Graduation Address

"Address to the Graduating Class by A. O. Dawson" Brunswickan 45, 7 (May 1926): 33-40. (UA Case 67, Box 1)

I am greatly honoured by this occasion. This University, from whose halls so many distinguished men and women have gone to enrich the life of this and other countries, confers a distinction on that person who is invited to address its graduating class.

One hundred and forty years have passed since Dr. William Paine and six other Loyalists induced the Governor and Council of this Province to establish an Academy, endowed with a free site and lands for its maintenance. That was the beginning of this institution. If anyone qualified to do so should write the history of the University of New Brunswick through the long swing of years from that early day, the record would certainly be most inspiring.

For many years I have been interested in all educational institutions of Canada, particularly in McGill of my own city, and Queen's University, Kingston - because of my long friendship with its honoured Principal. I feel, too, that I should take a very special interest in this University of my native Province. I intend therefore to follow closely the progress of the Half Million Dollar Endowment Campaign recently inaugurated by one of your distinguished graduates -the Right Hon. Sir George E. Foster.

During his lifetime Sir George has been closely identified with many movements benefitting both Canada and the Empire, yet I venture to say that no more worthy matter than this Endowment Fund has commanded his attention or won his support. This Fund deserves the enthusiastic backing of all of our citizens, and particularly of New Brunswick people resident in this or other countries.

Many citizens residing in Quebec, Ontario, and in the far Western Provinces, recognize that the Confederation Pact calls for certain special considerations for the Maritime Provinces. Of late there has been inquiry how these special considerations might best be given. Might I suggest to these friends that one way in which this can be done, and in a most helpful and enduring form, would be to assist this Endowment Campaign liberally. No University can do its best work if it is continuously hampered for funds. The marvel is that this institution has been able to accomplish so much with the meagre aid it has had from the New Brunswick Legislature and from private citizens. Let us hope that the hearts of Chancellor Jones and those associated with him may be gladdened by the generous support that this Endowment Fund will receive from many men in Canada interested in the maintenance and advancement of higher education.

Opportunity to secure a College education was denied me, and I have felt this handicap all my life. I am the more anxious, therefore, that the young people of today shall have the greatest opportunity to secure an education to fit themselves to serve the community in an adequate way. Three of my own young people are graduates of McGill, and I hope to see my two younger children complete their courses there.

I am aware that spending four, five or six years in college does not necessarily mean a successful career for every student. We know that not all college bred men can be heard from after they leave their Alma Mater. But all things being equal, the man or woman who has received a college training has an infinitely better chance of making good than the one who has had to be satisfied with a more moderate education.

It has been said that a college is frequently a place where they polish a pebble and dim a diamond. The following figures recently made public regarding some of the distinguished men of the United States amply refute this and prove the enormous benefits of a college education. The record is as follows:

With no schooling - of 5 million only 31 attained distinction.
With elementary schooling - of 3 million 808 attained distinction.
With high school education - of 2 million 1,245 attained distinction.
With college education - of 1 million 5,768 attained distinction.

The child with no schooling has one chance in 150,000 of performing distinguished service - with elementary education he has four times the chance - with high school education 87 times the chance - with college education 800 times the chance.

Do you appreciate your chance?

The Irishman's definition of a grape-fruit was - "a lemon that had a chance." I should not like to call any of the young people before me "lemons," even though they might have been so designated before they had the chance this University has given them. I am certain that all of you are now in the "grape-fruit" grade, and that continuously you will bring cheer and refreshment to those with whom you come in contact.

It is increasingly true that the hope of the future lies in the youth of the present. Every young person is a potential leader in law, in medicine, in science, in art, in commerce, or in other of the many activities of life. This is particularly true of the college graduate. In the coming days his words and his actions will inevitably exert a strong influence over those of his fellow men with whom he is in contact. In the study of economic, social and political problems, which undoubtedly has engaged your attention, I feel sure you have recognized that the training you have had is intended not alone for your personal benefit, but for the larger opportunity of serving the community, and for a fuller and more effective discharge of your obligations to the public.

The students of this and other universities, I believe, are not seeking to acquire an education simply for selfish purposes, and for personal gain. In the main I am sure they are conscious of the duty of the individual in public service, and recognize that their main objects should always be to cure diseases; to remove ignorance; to improve agricultural and industrial methods; to make and enforce just laws, and generally to lift their generation to a higher standard.

