Page 67 - 1928 Hartridge

COMMENCEMENT, 1927
June third dawned clear and sunny, as it proud to be the day set for our Coni-
nienceincnt exercises. Seated behind a beautiful l>ank of llic graduates’ dowers were
the Seniors, the Faculty, Dr, John J. Moment, who o\])ene(l the ser\'ice with a i‘>rayer,
and Dr. Menry Noble MacC'racken, Ih'esident of X'assar College, who, having been
charmingly introduced by Miss Mapelsden, entertained us with a delightful address.
The awarding of the diplomas was preceded by Miss^ Hartridgc’s farewell talk to the Class. She said:
Members of the Graduating ('lass: This is, as you well know', the year 1027, the beginning of the second cpiarter of the twentieth century. Your country is the largest, the richest, the most powerful in the world. You should be able in your lives to
count on all the achaintagcs that civilization can offer, all the sympathy, the under­ standing, the generosity that an enlightened people can give.
And yet you may hnd at some time that freechmi to exj)ress what seems to you the best that is in you is not yours—exce\])t at a price.
Freedom is the watchword of our nation, but even in our earliest \}‘ears it was a ciuestion of whose freedom. Roger \Yilliams in New England three centuries ago, was free to express his thought only if lie thought as did our .Pilgrim Fathers; Scope
in Tennessee three years ago was free to teach what he believed only if he believed as our Tennessean brothers. Our size, our wealth, our power, has not brought us much farther on the road to freedom. Indeed it api>ears that wealth and i>ower have bred apprehension; that material pia^sperity has induced fear—i)robably of loss. And
fear has ever been a foe of freedom.
Some of your neiglibors, north, south, east, or west, may l)e living in that fear;
in a dread that makes for suspicion, for interference, for an unrecognized desire to regulate your very thoughts—unless those thouglils arc as their thoughts.
Fear leads to l)cwildering transformations and it takes strange disguised. Tt may masquerade as i)urity, as religion, as i)atriotism, even as altruism. Tt confines men more narrowly than chains or i>rison walls. It blinds them to wisdom and to justice. It often forces them, in the name of all that is holy, to acts that are cruel and unworth\}-.
Those who preach that it is Avrong to criticize our churcli forget that if Imlher, if Calvin, if Knox had not criticized their church, ours might be very different now—
and less to our liking. Those who maintain that it is wrong to criticize our govern­ ment forget that Cromwell. Pym. Hurke, I.ah'ayette, George Washington even, criti­ cized their governments. Those who condemn, men lor opposing war seem to forget that one Jesus Christ some twenty centuries ago (whether god or merely a car\])enter who died for his beliefs) was an advocate of jicace, and that thousands of our own boys only a decade ago went forth willingly to (he in a war to end war. TTicre is
nothing human that is above criticism, no human institution that cannot be bettered, no Christian or jiatriot that should be satisfied with less than the best.
Many of you are going to college, tc^ seek, 1 hoi)e, the opportunity for intellectual development that great institutions of learning afford. There, if you use the oppor­ tunities rightly, you will put aside, with other childish things, a desire to be like every one else, and you will develo\]) not only the ability to think with indc\])endence, but independence in exi)ressing your thought. If you arc independent and courageous, you will value those (lualities in others. If your thought can range the universe freely, you will not wish to limit the thought of others. If you are wise you will know' that you cannot coerce the thoughts of those who in tlumiselves are free.
.And should neighbors look askance or worse because you have dared to think as individuals and to differ from them in your views, will you be honest with yourselves
and fearless witii them? ()r will you, for the sake of peace or of plenty for your­ selves, modify \}'Our opinions and disown your beliefs? Will you pay the i>rice of freedom ?
Members of the ('lass of F)27, I dare to think that you will. 1 believe that in you youth and courage are synonymous, llold fast to your courage and, like all brave hearts, you will be eternally young and eternally free.
The graduating class included; Virginia .Allison, Nancy liacon, Cirace Baker, Lois l^cebe, Tlai Bingham, Ottoline l^oissevahi, Nancy Boyle. Anne Breckenridge, Florence
Doughty, Estella Goodspeed, Sally Hayes, Emmeline Alackey. I.ucie Mackey, R u i h Miller, Katharine Powell, Helen Sim, \'irginia Smith, Sally Star, Sally Taylor, and
Harriet Westlake.
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