For Life in Their Time
W E ARE a people of action. Action is external, but external action proceeds from within, from our feeling and our thinking, and whatever conditions these springs of action controls our destiny. Religion having by constitutional mandate been excluded from the sphere of state activity, education remains the most vitally significant of all state functions. It affects the present and determines the future. It underlies all other concerns of public polity-convenience, progress, welfare, even justice. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. The leadership of our state's largest educational institution is a solemn responsibility of which I am deeply conscious. I accept the responsibility, not in reliance upon my own strength, nor even upon the cooperative strength and wisdom of the company of scholars who will labor with me. I believe this university to be an instrument of social progress, and I accept its leadership in reliance upon that unseen Power which gives to man his ceaseless yearning for a better life. Weighty though the burden, I am happy to bear it in association with the people of my native state. Their friendly loyalty and their loyal friendship are a tradition-and a prophecy. "Verily the lines are fallen unto us in pleasant places." But we in Ohio would not live unto ourselves alone; we would not if we could. This present occasion is an earnest of our desire to reach out toward the fellowship of scholars everywhere. We mean to bear our part in the broad advance of learning. We shall strive to sense the rhythm of the march. We are grateful to you and to the institutions you represent for the friendly interest which your presence here bespeaks. The people of Ohio at great cost