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Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice president of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you, Doctor Carlin. President Anderson and president of the student association.

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President Goldman, wherever I go, I'm always addressing presidents and. Even when he's out of town, I'm greeted by a letter Bishop John Wesley Lord.

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The members of the Board of Trustees, the distinguished educators from our colleges and universities of the federal city and this immediate area. I know that all of you must feel

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as I do at this moment, how privileged we are today to participate in these proceedings and to hear the American University Singers. I just want to take a moment

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before I get away from here, at least to congratulate them publicly and to congratulate their director in this music department. It was beautiful. Members of the faculty and

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students and friends of this university. I think, first of all, I should tell you why I'm here. I was asked by two United States senators and a vice president. Never, never turns down a United States senator.

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Secondly, uh, my son, my oldest son is a graduate of this great university, and I was here for his commencement exercise in 1965. And I'm here too, because of my great admiration for Doctor Hurst Anderson.

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Now, I listened to him explain how he got his name. I wish that you would all take note of the fact that my name is Hubert H. Humphrey.

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That H could be Hurst. But it is not. And I haven't the slightest idea why my mother or father named me in my middle name, Horatio.

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It was bad. It was bad enough to start with Hubert. But I thought if there was any way that any of you might have been of the mind that I was going to deceive you by indicating that my

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middle name was Hurst. I thought we ought to set the record clear today. I was pleased to note the

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bipartisan approach of Doctor Anderson in his remarks. I did note, however, the charter came under the administration of President Harrison. I noticed that he also made

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particular reference to Rutherford B Hayes. And I might mention they are not Democrats, but thanks for at least noting Woodrow Wilson and a casual and friendly reference, even with a sort of tearful note to the New Deal.

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Uh. It did make me feel a little more comfortable for this particular moment. Now. I've looked forward to this privilege of being with the

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students and with faculty and friends of this university. These are the most difficult of times, The most difficult of times to speak, to live, to act. There are times of ferment and

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change. There are times of doubt and exhilaration, of danger and opportunity. Bob Hope and speaking to a Georgetown commencement some time

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ago, said, my advice to you young graduates about to go out into the world, don't do it. Well, may I say that there is an old British cynic that also said that he'd looked into the future,

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and he came to the conclusion it wouldn't work. Now, I'm not going to buy that negative philosophy, because, truthfully, many of the things that we Americans have always sought are now really for the first time within our sight.

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But they are still Ill. Frustratingly, despite being within our sight, beyond our reach. Progress itself has meant rising frustration for many Americans.

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We call it rising expectations for others. And that great French sociologist and political economist, de Tocqueville, who seemed to know so much about America that is pertinent to our day, had this to say.

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The sufferings that are endured patiently as being inevitable become intolerable. The moment that it appears there might be an escape.

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Reform, then, not only serves to reveal more clearly what still remains oppressive, and now all the more unbearable. The suffering.

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It is true, has been reduced, but one's sensitivity has become more acute. What an insight into the modern America and the modern world.

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Perhaps most difficult of all, there is no magic target date, no time when we can say, this is the time when our work will be over. This is when the war will end,

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when the tensions within our society will abate. And yet we are so anxious. I was much touched with the remarks of your president, of your student association, the zeal, the

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conviction, the determination. And I think what we're saying to each other is that once again, we're being tested. We are, as President Kennedy put it, when he said that peace and

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freedom do not come cheaply. We are destined, all of us here today to live out most, if not all, of our lives in uncertainty and challenge and peril.

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The words really of a prophet as well as a statesman. What is important is that each of us and each of our democratic institutions possess the strength,

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the vitality, the resilience, and as individuals, the faith to see us through these uncertain times. This very same message was delivered on this campus by the late President Kennedy when he

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spoke here at your commencement. Now, among our citizens and among our institutions, none must be stronger, more vital, or more resilient than those associated with the American University, all

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universities. And I want, if you'll permit me, to do some plain talking about what I believe to be the responsibilities of American universities.

