Graduation Address

"Address to the Graduating Class by Hon. Walter E. Foster, Premier of New Brunswick" University Monthly 41, 7 (May 1922): 210-13. (UA Case 67, Box 1)

From you, Chancellor Jones, on behalf of the Senate it was my privilege and honour to receive an invitation to have conferred on me an honorary degree from this our Provincial University. You also wrote requesting that I should give a brief and informal address to the Graduating Class and that I was to confine it to ten minutes. I will now endeavor to acknowledge the honour and at the same time say a few words in an informal way, such as was suggested. Before addressing myself to the Graduating Class I want to say how fully I appreciate the great honour that has been conferred upon me this afternoon, and while I tender my warmest thanks on my own behalf, I also feel that a similar acknowledgment is due from the people of this province on whose behalf it has been my privilege to speak for the past six years, since I have occupied the position of Premier. I cannot ignore the fact that my official position rather than my humble personality is the recipient of the honorary degree which has been bestowed upon me.

As a public man I have frequently the opportunity presented to me of saying something on behalf of our provincial educational institutions and during the course of my remarks I sometimes take the opportunity of referring to our splendid educational system and at the same time offer words of praise to those who are devoting their lives and their talents towards furthering and improving that system and this important work, upon which our future so much depends. I am also proud to refer to our Provincial University with its historic traditions and its record of producing so many eminent and able graduates, those who have made names for themselves and brought credit to our province by their accomplishments, not only within the borders of our province, but in other parts of Canada and in foreign lands as well. It is with much pride that I have been able to refer upon numerous occasions to this our University which has been so instrumental in furnishing the means of an education to so many young men who have passed out through its portals with honours and now that I carry the full weight of a degree, I will feel that I will be able to speak with much more authority and probably with greater frankness than heretofore. The great work of this University has been the wok of years and I applaud when I see any enlargement of its activities.

Many suggestions for extension are made from time to time. Other provinces are able to do better by their state university than we are. More particularly in the West where public lands are set apart for the particular support of their universities. In this province we are greatly handicapped in the expansion of our educational system by reason of our meager income. Indeed it has been with some difficulty that we have been able to even in a small way increase our appropriation to this institution, but in spite of the need for economy brought about by the condition of the times, we have not economized on education for the last two years our appropriation for this purpose has been increased about $100,000 as we realized it was one of the vital needs of the people.

Nature has endowed this institution with a commanding and healthy situation, but nature has not accomplished all, for without the guiding hand of one who is capable and interested in such important work and with high ideals, the results which have been attained could not have been accomplished. It is a credit to you, Chancellor Jones, and those who preceded you, that many of the students who have passed through this institution now look back with pride and great affection and interest to the years which they have spent here as young men.

And now, Sir, to my brief and informal remarks to the Graduating Class. No suggestion has been made as to what I shall say. Let me say, however, that you are particularly fortunate in being able to take advantage of and obtain a college education. Some of you, no doubt, at considerable sacrifice to your parents, not only financially, but by your absence from home.

There are three great outstanding events in the life of every normal individual – birth, marriage and death. And I imagine that some of you who today stand upon the threshold of your career, think that this, your graduation day, is also one of the most important. I am told by Chancellor Jones that your class of 1921 consists of six young men in Forestry, three in Electrical Engineering and two in Civil Engineering. From this time forward I know you will look back with interest at the period of your life when you first entered college with all the vigor, with all the hope and enthusiasm of youth, and now you wonder as to the future. You will pass out of college into the big world. There you will see the great works and the monuments of those who have preceded you. You can look out over this great country from ocean to ocean and see some of the greatest undertakings in the world – immense bridges, our great network of railways, great canals, water power development, and in our own province such structures as the Reversing Falls bridge, the Miramichi bridge, the Grand Falls bridge, our system of roads and other works. These were bought to a successful conclusion by college graduates in civil engineering, just like some of yourselves. Or in the halls of Parliament and in the Legislature of the Province, you may see the finger prints of constructive legislation drafted and crystalized into proper form by graduates of this institution, one or two in particular who during their careers have followed the work of this University with great interest, and which has made for progress and advancement and has greatly assisted in creating a happy and contented people in our province. And you who are graduates in Forestry have only to investigate and inquire into our system of Forestry established in our province and, comparing it with others, you will find an organization equal to, if not better, than that established in other provinces, and well worthy of imitation.

You will be interested in these things, and when you see them your thoughts will turn to what big undertaking or task you will be first engaged upon, what great work you will play some part in; and finally I hope you will be able to view with satisfaction some work in which you have taken part, and admire its beauty, its usefulness or its greatness. I do not know what your individual plans are, but it would pleas everyone interested in our province if we knew New Brunswick would reap the benefit of your education and training.

We frequently hear it said that the present is an unfortunate time for the young graduate, that the war, having left in its wake a long trail of debt from which all nations are suffering, brought on the practice of economy, curtailment of works, and that therefore it is difficult for the young graduate to obtain employment. That may be so, but in my opinion the requirements of the world for those specially educated never was as necessary as at present. Confronted as we are with many problems, the necessity of specially educated people was never so apparent. There is the problem of unrest, political problems, social problems, and the great problems of the future, and all these require the rising generation to realize the necessity for education, which brings with it a broad vision.

As I stated I do not know what your individual plans are, and although I hardly think I would like to advise you to enter political life at first with all its excitement, power and influence that come with it, as well as the troubles and responsibilities, yet there is great opportunity, for both parties need youth and enthusiasm, and there is I assure you room at the top. And so it is all through the professions; to those interested in electrical engineering the columns and the pages devoted by the press to radio is evidence that we are only on the threshold of what we will see, not in the distant but in the near future in electrical development.

Let me not close without a word to the young lady graduates. You will realize how difficult it is for a man to advise young ambitious women. I am a bit old fashioned, but I cannot imagine a better profession for a woman than to be a wife and helpmate of some man possessed of high ideals and who is desirous of utilizing some of his time and talents in the interests of his country. But the world is changing and some of you may sit to the right or left of the speaker before very long. But should you take my advice and depart from the ideals which no doubt you possessed when entering college, you will have at least shown the other members of your family that they did not possess all the brains.

One word of encouragement and I am through. I know there are some of you in the graduating class who have been more fortunate than others in securing greater honours and higher marks. To the others let me say that all the prizes are not won at college. Some of the brightest minds and some of the biggest men who have accomplished big things did not lead their class, but if they won honors in life afterwards it was because they realized when starting out that it would be necessary for them to be diligent, to persevere and to struggle knowing that they were not possessed of those same faculties for learning as were some of their class mates. The fact that they did not lead the rest at college gave them a determination to strive for a record in future life. I now wish you all success and join in the greetings of your class mates, your professors and friends for your future success, prosperity and happiness.