New York University School of Commerce - Commerce Violet Yearbook (New York, NY)

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HARRY YVOODBURN CHASE Chancellor New York University 15

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To the Commerce Seniors THERE are those who bewail tl1e lot of the college graduate these days. I am not of the number. On tl1e contrary, seldom has there been a time in my observation 111ore freighted with opportunity than the immediate future. You have pursued your studies during dark days of political tribulation and economic depression. You have fruitfully reversed the ancient adage by making hay while tl1e sun was cloud-bound. If your studies in economics have taught you anything, they have pictured to you the cyclical character of our ups and downs. Certainly we are not far removed from the lowest stage of one of those cycles. The turn of the years and tl1e consequent turn of the cycle must inevitably carry us up- ward. You are literally in on the ground floor in the rebuilding of a newer and liner social 2l1'1Cl economic structure. That your training here will stand you in good stead as opportunities confront you, I haven't the least doubt, and I bid you Godspeed with the utmost confidence in your future. Clmricellor. CHANCELLOR HARRY IMooDBURN CHASE Born at Groveland, Massachusetts, on April 11, 1883, Dartmouth College 1904, A.B., 1908, A.M., Clark University, 1910, Pl1.D., Lenoir College, 1920, LL.D., Lake Forest College, 1920, LL.D., University of Georgia, 1923, LL.D., Dartmouth College, 1925, LL.D., University of North Carolina, 1930, LL.D., Rollins College, 1931, Doctor of Hu111a11ities, University of Michigan, 1932, LL.D., Lafayette College, 1933, LL.D., Columbia University, 1933, Litt.D., Franklin and Marshall College, 1937, LL.D., Director of clinic for sub-normal children, Clark University, 1909-10, Professor of Philosophy of Education, 1910- 14, Professor of Psychology, 1914-19, Acting Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Uni- versity of North Carolina, October, 1918 to January, 1919, Cl1air111an of the Faculty, January, 1919 to June, 1919, President of the University of North Carolina, 1919-30, President of the University of Illinois, 1930-33, Chancellor of New York University, July 1, 1933. President of the Hundred Year Association, Chairman of the Division on Educational Institutions, Chairman of the Greater New York Fund, Director of the Town Hall, Director of the Society for tl1e Churchis W'ork with Students, Director of the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education, Trustee of the League for Political Education, Trustee of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, Trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation, President of the Lotos Club, Editorial Board of the American Scholar, Executive Board of the American Association for Adult Education, Ofhcer of the Ordre de la Couronne de Chene QDecoration con- ferred in March, 19365, Chairman of the Committee on Education, New York W0rld's Fair, 1939. 14

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Message From the Dean I-IE real objective that you should have in your training in this School is that of improving National economic well-being. And it generally follows that if your neighbor's well-being is improved, yours will be better also. Your training should enable you to distinguish sound economic procedures offered by wise statesmen from tl1e quack nostrums urged by politicians. And so, if someone tells you that here is a limited emergency or that there is national safety , be not moved but incredulous because I have been hearing these alarms every four years since I became a voter. The astonishing thing to me in the depression years was the very common yielding to the spirit of defeat rather than resistance. Instead of that faith in the traditional policy and ideals that made America a great nation, there was the skepticism that finally surrenders to totalitarianism. I sincerely hope that you have not been infected with the false philosophy that the struggle for class interests is more important than the struggle for individual liberty. You have no conception of the terror and fear under which one lives in a dictatorship whether of the Stalinist or the Nazi type. You cannot appreciate the sweetness and delight of personal and individual liberty until you see the misery of those who have lost it. A dictator has nothing but contempt for the masses over whom he rules, and yet he dreads perpetually the possibility of their revolt. Dictatorships differ fundamentally only in their techniques for influenc- ing, deceiving, controlling, and Hnally terrorizing the masses. Ultimately something happens, often with inexplicable suddenness, and the masses get rid of their dictators. And so, all the HlS1l1SH that we see in power today will, in their turn, fall and disappear. Your job and mine is to show that democracy can function efficiently in a complex and intricate economic life and that bureaucracy, corrupt politics, and inefficient and irresponsible economics shall not possess our land. 072441 Dean. JOHN T. BIADDEN Dean ORN at Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 26, 18822 School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, New York University, 1911, B.C.S. Qszzmma cum laudeb, Holy Cross College, 1921, M.A. Qhonoraryj, University of Newark, Sc.D. fhonoraryj, Member of the faculty of tl1e School of Commerce, New York University, 1911, Assistant Professor, 1915, Professor of Accounting, 1917, Head of the Accounting Department, 1917-22, School Secretary, 1917-20, Assistant Dean, 1922-25, Dean of the School of Commerce, 1925, National President of Alpha Kappa Psi, 1920-21, National President of Theta Nu Epsilon, 1925-28, Honorary member of Beta Gamma Sigma, President of Alexander Hamilton Institute, 1929-35, President of the International Accountants' Society since 1929, Past President of the American Association of University Instructors of Account- ing,'P2fst' President of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, Certified Public Accountant, New York, 1911, State of New Jersey, 1926, Director of the Institute of International Finance, Member of the American Committee of Arrangements for the International Congress of Accountancy in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1926, Chairman of the Program Committee for the Third Inter- national Congress in Accountancy in New York in 1929, Secretary of the Council on Accountancy, State of New York, Merchants Association, New York City, Com- mander, Order of the Crown of Roumania, Commander, Order of Leopold Il of Belgium. 16