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Their students and their faculties and their administration to provide both a forum for ferment and a platform for progress. You see, my life is a rather uncertain one. I like to talk about universities.

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I may be back teaching. Who knows? Now, it's easy to make the case that this generation of college students is the most responsible that we've ever known.

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It's progress oriented. It's concerned, actively involved in public affairs. In fact, I have made this case often, and it stands the test of cross examination.

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I doubt that more than a pound or two of goldfish have been swallowed in the last five years, and one student to a telephone booth seems to be the accepted standard.

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And lo and behold, even panty raids for some reason seem to have lost their appeal. My goodness, how things have changed. Now there is the Peace Corps today, now 13,000 strong, with

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over 16,000 alumni and applications coming in right now, faster than ever before. There is Vista Project Upward Bound.

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There is the teachers corps and public service announcements, cluttered dormitory, bulletin boards once that were filled with but party plans. There were peaceful sit ins and freedom marches in the early

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1960s, and largely the work of young people, many of them from our universities. There are the well over 300,000 college students this year who are engaged in helping voluntarily the

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disadvantaged, many of them in tutorial work. There are over 500,000 young Americans bravely and patiently serving our country today in Vietnam, in a difficult and complex and ugly foreign conflict.

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There are another 3 million young Americans standing guard for our security at home and abroad. Now, every bit of this is true, and it speaks well for the sacrifices and the achievements of this younger generation.

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But in all candor, it is not what it appears to represent your generation in many of the publics, in many or in the public mind, in many of the minds of our people right now. And this is what bothers me, worries me, and gives me

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heartache. The heckler, the rioter, the draft card burner, the flower child are unfortunately obscured, obscuring the Peace Corps, the volunteer and community action, the veteran and

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that hard working student, the peaceful freedom marcher on that dusty southern road is being replaced on on our living room televisions by the shouter of obscenity and hate. The negative acts of the few, and I repeat of the few, are driving

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out the positive acts of the many. What a tragedy. How unfortunate. Yet there it is.

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And we just as well face up to it. The new image that I speak of does not accurately describe the majority of the American students today, any more than the old one did.

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But there is enough truth in what I've said. Enough truth in that image to tatter the banner under which this generation marches, and to undermine the critical role of free universities in a free society.

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So I'm worried about it as a former teacher, as a parent, as a citizen. And I think it's something that all of us ought to worry about.

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Our universities should be citadels of freedom, the guardians and the nourishers of free inquiry and expression, the search for truth. They are the custodians of our cultural heritage, and they should

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be the progenitors of a new day. They should be the testing ground of any and all ideas, even the foolish ones, as Woodrow Wilson, who's been referred to today, once said, the wisest thing to do with

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the fool is to encourage him to hire a hall and a discourse to his fellow citizens. Nothing chills nonsense like exposure to fresh air.

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The American University. And not just this one, but everyone should be in microcosm, what we would wish for the American society. It should be a free and open community filled with searching,

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inquiring, thinking people, each seeking his own answers in his own way, yet extending full respect for the ideas and the lifestyles of others. Now this to me, is the meaning of

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our pluralistic society. But I fear that on many American campuses today, that ideal is being blemished and some places threatened.

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I fear that freedom of inquiry and expression is being censored. Yes, I repeat censored. And we should not forget that there are many kinds of

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censorship. There is the old fashioned book burning. Some of you may not remember that

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there was some of this in our country only about 15 years ago. There's outright proscription. Just deny people the right to speak and to write.

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There is another censorship. Censorship by intimidation. And this is the kind that I see growing today.

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When some Americans find it difficult or even cannot visit a university campus in safety, much less make their views heard. Censorship is at work.

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You say it can't happen here in America. Well, I say it has happened and it is happening. Let me be specific. I visited a great campus, Stanford

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University, a year ago, for a question and answer session with a group of several thousand students. It was a vigorous give and take session. Excellent.

