University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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Address to Class 1911 By W. W. Parker, LL.D. HE problem that presents itself before the mind of the average young man starting out upon his life journey is often appalling, and always serious. Upon the young man himself devolves the solution of this problem, and whether or not he shall be correct only his whole career will demonstrate. It is not my intention to burden you with preachments nor to weary you with a rehearsal of platitudinous statements, yet I consider that the result of all the experience of which I have been the subject and of all the experience of which I have been the observer will well serve to enlighten, to strengthen and to support the courageous efforts of the young men who tonight find themselves face to face with the world, with the world ' s ambitions, the world ' s successes, and the world ' s disappointments. It has been said that the world owes every man a living, but he who seeks to receive a fair remunera- tion for his services must be a good and a persistent collector indeed. Do not misconstrue my meaning, I am not seeking to discourage any one of the members of this class. My sole purpose is to lay bare the truth as I have found it, so that a full and complete realization of it at the beginning of these men ' s life careers may so warn them, so prepare them, and so embolden them as that they will be able to look the whole world in the face without flinching. Deception is unfair, howsoever good the intentions of the deceiver may be. It is unfair to tell the weary, worn, and footsore traveler that the mirage of a great city, which he has seen seemingly but an hour ' s journey ahead, is in fact a great city where he may find his haven of rest. He may be buoyed tem- porarily by the prospect, but when the real truth dawns upon him his last state will be worse than his first. Worst of all is it eminently unfair and lastingly harmful for any man to deceive himself. Men should look conditions squarely in the face ; learn the real meaning of them ; seek to know their purpose and their results, and then, if baneful, strive and plan and struggle to circumvent them; and if good, to take advantage of them and ride the wave of opportunity to success. 20

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per cent, of the people of this country have not the time to consider nor obtain information concerning conditions which pertain to proper sanitation and health, or, if they have the time, have not the means for obtaining them. How to assist these people in obtaining such knowledge that they may properly preserve their teeth, and by preserving their teeth prolong their lives and health, is of vast importance to the public and the dental profession. One cannot work to any advantage without the assistance and co-operation of the other. Newspaper articles and dental exhibits have confronted the people for many years, but have not induced the proper and anticipated result. The child, being the coming generation and the only indi- vidual where a preventive, and not a cure, is needed, is the fortress toward which the different move- ments of the present campaign are directed. The child, then, is not reached by any of the newspaper articles nor dental exhibits. But the child must attend school. It is there, then, that the fortress is best attacked, and to this end the public should pass laws granting the Dental Profession the power of ex- amining and interesting the children through the medium of the public schools. But examination and instruction is not all that is needed. Practical work and the clinics must be maintained in order to prevent the further development of those conditions which already exist. To further this purpose then, the public, again as a part of its duty to itself, should furnish money and means for the proper accomplishment of these ends. But, as I said, the public cannot work without the assist- ance of the dentist, nor can the dentist accomplish much without the co-operation of the masses. Then, what obligations rest upon a member of the Dental Profession? He, to be sure, is not exempt. He must, as one of the people, be willing to share their burden of financing the campaign, whether it be in currency or in devoting his time and labors to the curative processes. Then, too, as a unit in the population, he should enthuse in the enacting and lend all possible assistance to the passing of such laws as will further the means of accomplishing the best result. He should also, when giving his labor to the clinics, whether gratuitously or otherwise, work conscientiously to this great and noble end — the prolongation of human life, the more hygienic condition of the country, and the riddance of numerous diseases, many of which have proven fatal, should be the aim and ambition of every being in this great civilized country in gen- eral, and every member of the dental profession, and of each student of that profession in particular. E. D. L., ' 13. 19

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I am not prepared to dispute the assertion that a vague something called luck sometimes plays a large part in the lives and the triumphs of men. Neither am I prepared to dispute the averment that some men are made by the opportunities which present themselves and of which they are keen enough to take advantage. But I do dispute the theory that men may idly await the smile of fortune to be be- stowed upon them, or that men may purposely loll in the shade of inactivity, expecting and hoping that some passi ng opportunity may arouse them from their lethargy. Luck does guide the footsteps of some men seemingly favored of fortune. Opportunities, often un- looked for, do cross the pathway of a few of the human species. But unless these men have worked and learned well the exacting lessons of existence, all of their chances are ephemeral, their lives and ex- amples are for naught and they will have lived in vain. Without such men, and the history of them, the world is better off. They constitute a drag and a brake upon human progress, and for the same length of time that they live and their examples continue the ultimate realization of the eternal and undying purpose of creation is thwarted and delayed. Work ! Honest endeavor is the only medium that has yet produced lasting results, and that has made worth while the life of any one of the beacon lights in the history of progress. Through what countless ages of travail, through what centuries of labor, through what untold aeons of development did this world pass before its answering blossoms greeted the sunbeams of the first morn ! And, after that, through what myriads of cycles ; through what inconceivable periods of ceaseless persistency, with a thousands years but as a day in the sight of the omnipotent Creator, did the com- pleted world advance before the first man stooped to lave his earth-soiled hands in the waters that gushed from the sides of his newly-hewn cave ! And then, the fleeting years that rolled into their round of unmarked centuries, through all of which the offspring of that first man struggled and bled and died in his attempts to overcome the almost super- human difficulties which he had faced, before the rush of a great whirlwind, terrorizing men into a trembling fear, heralded the coming of Prometheus with his stolen celestial fire to illumine civilization ' s birth. Then the onward march of civilization. Down through the centuries we have heard the groans and cries of the tortured ones. We have seen cities taken and retaken by hostile and warring bands. 21