GOVERNOR COX SPEAKS AT ALUMNI EXERCISES

Governor Cox's speech was one of the features of the exercises in the quadrangle. After greeting the gathering on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts he lauded the part the University has played during its history in the life of Massachusetts and the country at large. He spoke in part as follows:

"Mother of men for three centuries Harvard has sent forth her sons to carry her name and influence, and the name and influence of Massachusetts to all parts of the World. Conceived for the purpose of educating a ministry for the church, the mighty University has extended its leadership into every field of human endeavor.

The Nation and State are great only in proportion as our people are intelligent, civic minded, and actuated by motives to advance the social well being, Leaders to carry on this work are trained in our colleges and universities. From these institutions come many of the influential minds of the country. College-bred men and women in large measure have shaped, and will continue to shape, policies for the upbuilding of this Commonwealth and these United States.

More Good Than Bad in World

It is then of the utmost concern that university graduates see clearly amid the fog and think straight amidst the babel of confusing voices. It sometimes seems as if no public address could attract attention today unless it constitutes a lurid arraignment of present conditions, or else a wanton attack upon some person or group of individuals. In the field of politics one who declaims of how things should be done and who promises the impossible gains a ready audience, while one who soberly recites a record of actual accomplishment is quickly brushed aside. Many men who pick up their morning papers and fail to find accounts of terrible accidents, atrocious crimes, financial failures, or scandalous wrong-doing, throw them aside in regret that there is no news. They find no satisfaction in the realization that the world and society are functioning normally. It is the duty of trained minds to reflect. These who have had the opportunity to study history should have a true perspective and a sense of proportion. They should examine the substance rather than the shadow. They should be as ready to commend as to denounce.

Graduates Must See Life Clearly

There is more good in the world than bad. There are more good men and women than bad. Where there are a few men in public office who are faithless and dishonest, there is a mighty army of high-minded sincere and devoted men who without flare of trumpets are resolutely doing the day's work. The immense number of young men and women who seek admission to our institutions of higher learning bear testimony to the love of their parents who desire to give their children opportunities which they did not enjoy. The countless gifts to colleges, to hospitals, to libraries, for parks, playgrounds and for other public purposes, give evidence of unshaken faith in the future and of a never satisfied ambition to give comfort and help to others. The nation-wide gratification in the success of the Conference for Limitation of Armaments speaks eloquently of the spirit of fraternity and good will over-flowing the hearts of a worthy people.

In my city of Boston two Harvard men have lived within my own time who have admirably illustrated the power of sane trained minds to lead their fellow men to the heights where they might contemplate the beauty and joy of every-day life. They followed different paths. Both were intensely American and both abundantly demonstrated their liberality of mind, their tolerant spirit, and their purpose to help all sorts and conditions of men. They did not find it necessary to complain incessantly about the wrongs of the world in which they lived. They dared to rejoice in the blessings which had been showered upon their day and generation.

Possible for All to Have Faith

It may not be possible for every graduate to give a Symphony Hall, a Harvard Union, or a Soldiers Field, but it is possible for every one to have the abiding faith in his fellow men that Major Higginson had.

It may not be possible for every graduate to stir the patriotism of a nation or single-handed to break down barriers of local prejudice and intolerance, but it is possible for every one to walk humbly in the path where trod with giant's step. Edward Everett Hale.

Many of the fancied wrongs of our times will disappear when educated men reflect and dwell upon the blessings which are theirs, when they insist upon temperate speech, when they are concerned more with performance than promise, when they realize that saying a thing does not make it so, when they are willing to grant to others the same integrity of motive which they ascribe to themselves, and when rejoicing in all that is true and good it is their burning purpose.

"To look up and not down,

To look forward and not back,

To look out and not in, and

To lend a hand.