[President James B. Conant, Harvard University, as quoted in the New York Herald-Tribune, New York]

The greetings which you bring to Harvard we thankfully accept. In these messages of good will we read the continued aspiration of mankind toward a universal fellowship based on human reason—a fellowship devout in its admiration of what has been achieved in former times, yet believing in the richness of the future which lies before us all; a fellowship which transcends all barriers of race and nation, yet honors the intellectual and artistic traditions of a variety of peoples.

Almost a hundred years ago Ralph Waldo Emerson, speaking of the American scholar, declared, "The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future." In this troubled century the burden is to be borne not by one individual or by one group, but by those who live in many lands. Not the scholar, but the community of scholars must take up "all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past."

The spirit of man must be held aloft by sturdy hands of every race. All who love learning and believe in the power of education may by united efforts further the ideal of peace and understanding. In this unquiet modern world which inventions have compressed to the size of Emerson's America we have need not so much for the American scholar as for the mutual understanding of a multitude of scholars in every country who will take up into themselves "all the hopes of the future."

[S. Ralph Harlow, as quoted from a radio address, in the De Forest Times, Wisconsin]

During the World War I served in France with the American Expeditionary Force. There, amid the carnage of war I dedicated myself to work for the end of war. I dared to believe that what the statesmen told us might prove true; that this was a war to end war. ...

When the war came to a close I went back to the Near East, where I was on the faculty of an American college in Smyrna. No group suffered more than the student generation of those after-war years, more especially the youth of Europe and the Near East. The suffering and poverty among students, particularly in the Central European countries and in Turkey, led to the forming of an International Student Aid movement, which began to render service to the students who were in direst need.

In a short time student groups which had received help began to contribute to other groups in greater need. This was especially true of the German students. No student group in Europe showed a greater desire for peace and for mutual understanding than did those German students whom I met in several of our international conferences.

As the need for actual relief became less crying, the students were unwilling to give up their friendships and their contacts, and out of the European Student Relief came the organization known as International Student Service. Nearly fifty countries have taken part in the activities of this organization, and each year world conferences have been held. The spirit of this movement, binding together students of so many countries, is expressed in the declaration of purpose they adopted. It reads as follows:

"We believe that the task of spreading fellowship is essentially spiritual; that it is an expression of the real nature of the world and of that Power which, without distinction of creed, we believe to be working for the fulfillment of the destiny of mankind. We seek a world partnership of fully developed communities in which every individual is able to achieve his highest development in the service of mankind. We do not seek uniformity. We seek a unity which is expressed in many different ways."

As these students met together in conference, a deep desire to work for world peace grew among them. As one student expressed it: "For the first time in my life I met students from lands which had until then been but colored spots on the map. And I discovered that, in spite of the differences of color, language, and environment, these students of other lands were much like myself, with similar aspirations and ideals. No longer can I think of their countries as inhabited by strangers whom I know only by group names, German, Hungarian, Russian, or Czech. These colored spots on the map of the world are now homes of my friends." ...

There is growing up among the students and youth of many nations, more especially in Britain and the United States, the conviction that youth itself must take up the burden of creating a new and better social order. If this conviction is not always articulate nor unified it is, nevertheless, one of the most important psychological factors of this generation. A growing sense of internationalism and common unity, as well as a sense of awakening power, is one of the most hopeful elements in the student world of our day.

It is ... in earnest, and it is cutting new channels of thought on many a college campus. And the statesmen and governments had better begin to notice it.

[Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, as quoted in the New York Times, New York]

If the world is not to be plunged into another cataclysm, friendliness and confidence, fair-dealing and good faith, must triumph once more, in the relations among nations, over hostility and distrust and suspicion and greed.

This cannot come to pass unless the spirit underlying national policies undergoes a rebirth, unless individuals within nations, through their personal conduct, through their influence upon others, through their exercise of responsible citizenship, devote themselves to the cause of such rebirth. For, in the final analysis, no nation is better than the individuals who compose it.

To raise once more to their proper height the lowered standards of international morality is a task that confronts your generation and mine. I cannot believe that, stupendous and difficult though it be, this task is beyond our power.

This country of ours was built by men of vision, of determination, of hardihood, men eager and willing to grapple with the problems that confronted them on the basis of integrity, of vigorous initiative, of a profound sense of fairness and justice.

They have carved a great and powerful nation out of the wilderness of a new world, a nation instinct with individual freedom, under the protection of the wisest constitutional charter ever devised by the mind of man.

They made mistakes. They failed in some of their undertakings. But through prosperity and adversity they never faltered in their quest for human happiness.

We are confronted today with new and grave political, social, and economic problems that spring out of the growing complexities of modern civilization. We can solve these problems if we have the same moral fortitude, the same qualities of character that our people invariably exhibited when crises arose in our national existence. ...

Despite the setbacks which it suffers from time to time, despite the threatening clouds that today overhang the international horizon, I firmly believe that humanity is constantly going forward to higher and higher achievements in the onward march of its civilization.

One cannot read history and not be inspired by the progress already attained over the ages. Nor can one fail to be strengthened in one's faith and hope that new and greater achievements lie ahead.

Let me quote, in conclusion, these lines in which a poet has expressed the final thought I wish to leave with you:

[Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Christian World Pulpit, London, England]

No one can feel more strongly than I do the attractiveness of the youth of the present generation, its practice, its sincerity, its dislike of mere convention, its quest of a full life; but it has this weakness, that it is singularly lacking in any sense of obligation, the obligation of any definite standard of a right which ought to be accepted and a wrong which ought to be refused. Yet without this sense of obligation, and without the discipline which it demands, no life can win either strength or true success. The natural plea, "I want to live my own life in my own way," comes to me as a life being lived in no way at all—without purpose, and without self-control, blown about by impulses and desires, as leaves are blown about by the November winds. It is an old truth that freedom without law becomes anarchy. True freedom comes only when we truly and freely choose a law to control our general desires, and we accept the discipline which that law brings. Yes, always among these spring blossoms of youth there stands the figure of this strange man upon the cross. ... If our life is to be truly full and free we must make the cross our own, and accept its discipline. Jesus himself said that we must take up our cross daily: that if we are to follow him we must be ready to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, crucify the occasions when we know that they lie in wait to overmaster us. There can be no true life, and no true presentation of the Christian religion, which does not put into the center this discipline of the cross. It was once said by that most strong and forcible and sincere man, Archbishop Temple, "He who crucifies not himself, for him Christ was not crucified."

[From the Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada]

The Christian life is a life of duty, which has its acknowledgment in those words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." So on life's journey those who tread the path of duty are headed for the true goal. There is often the temptation to neglect our duty; there is often the tendency not to take duty seriously; but the importance of duty cannot be too strongly emphasized. Duty often means self-sacrifice, but with self-sacrifice we get the true meaning of service. The Christian life is made up of duties, and the satisfaction of doing one's duty in its many calls is its great reward.

[Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin, as quoted in the Times, Los Angeles, California]

Education has become machine-like with cold-blooded methods and routine results. Christian need a realization of the infinite if they are eventually to solve the problems of the world with the proper spirit of humility.