A Treasure in an Old Book

Recently, while cleaning off a book shelf, I thumbed through a 1964 Methodist hymnal and found inside a typed sheet that contained an excerpt from what seemed to be a commencement address. From references in the text, I deduced that it was likely from the early 1970s. After Googling certain phrases from the text, I learned the originator was Dr. Bergen Evans of Northwestern University and the message was shared by him in a radio program in 1969. Commencement speakers across the country borrowed Evans’ message in the years that followed.

The generations about which he speaks are mostly gone now. Those that still live are in their 90s or 100s. My parents, who passed on in 2015 and 2019 were part of this group. My older sister graduated from college in 1970 and may have heard this address herself, which still speaks today:

“If you of the graduating class will look over into the bleachers to your left or right, I will re-introduce you to representatives of some of the most remarkable people ever to walk the earth. These are people you already know—your parents and grandparents.

“These are the people who within just five decades (1919-1969) have by their work increased your life expectancy by approximately 50 percent, and who, while cutting the working day by a third, have more than doubled per capita output.

“These are the people who have given you a healthier world than they found. And because of this you no longer have to fear epidemics of flu, typhus, diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet fever, measles or mumps that they knew in their youth. And the dreaded polio is no longer a medical factor, while TB is almost unheard of.

“Let me remind you that these remarkable people lived through history’s greatest depression. Many of these people know what it is to be poor, what it is to be hungry and cold. And because of this, they determined that it would not happen to you, that you would have a better life, you would have food to eat, milk to drink, vitamins to nourish you, a warm home, better schools and greater opportunities to succeed than they had.

“Because they gave you the best, you are the tallest, healthiest, brightest and probably best looking generation to inhabit the land. And because they were materialistic, you will work fewer hours, learn more, have more leisure, travel to more distant places and have more of a chance to follow your life’s ambition.

“These are also the people who fought man’s grisliest war. They were the people who defeated the tyranny of Hitler and who, when it was all over, had the compassion to spend billions of dollars to help their former enemies rebuild their homelands. And these are the people who had the sense to begin the United Nations.

“It was representatives of these two generations, who through the highest court of the land, fought racial discrimination at every turn to begin a new era in civil rights.

“They built thousands of high schools, trained and hired tens of thousands of better teachers and at the same time made higher education a very real possibility for millions of youngsters, where once it was only the dream of a wealthy few.

“And they made a start—although a late one—in healing the scars of the earth and in fighting pollution and the destruction of our natural environment.

“While they have done all these things, they have had some failures. They have not yet found an alternative for war, nor for racial hatred. But they—those generations—made more progress by the sweat of their brows than in any previous era, and don't you forget it. And, if your generation can make as much progress in as many areas as these two generations have, you should be able to solve a good many of the world’s remaining ills.

“But it won’t be easy. And you won’t do it by negative thoughts, nor by tearing down or belittling. You may and can do it by hard work, humility, hope and faith in mankind. Try it.”