Commencement Address at Allegheny College by Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath, The Free Mind in a Free World
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THE FREE MIND IN A FREE WORLD*
Commencement Day is a day of fresh beginning. It should be
a
happy occasion. To be sure, that happiness is mixed with an element
of regret, even of sadness, as the graduate leaves Alma Mater and
commences his new life. Friendships knit through four years of close
association are severed, and it is highly improbable that all the
members of this class will ever appear at a single reunion. Neverthe
less, in a few hours, as you scatter, you will take with you rich
memories of your associations here as the most deeply rewarding prize
of college life.
At the same time the achievements which this day represents
give it a special and richly satisfying meaning. Each of you knows
well the effort you have put into your academic life here, and the
progress toward maturity which is now to be punctuated by the con-
ferring of a degree. Perhaps for some the punctuation of this day
will put a period at the end of their education. From now on, they
will consider themselves "educated," and will become intellectually
self-eatisfied. For others, the punctuation of Commencement Day will
be a comma or a semicolon, a pause in the exacting and sometimes tiring
effort of getting an education-to still others a dash into a continued
search for new knowledge and new understandings of the values of mind
and spirit. Allegheny College with its stimulating teachers and its
*Address by Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal
Security Agency, Washington, D. C., at 1952 Commencement Exercises,
Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 10;00 a.m. EDT, June 9, 1952.
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