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A few, yes, a few walked out without listening, imposing self-censorship. In fact, they didn't even know what it was going to say, and I wasn't so sure of myself.

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The rest of us, however, had a constructive, if vigorous, and if filled with controversy. Exchange of views. But as we left the hall, some of

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us who had been inside were literally set upon, rushed by several hundred who had not even tried to get in or to participate in the discussion. We faced a chanting, ranting,

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hating mob and on a college campus, not in the streets, but on a college campus. Now, my party and I were able to return to our cars only under armed protection.

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I always have plenty of it. It's no problem for me. The Secret Service men who are with me were the victims of abuse and had filth thrown upon them.

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I asked this question is this freedom? Is this what we mean by cultural enrichment? What was the result? The benefits of our constructive dialogue with several thousand

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students, all good students, was all but lost. The media was not interested in what happened inside, but what happened outside. And what Americans saw on their

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television screens and in their newspapers was the spectacle of an officer of this government. In this instance, it happened to be the vice president, not me, but the holder of this office under

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threat of bodily harm from what they said were university students who are, as I have been the favored few in America. Now, the same kind of thing happened to Secretary McNamara, a PhD in his own right, a scholar, a brilliant man.

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And it happened at Harvard. Arthur Goldberg, if ever a progressive man, he is one. A former Supreme Court justice and

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now our ambassador at the United Nations has been bullied, shoved, harassed on several campuses. Yet what is his crime? He works for peace.

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His threat? What is his threat to young Americans? His life is a testimonial to peace and social justice, starting with the least of these.

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The oppressed worker, if you please. To the great cause of the United Nations.

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Now, I'm not making any special plea for members of the administration. Harry Truman said, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

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Now, I happen to think that's true. We in public life are a little bit different, but I'm talking to not only about administration people,

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but I'm talking about George Wallace, who went to Dartmouth. I don't agree with what he says, but I recall something about Voltaire. And I can only paraphrase it.

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Who said he did not need to agree with what you said, but he would defend unto death your right to say it. So I'm talking about all the citizens of our nation who, if they want to, should have the basic right to be heard, not

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necessarily to be taken seriously, but to be heard. Now listen, here are the voices, and I've heard them a thousand times. Hear them shout.

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No freedom of speech for reactionaries, no freedom of speech for those socialists, no freedom of speech for warmongers, no freedom of speech for peaceniks. And soon it becomes no freedom of speech for anyone.

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Now the university requires, if a university requires 100 armed policemen to escort a member of the president's cabinet or anyone else to and from a podium, it has to ask itself some serious questions.

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Now, I didn't have to have that here today, and I'm deeply grateful to this university for the example that it sets. And what I'm saying and what I've

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said to some of the young students of this area. Let us set an example. If abuse, violence, obscenity, harassment and stormtrooper stormtrooper tactics have no place

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in our peaceful American society and we say they don't. They are dangerous in the extreme. When they obscure and disrupt the purposes of a great university.

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Sit ins are not nearly as impressive as think ins, and walkouts never equaled a good talking it out. The rhythmic chant of a noisy

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clack is not dialogue and debate. Muscle cannot substitute for the mind. The law of the jungle and the

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school of law cannot coexist on a campus. Fascists, communists, racists, cross burners, book burners, flag burners all of them share a basic intolerance for the views of others.

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And the next step is intolerance for the rights of others. And history is strewn with the tangled wreckage left by militant minorities, each of which thought

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it had cornered the market in social justice and virtue, and had discovered the true belief to the exclusion of all others. Now, what can we do about it? Well, simply reverse the trend. Bring free speech to a new high rather than to a new low.

