Graduation Address

"Premier Baxter Gave Sound Advice to Graduating Class of Provincial University" Daily Gleaner (16 May 1930). (UA Case 67, Box 1)

Mr. Chancellor, Ladies and Gentlemen:

On the last occasion I had an opportunity of addressing a graduating class, I was told that my principal duty was to give them good advice. Some people would doubt my capacity – and I should think that it would be doubted most of all by a graduating class, which I understand is nowadays an assembly of young men and women into whom (for the present at least) nothing more in the way of knowledge can be injected. If I were capable of giving anything much in the way of advice, I would not like to say that it would be like the seeds scattered upon the stony ground – the appearance of the graduating class is altogether too happy to be compared to anything of that kind – but I think it would be as seed [rejected] for the moment as unimportant, because of the greater fullness of enjoyment that the class feels at the present moment.

Goal Necessary

Perhaps it may be that an hour such as this is not a good time to give advice. Neither can I say that from my own experience of life that I am in any position to give advice. If you should find life as I have found it, it will, I think, seem to you rather a succession of happy occurrences mingled occasionally with some that are not quite so happy. Life is not exactly a thing that we can plan. It is however, well to set some kind of goal for our attainment, but we very often, coming near the end of the long road, find that after all our greatest solace is in one of the things that used to be said by the old Scotch women "If ye gan wish lang enou for a silken goon, ye may get a pair o’ sleeves." And to those who may not be quite appreciative of my Scottish accent I will translate it "Those of you who keep on wishing for a silk gown, may perhaps, at least attain a pair of sleeves."

In other words, in this world we do not always get what we look for – all that we wish for – all that we work for – but if we keep the mark in view, the aim high, the determination sure, we will get something out of life that after all will make it seem very precious in our eyes.

Opportunity Near at Hand

May I say this to you, not from any store of accumulated wisdom of my own, but just one of the little things that strike the eye in the corner of some newspaper – and it is often in odd corners of this kind that I find things well worth while – (it is not a record of a football game, my boys) – simply a quotation from one of the English papers,

"Man’s best things are nearest him,
Life – just about his feet."

In other words, life and its opportunities consists largely in the power of observing, of converting to one’s own use the things we meet with in our passage to and fro. Those of us who think we have to wait for some wonderful period in life when we will come to a well-marked cross-road, and it will depend on our skill, our judgment, our accumulated knowledge to determine which way we should take, are, I think, perhaps in error.

Matter of Service

But look at the other side, and realize that by patiently doing of each day’s task as it comes to the hand of the doer, there is more likelihood of Life’s success. Perhaps not Fame – perhaps Fame is not always desired or desirable – But there comes, I think, from the patient doing of the daily task that character of success, or that form of Fame – to which you have yourselves rendered a tribute today in honoring for a few brief moments the long life record of a man who has given himself to the elevating of his human kind from the store of his knowledge – from the kindness of his heart – and the plentitude of his wisdom. There are few finer things than the recognition of the man who has simply lived his life in the service of his fellow beings.

Well to Wait

Nor is it always the man who reaches the top who has the greatest success. All cannot reach the top – all cannot be there – there are second and third places there are "also-rans." Don’t be too strenuous – too anxious to succeed quickly. It is a flower that soon fades – it is a lite that soon goes out. Patient plodding is rather better. And may I ask you to take through me a bit of a lesson that one of the greatest friends I ever had taught me many years ago, and that is: To sit rather nearer the foot of the table and wait until you are bidden to come up higher. Your triumph and your pleasure will be much greater than if you followed that by effrontery, maybe forced yourself into a place not intended for you.

Product of Experience

Those are only some of the little stray maxims that we pick up along the road – they may come back to you in thought sometimes – such as they are they are all I can offer, all I can say to you today – and they are offered in the pure chance that some bit of it may be remembered. Some of it is based on experience of my own and men I have followed – some of it is experience that has been transmitted to me and when I have been able to act in accordance with their suggestions I have found it of value.

Let me wish you all going out from the university today – let me suggest that you go out full of receptivity to take in all that is best in the world – and keep [on] living that your days to the latest day your life may be prolonged, may be still ready to receive new impressions – still ready to feel charity and kind ness towards your fellow creatures – and to feel that you have lived in a world with which it is your pleasure as well as your duty to work.