SUNY Plattsburgh - Cardinal Yearbook (Plattsburgh, NY)

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atotftoer to Bebtcatton Class of 1930: I extend to you my greetings and acknowledgments. I appre- ciate the honor and courtesy of this dedication. Let there b e added also my con- gratulations and my hopeful prophecies of future distinction, for you have shown me in yourselves something of the spirit that is destined to conquer. The class of 1930 has afforded an interesting opportunity to study your per- sonal reaction to entirely unexpected and normally distressing obstacles; and the courage and cheerfulness with which you have met and overcome them, the disci- plined manner in which you have cooperated, without desertion or complaint, to wrest victory from the jaws of defeat, have commanded my highest admiration. And I am convinced that such an experience will furnish you. in turn, with a fund of strength and resourcefulness of especial value in the uncertain years to come. In this highly formal and stabilized world of ours, the ordinary affairs of life, and particularly of young life, usually fall out very much as they are expected to do and in the same general fashion and sequence. The stage is set for us, the scenery changes little, the plot assumes familiar patterns, the prompter performs the customary functions, the players act their parts through comedy, tragedy, melo- drama or burlesque with varying degrees of mediocrity, skill or brilliancy, and then yield their places to another group who re-enact a continual repetition of similarity. I am speaking of the Usual merely. Now if such a stereotyped and paralysing condition of things were to be uni- versally and forever fixed in the history of soul and mind and endeavor, then the world would be a sorry place and the centuries would mean but little. But a fair and increasing leaven of humanity has always been alert and responsive to the challenge of the Unusual. Therein lies the hope of progress and the advancement of the world. Therein do you belong by training and profession. Therein have you enlisted for a lifetime of service to the world that needs you. I 7J

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Co tfje Clatf of 1930 All things have been changing from the beginning. Nothing is as it was, not even yesterday. Everything to be will be different from what is today. There is nothing fixed. Environment changes, and man changes with his environment. To understand this phenomena is necessary in order to guide this world to that which is better. To do this- is progress. This guidance is our responsibility. One of the intellectual leaders before the time of Christ let it be known: The gods have not shown men all things from the beginning, but, seeking, in time they will find out what is better. This is as true today as it was then. We have been seeking together during this short space of time, and you now must go on seeking with others in new places what is better. This curious searching to find out what is better stretches on into infinity; anything else is finite. There- fore it is pa ramount that we continue to study, to experiment, to understand, to Jive abreast of these ever-changing conditions. To stop is to revert to the level of the high school student, from the high school student to the level of the grammar student. Individual striving to understand is at the basis of individual progress and individual success. The sum total of these experiences make for the salvation of the world. Success, let us say, is something that we are or become, not something that we take or get. It is far better to be than to seem, even if the pretender dies loaded with honor, and the truly great man, after suffering every kind of ill usage, is crucified. To be successful is to make a right use of our lives; to ask what we get from them is irrelevant. Success comes from within, a quality in all of us. The youth of today, of tomorrow, are as desirous of success as we are. Successful men and women are made, not born. The guidance of them in the making — in their blossoming days — is our trust, your trust. We live on in the lives of the successful men and women of tomorrow ; in them are our most enduring reward and happiness. To seek after that which is better is difficult; to guide others to that same end is more hazardous. Let us not be discouraged in our faith. Let us live to say we have taken our best pains riot to laugh at the actions of mankind, not to groan over them, not to be angry with them, but to understand them. This is the challenge I leave with you. Aufwiedersehen, (9 1