Graduation Address

"Tolerance: A Case History" (12 May 1955). (UA Case 67, Box 2)

This is the first time that I have received the honor of an award of a degree from an educational institution outside of the United States. Perhaps I should be nervous. But I am not. I’m not for several reasons. I do not feel that I am among strangers or foreigners. I don’t because you are my next door neighbors. You are just as much my neighbors as are the good people of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Where else in the world is there a border like ours – yours and mine – Canada’s and the United States? A border, for security purposes, that is more imaginary than real.

I have the greatest respect and friendly feeling for Canadians. We Americans are pretty proud of our people. I say this is preface to this expression – the expression that I don’t think there is any basic difference between Canadians and Americans. I offer as proof your immediate past University President – Doctor Trueman – who was born on American soil by an American mother, and who took part of his schooling and did part of his teaching in the United States. I offer as proof your great University – a living monument to tolerance. We of America are fiercely proud of our dedication to tolerance but we will do well to follow the illustrious example set by your honored institution.

Your country and mine have many things in common. In fact, just about everything. What we have had in the past that you haven’t had – intense development of our natural resources and amazing industrial progress – Canada is beginning to have. And you will have it more and more in the future. You are coming into your own as an industrial nation and you will surpass us in many respects in the near future.

Yes, you are catching up with and passing your big brother to the South. Canada is a nation with a future. No other nation in the world has any brighter future than Canada. The only threat to that future is the ominous shadow of the Russian Bear – a shadow that increasingly stretches out over the ice and snow of the Arctic directly at the heart of Canada and the United States – a shadow that makes our mutual security an imperative necessity. I thank God that we are such good friends – that we have so much trust and faith in each other – that we are so aware of the complete interdependence we have for each other’s security.

The Communist design of "confuse, divide and conquer" may work for a while in other areas of the world but it will not work to divide Canada and the United States from each other. We not only respect and believe in each other – but we have historical traditions that bind us closely together. While we have, in our own separate ways, achieved independence from our mother country of England, we have not completely gone our own ways. I think that in that achieved independence we have grown closer together than when we were sister colonies of England.

Despite the traditional and commonwealth ties of Canada with Great Britain, I believe that the bonds are stronger between your country and mine. This is not to the advantage of Great Britain. It is actually to her advantage and strength. A mother always wants to see her children keep close family ties with each other. And children with close family ties never forget their mother.

I am particularly proud and happy today to be honored by your institution because the University of New Brunswick is so noted for its integrity and tolerance. It has practiced as well as taught integrity and tolerance. It has sent forth from its hallowed halls disciples of integrity and tolerance.

History shows that all great nations at some time have gone through periods when intolerance seems to prevail over integrity – when demagogues ride high – when individual responsibility is replaced by the laziness and indifference of masses blindly following demagogues instead of doing their own thinking – when intellect is ridiculed and made suspicious and "know nothingism" runs rampant.

I don’t know that your great country has ever gone through such a period. I would not presume to say that it has. As far as recent years are concerned, I have the greatest respect and admiration for the manner in which your country and your people have kept calm and have rejected the bitter emotionalism that seemed to capture a good segment of the people of my country.

Of course, I believe that the United States is the greatest country in the world. But my pride in, and loyalty to, my country does not blind me to faults or weaknesses we may have had nor does it still my voice from acknowledging past weaknesses. It does not because my country every time has overcome those weaknesses and emerged an even stronger and better nation for having gone through those weaknesses and conquered them.

I hope that Canada – which admirably resisted the weaknesses – will have profited by having watched what we have gone through during the past five years. A national sickness of moral and mental paralysis fell upon my country. Increasing numbers of Americans became mental mutes with their voices stilled and their courage cropped. They didn’t dare say what they thought. They were even getting so they didn’t even dare think for fear their thoughts might be read. The American code of "innocent until proved guilty" was rapidly being replaced with the Communist-Fascist reverse code of "guilty until proven innocent." It did not matter how difficult it was to prove innocence in an atmosphere of exploitation of doubt. Even the recourse of "sue me" advocated by the cynic with all of its inadequacies on salvaging a ruined reputation was not available against immunity-protected accusers.

