaw? made a unique eontribution to the culture of our tree Amer1 ca, far bT~;a te1• even than their mere 'IUlmbers would suggest. ~must refuse to surrender to the mechanio1ans of our p~esentday society. ~do41t- not underestimate the value o~ the praotical. 1 but "-1f-. instsi, on engineers who will understand that they must not practice their profession in a social vacuum; on lawyers who become social engineers and are primarily concerned with what Cicero cal.led the science of the just and the unjust, on medical men who understand the tremendous social responsibilities their profession should impose upon them~ and upon teachers who realize they have enlisted in a great army devoted to the search for truth .. What these colleges mu.st stress. and w~iat the world needs desparately, is the training of men and women whose mind.a have been truly liberated, until intelligent, critical thinking has become for them a "conspicuously acquired habit", and who can relate all they have learned and all they ~ do to a phllosophieal matrix that is concerned..<.right conduct and with values that a.re basic to goOd citizenship and decent living. We are agreed that intellectual and moral discipline ta indis-pensible to human progress. Good will w1 thout intelligence, and intelli-gence without good will• may prove e,qually dangerous. We are concerned with learning tacts, so that we may understand that respect for facts implies learning to :respeot the rights of others. Woodrow Wilson once said that "The college is tor the training of the mall who are to rise above the ranks." In college halls., there sound.a the •eternal voice of the human race",. and here ge stand guard over the fortress of right reason, •defended by personal integrity-" -l.4-'V Our big,;;est task to-day 1s not vo ational or even scientific• tliough the scientific method is essential to all intelligent action~ but building an honorable and decent world to live in. Teachers and students are obligated to explore the ul.tlmate meaning of' things. so that they may keep the torch of ~arning burning• even tor its o,m sake. Thus, eventually., we may rekindle the fires of deoenoy and hume.neneas in a world where twioe in lees than one generation every practical vocational skill has been directed to the destruotion of all th.at man haa built so painfully thrOl.lgh the e.gea. and tho instrument panel of a bcunber or an atomic bomb, see:J\(l.. • e £111~,. to represent our b1gh~at level of achievement. Our old faith in an immutable eternal law of pro5-ress has been badly ehal:::en ill recent years._ and y.-t we must believe that out of our present disorder and despair must eome the germs to fertilize new ideas tor a better social and intern tional order. I cannot believe, either as a historian or as a rational human being. that o:mewhere the thinss that have always r ained• v,111 not be preserved again, for they are the things that have always started men again in seareh or a more satisfying life for themselves and-Qiiill8MI• their fello,i men,, There is an undying :f'ire that burns in the souls of en, there are things that are constantly reborn 1n the eathedral or the mind... In -the collective mind of man, and dee;>l te • disintegrating institutions all around us, there ms always been room for new plans for the pursuit of hagpiness, goodness and right reason. There have always been, and there will always be,, men and women who hunger tor righteousness, as much as they do for material comforts. and who crave -16-a world of justice and peace, and a chance to help build it. We must walk along thi.s road with courage, and by sight e..'1d knowledge whe.rever we oan, and as far as we can . But it is also true that tl:;.ere is not a mo.n living, who• whatever he may profess, does not walk part of t:te way by :tai th. Young people especially must remesn.ber that they can believe too much• but they also oan believe too little. 1J.en live not in a .material world alone; thei:r hopes and dreams have bean pO' ·1erf'ul factors in fashioning civilization. These hopes exist; they are real; they are part o:f the Universe; and just as real is man•s undyin.., faith in his ultimate ability to achieve than. Is it not a sound and even a rational ruith to holu that the values th.et make lite e;ood and beautiful. lu.lve always l•err..ained._ even in some of -l?-the world.' s ti.arkast :night, and that ·thoy will continue to abide ,i th men o:f every race and creed? T"!le sanctity of human personnli •.;y ~ust be lli.8.ue to tra.nscan<( a11 the blighting limitations of elaaa or nationality. There is power in the gospel of hunan brotherhood and t:C.e moral unity of uankind. Recent his-~ory gives ample proof that men oannot really be free unless the-y will cooperate in freedOl!l with others vho are eq_wµly free . Civilization will live as long as raen believe that human beings bave the power within tueu.selves to generate ideals that 1,'fill soften men' a 1.earts and hi "h purposes that will make them their. "brothers'" keepers. 

Things That Remain

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Things That Remain

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