I trust that not one member of this graduating class will feel as did a recent graduate of the University of Nebraska, who, not finding it easy to secure a position, made the following complaint:

"At the University they trained my mind by methods of study, they crammed it full of history, philosophy, theory and facts, but left me untrained to meet the world and its problems. My University has failed me; it taught me idealism, when I needed realism. If I criticize, I offer also a remedy. Discard a history, a philosophy, a Greek, a geography, a Latin, and an economic instructor, and hire a $15,000 a year man who has trained men and knows men."

To my mind that man was expecting altogether too much from his University - or rather he was expecting that which his University never proposed to give him. The University is not a Trade School, nor does it pretend to place special emphasis on the money-making side of life. A college course is intended primarily to train the students to think for themselves. Those who prepare the Curriculum believe that the general culture a student receives as a result of his studies is of inestimable value, and that the making of money is not the primary nor highest objective.

New Brunswick, like the other Provinces of Canada, recognizes that comparatively few of her young people can afford the time or the means to take a college course, and hence through its vocational schools and its Composite High Schools, provision is made whereby the boys and girls of the Province can obtain an education that will fit them for a useful and happy life.

New Brunswick, with less than 400,000 people, has invested more than three-quarters of a million dollars to provide accommodation for vocational training, not including the cost of equipment of these institutions. This means that provision has now been made for more than 1500 full time day vocational students, and twice that number of evening pupils.

During the years in which I have been associated with the Montreal Technical Institute I have seen hundreds of boys and girls graduate, well equipped to earn a good living, and to serve the community in which they reside. And yet I am coming more and more to value an education for its own sake. It is a wonderful asset to have a cultured mind, to be able to absorb and enjoy the best literature; and to converse intelligently with well read men and women. Educated people in the community broaden the life of the people, and by their inspiration and example enrich the whole structure of existence.

We must not overlook the fact that we all must make a living, but let us not forget that while we are making a living we are also living a life. I hope that no young man or woman leaving these Halls of Learning today is going out with any idea other than that the only life worth while is the life that is given to the service of mankind. If this be your objective then you will cultivate the helpful spirit that brings its own reward. Perhaps I can best illustrate this with the following simple story:

A man moving from Johnstown to Jamestown, passing along the highway with his load of furniture, saw a farmer standing at a gate. He held up his horses, and asked the farmer if he could tell him the type of people living in Jamestown. 'Well,' exclaimed the man, 'I am moving so as to be able to live in a more agreeable atmosphere. The people in Johnstown, in my experience, are narrow, disagreeable, selfish, ungrateful, poor neighbors, and I am very glad to get away from them.' The farmer replied, 'I am sorry to say that you will find in Jamestown exactly the kind of people you are leaving behind in Johnstown,' and the man passed on his way much depressed.

The next day it so happened that another man moving from Johnstown to Jamestown also hailed the farmer, and asked him the same question - what type of people he would probably find in the town to which he was going. The farmer asked him the same question that he asked the man of the previous day, - what type of people was he leaving behind him in Johnstown. This man told him that it was breaking his heart because he had to leave the very best people in the world. They were good neighbors, most considerate, helpful and thoughtful to a degree, and he was doubtful if he would find elsewhere a community in which one could reside with the same degree of happiness. The farmer repeated to him what he said to the other man, - that he would find in Jamestown exactly the kind of people that he had left behind him in Johnstown.

The moral is, "If you want to have a friend, - be one!" The spirit we inject into the community where we live comes back to us in like measure. Any education that does not bring to the home and to the community the kindly helpful spirit, has not fulfilled the expectations of the Founders of our Universities. To quote Milton's definition of education:

I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of Peace and War."

No doubt you have occasionally, during the years of study, felt that your college work was much of a grind. Do you to-day realize that the grind was well worth while? You may be likened to the glass that by means of much grinding becomes lens of a telescope, which brings the stars nearer and reveals myriads of worlds that men knew not existed. The best that is in us has been brought out through the process of grinding. Good things are generally difficult, but difficulties should prove to be a real stimulus to all well balanced minds.

May I express the hope, that even though it may mean some temporary sacrifice, the young people graduating to-day from this University will take up their life's work in Canada, where they can do so much to develop and strengthen the best that is in our land. We can ill afford to lose our College Graduates who have secured their education by the sacrifice of so much time, energy and money, and who bring to their life work youth, health, strength, a trained mind, and broadened, enlightened vision.

In connection with the cost of educating students in that institution, Dr. W.E. MacNeill, Registrar and Treasurer of Queen's University, Kingston, calls attention to the following facts:

At the end of the course a student in Arts had cost the University $916 over and above what he paid in fees - a student in Medicine $1812, and a student in Science $2096.

