406 Presidential Addresses 



has obtained something for which he or she has not 

 personally paid. No matter what the school, what 

 the university, every American who has a school 

 training, a university training, has obtained some- 

 thing given to him outright by the State, or given 

 to him by those dead or those living who were able 

 to make provision for that training because of the 

 protection of the State, because of existence within 

 its borders. Each one of us then who has an edu- 

 cation, school or college, has obtained something 

 from the community at large for which he or she 

 has not paid, and no self-respecting man or woman is 

 content to rest permanently under such an obliga- 

 tion. Where the State has bestowed education the 

 man who accepts it must be content to accept it 

 merely as a charity unless he returns it to the State 

 in full, in the shape of good citizenship. I do not 

 ask of you, men and women here to-day, good citi- 

 zenship as a favor to the State. I demand it of you 

 as a right, and hold you recreant to your duty if 

 you fail to give it. 



Here you are in this university, in this State with 

 its wonderful climate, which is permitting people of 

 a northern stock for the first time in the history of 

 that northern stock to gain education in physical 

 surroundings somewhat akin to those which sur- 

 rounded the early Greeks. Here you have all those 

 advantages and you are not to be excused if you do 

 not show in tangible fashion your appreciation of 

 them and your power to give practical effect to 

 that appreciation. From all our citizens we have 



