Alumni Oration

"Alumni Oration Gives to Spiritual Things First Place"  The Daily Gleaner (16 May 1940): 4. (UA Case 67a, Box 2)

Speaking at the encaenia of the University of New Brunswick this afternoon, T.C. Macnabb, B.A., C.E., general superintendent, Canadian Pacific Railways, Saint John, N.B., under the title "Dangerous Thoughts," delivered an oration on behalf of the Associated Alumni of the university which mentioned the conditions of peace and war and the absolute need of placing the spiritual above the material. Right thinking was given a foremost place by the Alumni orator who stated that the Great Person was more important than the subjects taught. Making a forecast of the tasks which would be necessary in the readjustment of the world to the changes likely to be brought about, Mr. Macnabb stressed the task which would confront the sons of Alma Mater.

In part Mr. Macnabb spoke as follows:

Gone are the days of the dear delight of learning 'mid the murmur of innumerable bees among the immemorial elms. As in Plato’s cave, shadows of Great Events move before us. Looking from out these quiet halls upon a world at war—war at our doors, our war for our lives and for all that makes life for us worthwhile, for free speech, for charity, for chivalry, for law and for the kindliness that makes for fair play man to man. Here in this university these Good have found an abiding place and a home; here men have learned their worth and gone forth to cherish them making them the settled habits of their lives. They came to us from the sweat and blood of our lone forefathers; we shall hold them doubly dear and through our toll, pass them on to our sons’ sons that they may not perish from our world.

Derided by Germany

Germany, the enemy of our hopes, despises and derides these our aims, extolling force alone as the basis of the life of men and of nation. Along with great efficiency and much mysticism, a harsh brutality of "might is right" has grown up in that land. So great a German as Kant who could exclaim "Two things cause me wonder, the starry heavens above and the moral law within" nevertheless could write four separate tracts—in Latin—in praise and in defence of war. Even so late a thinker as Spengler says that "always truth and justice are sacrificed to might and race; even in history it is the triumph of the will to power not the victory of truth that signifies; the doom of death is to men and peoples who rely upon truth and justice and fail in deeds and power." "Caesarism that is to succeed approaches with firm step and will be accomplished with the individual, or against him." He closes with a Latin line—"Fate leads him willingly or drags him unwillingly." This worship of force has persisted from the days of Wodin until Hitler. Why this should be is the whole problem of Evil; the practical answer is that Evil must be destroyed.

In wartime the university yields its commanding place, yet it is still a valiant force both in civil and in military life. It is the duty of its young men and women to volunteer for battle—all those physically fit will do it. The school will turn its force towards those studies that make for efficiency in war. The physical sciences we think of at once—for ages they have been the aid of soldiers. In modern times only have engineers been other than military. This war has been described as "total." In the enemy’s mind that means men, women and children—at the front and at home. This has curiously enough brought the things of the mind and of the spirit to the fore. Materialistic war-minded men have found that even force must have its spiritual direction.

Three Probable Changes

Always following every great crisis in history there have been mysterious movements of the human mind. There seems to be now foreshadowing of three great changes—an alteration in the concept of money. As between nations there will be changes in the mechanism of the medium of exchange. There will be a change in the ideas of personal responsibility in civic and industrial life, and out of this—the third change—an alteration in the concept of private property. Just what form these new ideas will take is hard to say but it can be confidently stated that they will be for the better when we Win the War.

Call on that Profession

There must be a place in our life where the Goods of the free Spirit may find a local habitation and a name—the university furnishes this. In our land it is greatly needed—materialism is crowding into all our thinking. Economics is the king of our ideas; even our churches, forsaking higher things, lift their voices in favour of schemes to determine how shall a man eat or wherewithal shall be clothed. With a pathetic faith in them we pass laws to say what shall a man eat or drink. In the vain hope of ridding ourselves of vexatious duties we have called upon the Professor to govern us. He, vain in that flattery, accepts the task. He puts forward his scientific effort in a field where art alone is valid. There is no science of government: The story from the days of the Witenagemot until now shows it.

Personality

To bring about right thinking in our university we have need of the Great Person. Look back upon your own school days and what remains? Not the Calculus or Logic or Latin but the men who taught you. There lie the springs of our actions and the inspiration of our hopes. Our great Doctor honestly owned up that he had gotten just so far in solving the problem of Life but was still working. To the troubled youth this was hope and encouragement that remains a beacon after half a century—what he wrote about the Prolegomena of Ethics is forgotten! The Personality of our men is more than the curriculum.

The Graduate

The graduate has a duty to see that such persons are found, installed, supported and encouraged. He has another duty too. He needs to remember what he got from his school and be willing to repay that debt by helping those who come after him. If he gives money, it is welcome; if wisdom, it is prized, but if he will as a person help the undergraduate, that is above praising! That does not mean a job. Undergraduate! If you do not eat regularly, is it unimportant. Fortunately in our land non needs starve and food is not the first need. Given the necessary concentration and the necessary sacrifice, anyone could here amass a fortune. Fortunes are not what we need most in Canada. As a young country filled with forests, farms and minerals—the fish of the sea also are ours—we need men only anxious to work who will live the right-thinking Life. This is our country’s greatest need, and the University is our country’s greatest hope. It can encourage the free Spirit, train its men in the Good Life and keep a home to which they may return to refresh themselves and to encourage those who come after them. The graduate can tell of the world’s need, can keep the school and the world together so that no cloistered hermit shall find himself alien when he goes forth to find his place among the citizens of the world.

Generation to Generation

No apology is due from the graduate to his successor—rather should he throw out a challenge. It is true the world is in turmoil; it is true that war engulfs the world: It is true that the poor are with us and increasing, but that is not the fault or the failure of your fathers here. Rather is it a maladjustment of material progress and spiritual insight. To make that coordination close is the task before the young man and woman.

Things Worse Than War

War oppresses us to-day; its clouds darken our lives and our future; its drums drown the voice of Reason. All our efforts must be bent to break the military might of Germany and to keep it crushed.

There are worse things than war. Tyranny is worse than War; Slavery is worse than War; Lawlessness, Oppression, Brutality, Lying are all worse than War and we fight that these things may not be in our homeland or anywhere that man would be free. This University will keep alive the Spirit of Freedom, training our leaders that are to be. One day these alarms will cease and your Alma Mater will come again into its own! In the sure hope for that day sons, young and old, live to escape the great scare of the world, going forth gladly to greet the Unseen with a Cheer.