A large American Life Insurance Co. makes the statement that it costs $6077 to bring up a boy, and $6617 to bring up a girl to the age of 18. I leave it to the ladies to explain why it costs $540 more to bring up a girl than it does a boy. I do not know the amount that is allowed in the above figures for schooling, but they certainly do not provide for a college education. If one, therefore, takes the insurance figures given by Dr. MacNeill, and further adds the fees paid during the years spent in college, you can see that each Graduate Student has cost Canada about $10,000.

Now if our College Graduates leave the country, not only do we suffer this large monetary loss, but we also lose their earning power for the remainder of their lives. Much greater still is the loss of constructive leadership in the Arts, Sciences and Industries that we expect from them - not to say anything of the irreparable loss of moral and spiritual leadership when the young men and women of our hearts and homes leave for a foreign land.

I think I see signs that at last our Legislators and Statesmen are awaking to the fact that our neighbors to the south are making the strongest kind of bid for our best people, and that we as Canadians must to some extent follow the fiscal policy and the business methods of the United States. Such a policy would, I believe, result not only in holding the people whom we now have within our horizons, but, also, through the development of our natural resources and our industries, many of our sons and daughters now living in the United States might be induced to return to Canada. We welcome to our shores men, women and children, sound in body and morals, from other lands; but these people, valuable as they are or may become, can but inadequately take the place of those who have gone out from our own firesides, and whose hearts we trust are longing for the home land.

Some of our people have become pessimistic about the opportunities that lie before the young people of this country, and we need to remind ourselves occasionally of the value, present and potential, of the land of our birth.

In 1903 our national wealth was approximately $1100 per capita, while in 1923 it stood at $2400 per capita. On this basis our wealth is greater than any country in the world other than Great Britain and the United States, and having regard to our undeveloped resources Canada is doubtless the wealthiest country on the globe. Arable and pasture land in Canada is only 3.1 per cent, under cultivation against 26 per cent under cultivation in the United States, and the same percentage in Great Britain.

On the average every resident of Canada owns more than one-half a square mile of territory apiece. This is God's choice land - rich in mineral, timber and agriculture, furs and water powers. It is the last great tract still to be peopled.

We have room here for millions of prosperous and happy homes. How satisfactory it would be to all of us if these millions that are certain to come to Canada could have the inspiration and the leadership of our College Graduates; men who have had such thorough and careful training for the task. Without the right kind of leadership the coming of these people from the countries of Europe may prove to us a curse rather than a blessing.

On this occasion I suppose one is expected to offer a few words of counsel to the Graduating Class. I am sure that in so far as the fine group of young people I see before me is concerned this is scarcely necessary. Still, there are some things that only come to us through years of experience, and therefore I take the liberty of quoting one who has passed the meridian of life, and who in looking back over his past has come to the conclusion that there were certain things he would do if he were twenty-one again. Here they are:

HEALTH. - I should underwrite good health by a balanced diet, avoiding alcoholic beverages, and taking five miles of oxygen each day on foot.

PLAY. - I should find my recreation, not in reading about games nor in watching them, but in playing them.

WORK. - I should choose some trade or profession in which my imagination would have freedom of action, and I would learn to love work for its own sake.

MIND. - I would preserve the health of my mind by feeding it less newspaper and more history, biography and Bible.

SERVICE. - I would strive each day to do something myself for some less fortunate individual rather than pay someone else to do it.

FRIENDSHIP. - I would be more interested in being a friend than in having friends, and would take time to keep the fences of friendship in repair.

HUMOR. - I would spend some time each day in the garden of humor, smiling at the flowers and pulling out the weeds.

PATRIOTISM. - I would practice the virtue of patriotism in times of peace as well as in days of war.

May I add a paragraph of my own:

I shall call this your Dish Pan and your Hoe. Get what enjoyment you can out of the daily round, the common task. Dishes must be gathered and washed. One must strive and labor till all are cleared and laid orderly away. This must be repeated morning, noon and night during a lifetime. It is the same old grind.

Then your work with the hoe calls to you, and this call seems to come when the sun is the hottest and the fishing and swimming are the best. There is hoeing and spade work to be done, and we shirk doing our share at our peril. Self-denial may be necessary, but the ultimate results of doing our duty are always good.

Our Dish Pans and our Hoes - our grinding irksome labors - are frequently our greatest blessings, invariably stepping stones to higher things. Don't dodge your Dish Pan and your Hoe.

My last word is to thank Chancellor Jones and his associates for giving me the opportunity of addressing this splendid group of students; and to offer to those graduating my hearty congratulations on having attained the goal of their ambition, and to wish each one the utmost success to which his heart and mind aspire today.