Conant Calls for Reign of Reason

President Conant yesterday cited the twin evils of panic and panacea as the main blocks to rational behavior in the world of today.

He spoke at morning services in Memorial Church.

"We must forego the emotional satisfaction of letting our sympathies be swept away either by the evils which surround us or the proposals for Utopias which rain on us from every side. A man must endeavor to be a rational human being without becoming a dehumanized intellectual machine."

The President, however, said he recognized that the present international situation is not without its aspects "sufficiently grim to frighten many men."

"We seem to be fated to live in a divided world for many years to come," Conant warned. "The ideological conflict between the believers in the Marx-Engels-Lenin doctrine and the rest of the civilized world seems to promise at best a long period of an armed truce."

(This same prediction was first made by the President last March in speeches at the College and elsewhere. He said he saw no impending war with the Soviet Union, but forecast years of non-military conflict.)

"These postwar years have certainly been a field day for Cassandras," Conant continued. "Those who temperamentalyy like to wring their bands have been daily provided with ample opportunity to exercise their pessimistic zeal."

Strength is Answer

University students must provide an answer to the Cassandras, the President asserted, by supplying intellectual and moral courage. "One can hardly maintain that we are likely to solve our problems if we approach them in a spirit of abject fear.

"On the contrary, we must have the boldness required to regard possible disaster with as much calmness as possible good fortune. . . we must resist the temptation to believe that because modern man can survey the present with miraculous case (thanks to modern methods of communication) he can therefore foresee the future more clearly than in other times.

"In short, we must be reconciled to our limitations as more mortals in spite of the triumphs of the machines we build."

Scholar Must Wait

However, the atmosphere of university study serves to damp predictions of disaster or heaven-on-earth, the President said. A scholar has the luxury to weigh events and suspend judgment. "It might not be far wrong to say that throughout the University the major portion of the efforts of the student is directed to studying problems or situations, not with the purpose of learning the 'right' answer, but with the avowed intent of evoking a critical attitude and stimulating imaginative thought.

"There is such a thing as being too unwilling to commit oneself to a course of action. But it is my own conviction that for every man in a position of responsibility today who sins because of his over-judicious approach, there are nine who are neither helping themselves nor the nation by accepting slogans as realities and jumping at conclusions.

Should Discard Rumors

"In an ago in which methods of communication are such that bad news from every quarter pounds upon our sensibilities almost hourly, we must doggedly determine to limit to a bare minimum the acceptance of hearsay evidence.

"We must forego the emotional satisfaction of letting our sympathies be swept away either by the evils which surround us or the proposals for Utopias which rain upon us from every side. A man must endeavor to be a rational human being without becoming a dehumanized intellectual machine.

"A deep concern for the welfare of humanity, a desire to participate in a struggle for a better world can be coupled with a skeptical approach to many matters. Easy solutions for hard problem must be tested in the light of history and an accurate knowledge of current situations.