Commencement to Come

Henry Agard Wallace, Vice President of the U.S., last week spoke at the commencement ceremony of Connecticut College for Women.* Said he: "When the education of youth goes wrong, sooner or later all goes wrong. . . . I believe that in the prevention of World War No. 3 -- in keeping faith with the boys who have given their lives -- much will depend on just how we handle the German youth immediately following this war. . . . We must not repeat the mistakes made by the Allies after World War I. This time we must see that the defeat of Germany is complete. . . . And we must not again fail the German young people who, in the depth of their material hunger and misery, will have a great philosophic and spiritual hunger. . . .

"The German postwar youth of World War II need not be forced to embrace either Communism, a new type of totalitarianism, or even the particular type of democracy which we have in the United States. We shall not need to send school teachers from the United States into the German schools, but we can make sure that the liberal element in Germany has an opportunity to replace the Nazi school books and the Nazi methods of teaching. I am a great believer in the Danish folk high school and the Scandinavian systems of cooperation. I believe they are well adapted to the German situation, once militarism and totalitarianism are stamped out. . . .

"Working for peace and the general welfare is the essence of all true education and all true religion. It is the Sermon on the Mount in action. All the schools in the world will have to be reborn after this great conflict. ... It will be even more important for the schools to teach character than to teach facts. . . .

"Commencement time will come to the world when the armies stop marching, when the men return to the factories and fields, and when the statesmen get down to planning in real earnest. ... As a nation we decided we were not ready to take on adult responsibilities after World War I. We weren't ready even to graduate from high school, and some of us wanted to go back to the eighth grade. Now, whether we like it or not, we must get out into the world and work. The easy days of sheltered isolation are over. We have grown up. We must live day after day with the family of nations, furnishing our share of leadership. . . . Yes, commencement time is here. Responsibility has begun. Life has come upon us. The joys of opportunity and service lie ahead. No generation has ever had such an opportunity.

"We must make the dead live."

* His daughter Jean was one of the graduates.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.