Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

equal"ordered."other."FLUID SOCIETY, AND REGISTER YOUR INFLUENCE BY GIVING DIRECTION TO THE CURRENT OF THE EVER-CHANGING LIFE ABOUTYOU INTO USEFUL AND CONSTRUCTIVECHANNELS.Those of us who entered upon our professionalcareers about the turn of the century were veryconscious of what we called "progress," and we littlerealized how far that progress was to carry us awayfrom our comfortable, secure, and somewhat smugmanner of life. No one, then, was talking about national security, social security, old age security, orincome taxes! If I would venture any special criticism upon my own generation, it would be that wetook too many things for granted and as permanent,in what we considered a fixed order of society. Yetall the time the waves of the future were carryingus away unconsciously as on a slow moving tide fromour once familiar landscape. We were not sufficiently alerted to the fact that the world is constantlychanging and presently we woke up to discover thatdramatic and tragic events were going on all aroundus, revolutionary events of which we were not onlyspectators but actors, ourselves.So I ask you to adjust your thinking to a fluidsociety, and bend your best energies to directing thecourse of world events as they touch you, and havea real man's part in shaping the things to come.One thing is certain, if we read the signs of thetimes correctly, there will be abundant call upon youto lend an intelligent and energetic hand to the molding of the society of tomorrow.On Monday May 17, 1954, the United StatesSupreme Court startled the nation with its unanimous decision sweeping away all constitutional support of segregation in public and tax supported institutions. It is ninety-one years since the EmancipationProclamation was written, and the implementationof its noble purpose has passed through slow andcontroversial processes. Twenty-two legislative enactments and decisions of the Supreme Court havemarked the progress of this up to May 17, 1954. Itis eighty-six years since the 14th Amendment wasproclaimed a part of the United States Constitution.It is fifty-eight years since the Supreme CourtJustice Harlan dissenting established the doctrineof "separate andprovision for white andnegro races on interstate carriers. And now thewords of Justice Harlan, (used in his lonely dissentin 1896) become in fact a part of the law of the land.Justice Harlan said : "Our constitution is color blindand neither knows nor tolerates classes of Americancitizens . . . The arbitrary separation on the basis ofrace ... is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistentwith the civil freedom and equality before the law established by the Constitution." While the recent decision dealt exclusively with segregation in theschools, there is not a word in Chief Justice Warren'sopinion that was inconsistent with the earlier viewof Justice Harlan. Here is an instance in which alonely voice crying in the wilderness finally becomesthe expression of a people's will, and in which justiceovertakes and thrusts aside a timerous inexperience.This has been a cause which has been traditionally dear to the heart of Geneva College. TheJuly 14, 1954old Academy, revived after the Civil War, openedits doors to students of the Negro race; and withrare exception they have achieved their degrees,without let or hindrance because of race or color.With this doctrine of the brotherhood of man woventhroughout the fabrics of Geneva College history,your sons and daughters can carry forward the torchof brotherhood and have your part to play in creating a fraternal atmosphere throughout our country.The opinion of Chief Justice Warren ended, "Itis so But that is not the end. The orderlypractical implementation of this decision fraughtwith such complicated perplexities, waits upon yourintelligence and patience. The customs and ingrainedhabits of decades can not be erased overnight. ButI believe that common sense will prevail in makingthese adjustments and eventually justice will be donenot merely because the Court has so ordered, butbecause the nation's conscience has reached the pointwhere the specified kind of injustice can no longerbe tolerated in a democratic age.3.It is in the realm of education that Americalooks to the universities and colleges for specific contributions to a creative social order. Without doubtwe have made great advances in the methods andtechniques of our school systems. It is a far cryfrom the one-room red brick Chippawa Townshipschool house, so recently demolished,with its redhot stove in the center, and its common drinkingdipper for us all,to which Clarence and I trudgedtoback and forth through weather foul and fair,the modern well equipped school buildings, with theirbus delivering pupils to the door. But the fundamental principles of our intellectual disciplines are thesame. Perhaps our search for knowledge might beeven more rewarding today if we laid emphasis uponmodern comforts and conveniences. A few days agothere appeared an article in the New York Times,telling how educators at the University of Michiganhave just completed what they call "a classroom oftomorrow,"as a kind of pilot edition for architectsof schools to follow ; it boasts of complete flexibilityand freedom of design, freedom of decoratibn, andchoice of equipment. The effort is to achieve the ideallearning environment, and the objective is to relievethe drab and dour appearance of so many classrooms, and provide light on dark days. Cocoa coloredmosaic tile covers one wall, while others are in natural birch paneling. Desks and chairs are portable,and the class can shift from a more formal arrangement to a bull session atmosphere as occasion demands.This is a far cry from the classic definition ofa university "A student on one end of a log, andJohns Hopkins on the But whether by roughor easy routes, the quest for knowledge must go on.The drive for research stimulated sotoday by government grants and foundations stems from man'sinstinctive nature which impels him to seek for anunderstanding of himself and the universe. In themore primitive stages of his quest for knowledge, upto the turn of the 18th century, research was motivated to a large extent by man's instinctive inquisitiveness.The work of the astronomer, for instance,was the child of wonder. Emanuel Kant, you willremember, exclaims something to the effect that he21