Sam Houston State University - Alcalde Yearbook (Huntsville, TX)

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Qlmrlcs Slmvcr, President To thu Class of 1939: The greatest responsibility of education is to instill into youth the right philos- ophy of living. This should include faith in God and humanity. The individual without respect for and confidence in others is a failure. Be willing to see two sides of every problem. Get the other personls viewpoint. Be natural, not a pretender in anything. justice Story has well said: Never forget that you possess a noble heritage born of toil and suffering and the blood of your ancestors and capable, if rightly improved and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to your latest poster- ity all the substantial blessings of life, the perfect enjoyment of liberty, of property, of religion, and of independence. The structure has been reared by architects of consummate skill and fidelity. Its foundations are solid, and its defenses are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of man can justly aspire to that title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, corruption, or negligence of its keepers. In our American school system we have over twenty-six millions of children who are gradually accumulating that store of knowledge which will in time form the rock on which our democracy will rest. Then, let us so shape the education of the rising generation that it will sustain the American democracy and maintain it uncontaminated for the enjoyment of the generations who will come after us. Very cordially yours, C. N. SHAVER, President 18

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DIQ. JAMES G. GEE

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9' To the Graduating Class of 1939: In response to the gracious request of the Alcalde staff, I am extending to each of you this message of congratulation and reminder. I congratulate you upon the successful completion of courses of study pre- scribed, of which your diplomas are tangible evidence. I congratulate you even more heartily upon the intangible values which I trust your college years have wrought, -growth in self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control, increased appreciation of truth, beauty, righteousness and service. I rejoice with you in memories of diffi- culties mastered, victories won: of never-to-be-forgotten student pranks and student friendships. Looking forward, let me remind you that no other class has gone forth from this institution during the fifty-nine years of its history that will face greater responsibility and greater opportunities than those that await the class of 1939. The airplane and the radio have broken down barriers of distance. Berlin, Rome and Tokio are nearer to us today than San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston were fifty years ago. Conditions exist upon the eastern continents that threaten the collapse of modern civilizationhconditions that college men and women the world over must understand and be prepared to meet. In our own land the citizens of the United States are confronted with national problems the like of which have never before arisen-problems of social security and of constitutional interpretation that challenge the best thought of all patriotic American citizens. And lastly, we have state and local problems here in Texas which may not be enumerated here, but upon whose wise solution the welfare and happiness of future generations depend. It is for you, graduates of Sam Houston, and for other college graduates throughout our country, with trained minds and consecrated spirits, to decide whether a government of the people, by the people and for the people shall perish from the earth. Quit you like men! Be strong! Your friend, HARRY F. ESTILL 19