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Guarantee fellow students to anyone. Safe conduct on your campus for every idea, for everyone. Make your university safe havens. Welcome hosts, receptive and

00:21:09.980 - 00:21:31.610

responsible environments for ideas and opinions, even if you don't like them and those who advocate them. Tutor America in true freedom and liberty, not bigotry and violence. Set the example for mature, responsible conduct and repudiate

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those who confuse freedom with license liberty with abuse. You see, I believe that the times demand even more today than ever of America's universities. Free speech alone does not make

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for a free society. Debate alone does not necessarily mean development. Protest alone does not always mean

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peace. Study alone is not necessarily building with all their resources and knowledge and vitality. American universities must become community action centers for an

00:22:09.290 - 00:22:24.290

assault upon the practical inequities that still limit freedom in our society. The purpose of life is not knowledge, said Huxley, but action grounded in knowledge.

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Freedom and human development and peace are not the products of a moment, but of a lifetime and many lifetimes. And they're also the product of small and often obscure acts undertaken by people able to look a little beyond themselves.

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Our most urgent domestic challenge of today is to provide full and equal opportunity to every American. And this is not susceptible to dramatic and instant solution, but it is susceptible to solution.

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This is the time for getting down to it. We're past the grand and dramatic gesture, as noble as it may be.

00:23:11.030 - 00:23:20.030

Sit ins are not going to produce job skills. Banners and placards proclaiming justice are not going to unsnarl the tangled legacy of

00:23:20.030 - 00:23:40.100

discrimination and second class citizenship that is crushing out the spirit of millions of Americans today. Protests are not synonymous with peace and progress. The solutions lie in long, hard, undramatic work which seldom ever

00:23:40.140 - 00:23:52.620

get your picture in the paper and won't get you a 15 second news clip on the 7:00 news. Project Heath is one way of getting started.

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You have it on this campus. True, it's only a conference, I know, but it can be the beginning of a commitment by Washington's institutions of higher learning to help defeat the infection of blighted opportunity that besets

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our federal city. I noticed in the morning press that they're worried about the spread of cholera. Ladies and gentlemen, worry about the spread of inequity and

00:24:17.260 - 00:24:30.410

equality of slum ism right here at home. I need not recite the considerable efforts of the past few years to come to grips with the crisis of urban America. Much has been done.

00:24:30.890 - 00:24:44.650

Far more needs to be done. But the big lesson of our time is that the federal government alone, no matter how great its efforts, cannot rebuild American society. And it shouldn't.

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We're a free people. The rebuilding has to be done by the people themselves, by society itself, through an intimate partnership of progress consisting of government at every level, business, labor, private and

00:25:01.050 - 00:25:14.650

community organizations, churches, and especially our universities. And here I want to engage again in the plainest of talk. I think that the educational institution must move back into the community, as this one has.

00:25:15.290 - 00:25:22.270

It must abandon some of its aspirations for isolation. It must not be a victim of withdrawal.

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It must not be even an ivory tower, but a tower of strength in the daily life of our people. Universities are not designed to be meadows of meditation alone. They are areas for action.

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I believe that every university which gains its support from either public or private sources, has an obligation to involve itself and its students in its own time and place in the practical, day to day betterment of society.

00:25:55.750 - 00:26:06.510

Now, is this new? I don't think so. The land grant colleges have given us adequate testimony of what can be done. Now more than ever.

00:26:06.510 - 00:26:19.070

We need a reaffirmation of that tradition of public service of great universities in every community. We need university students and faculty with their sleeves rolled up.

00:26:20.820 - 00:26:32.100

putting as much energy into doing the job of community life as exposing its limitations and weaknesses. We generally know what's wrong.

