The President's Farewell

It is never easy to say goodbye. Lengthy farewells are notoriously painful for all concerned. Therefore, my sudden departure from Cambridge, while causing trouble for many administrative officers, which I deeply regret, has the one advantage of shortening the period of emotional tension. It does deprive me, however, of the opportunity of speaking directly to the students in the seven Houses, the Commuters' Center and the Freshman Union. If time had permitted, I should have enjoyed one more round of such visits which in recent years have been one of the most pleasant duties associated with my office.

The editors of the Harvard CRIMSON have come to my assistance. They have agreed to print this special message and in so doing are continuing the long record of loyal support which I have received almost without fail from successive CRIMSON boards. There is an old saying "Never explain; your friends don't require it; your enemies won't believe you anyway." Twenty years of administrative experience in a university has convinced me of the essential correctness of this brief generalization of human behavior. Therefore, I shall not attempt to answer the question which a few have asked, namely, "Why in the world are you leaving Harvard to become United States High Commissioner for Germany?"

Rather I would like to remind those who may have heard me speak in recent years at the Houses of my continuing concern with the defense of Europe and the need for unity of the free world. Some will recall my having said on more than one occasion that in my opinion the greatest threat to our national security is our failure to realize how great in fact is the threat. Those who have agreed with my diagnosis of the present danger will need no convincing when I say that I believe the position of the representative of the President of the United States in Germany in the coming years is one of vital importance. What a man with my background and experience can do remains for the future to decide. I can only promise to do my best. The fact that I was in Germany for eight months seven years after the end of World War I and that it is now just seven years after World War II makes me conscious of some of the difficulties inherent in the new assignment.

Twenty years is a long time to be president of a university in a period of history that covers a great depression, a world war and the present global struggle with communism. I might count it as the equivalent of forty. At all events under our revised statutes, I should have had only five years more before a discussion of my successor would have dominated the Harvard scene. As it is, I am, on short notice, anticipating my retirement, not resigning. The distinction is important to me if not to you. For I shall continue after September first as President Emeritus, an honorary connection with the University I have served almost continuously for forty years.

A person in good health is, perhaps, justified in laying down prematurely the heavy responsibilities of the presidency of Harvard only if in so doing he accepts an equally challenging task of prime significance. My realization of the magnitude and complexities of the problems that lie ahead in my new position is mingled with my deep sorrow in parting from my many friends here in Cambridge and in educational work throughout the United States.

To the undergraduates except for members of the senior class, this is a farewell message. Those who receive degrees at Commencement I hope to see on that occasion. For if possible, I shall be back for that single day. To one and all I send my best wishes. I shall always treasure the memory of the happy relations I have had with the student body through these changing and crowded years.