And so this dread national sickness of creeping mental paralysis ultimately, to the delight of the Communists and Fascists throughout the world, developed into a galloping psychosis of fear and blind emotion. Strong men did not speak their minds publicly lest they commit political suicide. For political security they agonizingly accepted the role of mental mutes. Freedom of speech was so abused by some that it was not exercised by others. Totalitarianism was beginning to set it. Extremists of both the Left and the Right increasingly "bullied" their way around in their drive to silence their critics. To them a "middle ground" could not be tolerated. So they set out to destroy ruthlessly anyone who disagreed with them. They found the most effective manner of destruction was destruction of reputation. They began to place self-confessed liars on pedestals to sit in judgment on the Americanism of some reputable leaders of my country.

True enough, they included communists and pro-communists in their attacks and accusations. But in their accusations and attacks they lumped the communists and pro-communists together with some leaders whose patriotism to my country is beyond question. And in doing do, they served the very cause of the communists and the fascists. Not only were they adopting totalitarian tactics of "confuse, divide and conquer" by this strategy, but they were making it all the more difficult to expose and root out the traitors.

Thank God there were a few Americans who rejected the role of mental mutes to speak up. To the surprise of the extremists, attempts failed to kill off politically these rare few who continued to speak out against the extremists. When this happened, others who had temporarily accepted the political refuge of mental mutes, began to gain enough courage to join those who were speaking up. The trend to reason and political courage then set in. And we began to come out of the national delirium of moral and mental paralysis.

Some good came out of this national sickness. It toughened America up to the threat of communism. It awakened us to the ways and tactics of the communists. But it also awakened us to the ways and tactics of the Fascist-minded. More than that – it made us realize how precious was our liberty and freedom. It gave us a new appreciation of tolerance and intellect and integrity and moral courage. Yes, I am not proud of the manner in which my country shook off that sickness and emerged an even stronger and more courageous nation.

I speak of these things to you today because the University of New Brunswick is a shining symbol of tolerance, intellect, integrity and moral courage. Your history shows that it was not easy to become such a symbol. It will not be easy to remain such a symbol – because tolerance, intellect, integrity and moral courage are not easily achieved and retained. It is something that requires daily practice and strict adherence.

In closing, I would like to repeat to you a statement I have made of what I believe – and hope that you would share some of my beliefs as you go forward to make a place for yourselves under the sun.

Many nights I go home from the office of the Senate Floor tired and discouraged. There’s lots of glory and prestige and limelight for a United States Senator that the public sees. But there’s just as much grief and harassment and discouragement that the public doesn’t see. Of course, like everyone else I went into public service and politics with my eyes wide open. I knew that any public official is fair game for slander and smear and carping criticism. I knew that ingratitude was to be expected.

I knew that fair weather friends would turn on me when they felt I no longer served their purposes. I knew that I would be called all sorts of names from crook on down. I should have known that chances were good that I would even be accused of being a traitor to my country. These things I knew. But I never knew how vicious they could get and how deeply they could cut.

It is these things I think of when I’m tired and discouraged – and when I wonder if being a Senator is worth all that I put into it. These are the times when I consider quitting public life and retreating to the comforts and luxury of private life. But these times have always been the very times when I became all the more convinced that all the sorrow, abuse, harassment and vilification was not too high a price or sacrifice to pay. For it is then that I ask myself "What am I doing this for?" I realize that I am doing it because I believe in certain things – things without which life wouldn’t mean much to me.

This I do believe – that life has a real purpose – that God has assigned to each human being a role in life – that each of us has a purposeful task – that our individual roles are all different but that each of us has the same obligation to do the best he can.

I believe that every human being I come in contact with has a right to courtesy and consideration from me. I believe that I should not ask or expect from anyone else that which I am not willing to grant or do myself.

I believe that I should be able to take anything that I can give out. I believe that every living person has the right to criticize constructively, the right honestly to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest orderly, the right of independent thought.

I believe that no has a right to own our souls except God.

I believe that freedom of speech should not be so abused by some that it is not exercised by others because of fear of smear. But I do believe that we should not permit tolerance to degenerate into indifference. I believe that people should never get so indifferent, cynical and sophisticated that they don’t get shocked into action.

I believe that we should not forget how to disagree agreeably and how to criticize constructively. I believe with all my heart that we must not become a nation of mental mutes blindly following demagogues. I believe that we should never become mental mutes with our voices silenced because of fear of criticism of what we might say.

I believe that in our constant search for security we can never gain any peace of mind until we secure our own soul. And this I do believe above all, especially in my times of greater discouragement, that I MUST BELIEVE – that I must believe in my fellow men – that I must believe in myself – that I must believe in God – if life is to have any meaning.