00:26:34.100 - 00:26:51.660

The question is, are we willing to do what's right? And what does this mean? Well, I think if you're going to have practical engagement of communities of of universities in the communities outside of their gates, it means this 12 hours a

00:26:51.660 - 00:27:04.540

day, maybe, or 12 hours a week, not a day in the classroom and perhaps five in the lab of the Ghetto Youth center for student and faculty alike. You don't need to build a new

00:27:04.540 - 00:27:18.720

laboratory to study life sciences. Go see the people. It may mean accepting students who under normal circumstances, would not be qualified, but they're desperately needed Did in their

00:27:18.720 - 00:27:29.080

community as trained citizens. It may mean the injunction to faculty members. Publish or perish to be changed,

00:27:29.600 - 00:27:52.880

to participate and perform, and to do so constructively in and out of the university community and my member friends of the faculty. It means teach, teach, teach, not just preach, but teach. Yes, American communities need the help desperately.

00:27:55.080 - 00:28:11.280

With the mundane, but the vital work of revising city charters, reforming state legislatures, building new and equitable tax structures, creating regional and metropolitan institutions of government, solving problems of management and mass transit,

00:28:11.560 - 00:28:31.430

public welfare and law enforcement help, which is available frequently Quickly only in the university faculty. The concerned professor is not the one who just walks and talks, but he's the one who will spend even as little as one evening a week in

00:28:31.470 - 00:28:47.830

an inner city neighborhood, working with a committee, meeting with that committee to help the people on the fringe of American society articulate their needs, shape their programs, help them in housing and urban development and job training.

00:28:49.270 - 00:29:01.910

I happen to be chairman of the President's Council on Youth Opportunity, and I can tell you this audience, we need your help. We need the help of students and faculty alike. We need to keep our schools in which the public has a $60 billion

00:29:01.910 - 00:29:14.910

investment in elementary and secondary schools in this country. We need to keep them open 12 months a year as beacons of hope for disadvantaged children. You see, I think we must maximize

00:29:15.050 - 00:29:24.650

the use of our resources for those who need and require the extra effort. This is the helping hand that brings self-reliance.

00:29:25.330 - 00:29:36.170

Yes, we need your help in education, recreation, job opportunities for needy, for needy young Americans. And might I say to you what I've

00:29:36.170 - 00:29:48.770

said to my own family? Every boy and girl, every man and woman that is privileged to have a university education owes half of his life, at least to the rest of the community that made it possible.

00:29:49.410 - 00:30:03.330

No one ever paid his way through a university who can pay for the art treasures, the literature, the science, the accumulated knowledge of centuries. And those few of us in this society that are privileged to

00:30:03.370 - 00:30:17.680

have a university education, we are forever indebted to the multitude. And maybe if you live to be 75 like this university, You would have paid the interest on the gift

00:30:17.840 - 00:30:35.160

that was given to you if you participate. Now, finally, last Sunday, I read in the Washington Post a statement of the Association of American Colleges, the National Student Association, and other groups responsible for the quality of

00:30:35.160 - 00:30:41.880

American universities. They endorsed a joint statement on rights and freedoms of students. And believe me, I am very

00:30:41.880 - 00:30:54.920

concerned about the rights of our students. I think some of the student protests on curriculum, on university patterns of action and of teaching have been very, very helpful.

00:30:56.240 - 00:31:03.880

It's too bad that the students had to think it think it up. Those of us who are the teachers and professors, we should have been the first.

00:31:05.000 - 00:31:19.110

Well, the students listed these or these groups, I should say listed out these rights and freedoms, among others. Students should be free to have whatever speakers and forum and form whatever organizations they wish.

00:31:19.470 - 00:31:31.670

I guess that's what I was trying to say. Students should participate in drafting rules of campus conduct, and then might I add that they should assist in seeing that they're abided by? It's easy to draft rules.

00:31:31.670 - 00:31:47.590

I've written a number of laws as a senator, 16 years of writing laws. My goodness, to write one is one thing and to get people to live by them is another, including the drafters, I might add. Colleges should also clearly distinguish their own rules from

00:31:47.590 - 00:32:00.950

city, state, and national laws, and institutional authority should never be used merely to duplicate the function of general laws. Now that's what was said in the press. Yes, it's a bill of rights, and it's a sound one.

