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Joe College Warned Of Tough Job AheadBy Hal Boyle--NEW YORK Of'—An open letter to Mr. Joseph College. Class of 1954. U S A.:Dear Joe:Leaving the ivory tower this year, you come into a world that Has lost the ivy of the past.A vast and visible vista lies l*e-fore you that holds a greater peace or a deeper agony than mankind has ever faced before.Before your present crew cut wears into baldness the issue will be settled. This crumbling dream you see now will firm into an achieved vision, or fragment into a nightmare chaos—and. as it goes, the credit or blame will largely come to you.For whatever security you have known you come to breathless problems. It is your task to pick up the terrible broken mirror of now” and try to make it reflect a better world.It’s a great challenge . .. it’s your opportunity . . . And I’m glad it is yours. My generation took up the mirror in its turn. and. I regret to say for all its efforts, must still hand it to you cracked and considerably fogged.Time . . . time ... time . .. that impartial levelcr .. . reaches to reduce or exalt you with ancient troubles before the ink is dry on your sheepskin, before your mother —crying for all the difficulty it caused the family to get you educated—can wet it with exultant tears, secret or public.Now you are a man. with a certificate that says so. in a time that's about as fortunate, or unfortunate. as any. At least it’s a great thing to get a college degree in a time when there still are many jobs waiting.If some industry doesn’t want you—well. Uncle Samuel does. You may think that a forgotten course in the history of early Roman band instruments or a nodding acquain-t Today's PrayerOur God and Father, the giver of all good, grant us health of body and mind, strength for the task assigned and fidelity to the interests of those whom we serve. By all that we do for men may we honor thee, for we serve the Lord Christ. Amen. — Geo. Pidgenn, Toronto. Ont.. past - moderator. United church of Canada.tance with Caesar’s Gallic cam-paigns was a waste of classroomtime.Perhaps so. perhaps not The discipline of learning, however care-lessly and lightheartedly taken, however seriously accepted, does measure a reward in later life. At the verv worst, the college graduates who were in the last World War never had to fight a hill irt Europe that wasn’t there when Caesar lived. Whatever you learned, however you learned it, you will sometime find a use for.With the exception of a very few number of colleges, which tradition-minded elders feel they must stamp the minds of their offspring with, the average American university offers no more than a pleasant doorway to knowledge. Then you bust your foot through and aroundthe door the rest of your life.That's living!It is highly unlikely, if you move boldly into a growing world, that 25 years from now you will have more than one or two close friends from the yearning days you are now leaving. It is highly unlikely that you will ever have in yourlife more than two close friends.Friends don’t grow on clothes trees; nor are they born in easy times. .You are coming, full of the juice of vouth. into the great cider press of time and age It will squeeze you. as it has millions of men before you.Whether you come out of college with 10 million family dollars behind you, or just a boy owing fines to the college library, you’ll be squeezed and hurt—arguing with a wife in Palm Beach, selling chemicals in Dubuque, peddling bonds in Wall Street, trying to cure somebody in Phoenix, or hoping to hold a hill in. well, any country where they blow the bugle and set up a flag you live by.Looking back across 25 years. Joe. I feel you’ve got one big advantage. There is a place in the world for you. and. whatever you have learned, the rest of the world desperately needs it.This crumbling dream ... is yours to put a foundation under. Yesterday you were the hope of tomorrow. Now you are the purpose of today.Make a belter world. Joe. It’s worth the groan it takes. And one of those who would like to live in and enjoy it is.Your friend.Hal BoylePS. Good luck!
Newspaper Details
Raleigh Register
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Wed, Jun 02, 1954
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Henderson D.
NV, USA 01 Nov 2017
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