00:32:01.430 - 00:32:20.050

It deserves support and acceptance. But I ask this question Will it mean greater responsibility, greater freedom, Greater service to the society, or will it be a license to cheat when it comes to the tough business of democratic

00:32:20.050 - 00:32:35.530

living? The answer is in your hands. Your answer will be a fruitful one. For as Goethe said, the destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinions of the young men under five and 20.

00:32:35.570 - 00:32:48.850

And I would add to Goethe, the young men and women under the age of five and 20, and that's over 50% of the population of this land. The beacon of your freedoms, or

00:32:48.850 - 00:33:05.090

the contamination of your license, will extend far beyond your campuses into American society and the world at large. I think it is time, therefore, that we, all of us students and non-students, dedicate ourselves to not only that Bill of rights,

00:33:05.090 - 00:33:20.120

but a far greater one, a Bill of rights and consonant Inconsonant responsibilities in the 21st century. Because there are there are no rights without responsibilities. The right to peace.

00:33:21.160 - 00:33:31.160

So that man may live and hope free from the threat of those who would march to power through brute force. Now, if the cameras will just turn

00:33:31.160 - 00:34:11.340

this way. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I want to say.

00:34:11.380 - 00:34:22.060

And and I say, Doctor Anderson, this isn't in my script either. Uh, I have a fatal weakness. When I see an audience like this. I have a speech here that I've worked on.

00:34:22.060 - 00:34:30.180

And then I see you, G. I think of other things I want to say, too. And sometimes I can well understand why some folks want to walk out. I feel that way myself sometimes

00:34:30.180 - 00:34:41.260

in the middle of my talks. Well, now for the few of you that left and the many that stayed, I said, there are rights and responsibilities, and one buttresses the other.

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The right, I'm sure that is uppermost in this day and age is the right of life itself, the right of peace. The late and beloved Pope John the 23rd reminded us that mankind was a human family, and that war itself was fratricidal.

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I think we have to know that. and we must bend every effort to its abolition. That right to peace, so that men

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may live and hope free from the threat of those who would march to power through breach, through brute force. The right to justice, so that every man everywhere may stand before his peers with full and equal opportunity to achieve the

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highest humanity, the right to free expression so that man may be speak and be heard without intimidation, unfettered and unthreatened by either the majority or the minority. The right to education, so that no man may be another slave through

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the denial of skills or the development of his talents, the right to public accountability so that man may remain the master of the state rather than the state. The master of man, the right to

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full opportunity, so that man may lift himself to the limit of his ability. Every man his chance, no matter what the color of his skin, the tenets of his religion, or the

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condition of his birth. The right to public compassion so that man may live with the knowledge that his health, his well-being, and yes, his old age are the concern of his society,

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the right to free, the right to movement and free association, so that man may freely move and choose his friends without coercion. And the right to privacy, so that

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man may be free from the heavy hand of the snoopers, the watchers, the listeners, and the right to rest and to recreation, so that the necessity of labor may not cripple human development and cultural attainment.

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The right to a safe and wholesome environment. A decent home and a neighborhood. Clean air and full protection of the law.

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Now, these are the rights of this, the last third of the 20th century and the promise of the next century. They are the rights that we should seek and do seek at home and in the world.

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But they will never be achieved without the exercise of constant or commensurate responsibilities. The responsibilities, the responsibility to participate in the affairs of a community, of a nation, of a world, lest

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abstention. Leave the initiative to those who would exploit us. The responsibility of public

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service, lest service be to self rather than to fellow man. The responsibility to support the rule of law, lest the law of the jungle engulf us at home and abroad. The responsibility to protect ideals in the face of force, lest

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vision be lost and expediency become a habit. The responsibility to respect and defend the rights of others, lest freedom become licensed. These are rights and

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responsibilities. Ladies and gentlemen, worthy of free people. These are rights emanating from

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mankind's deepest human needs. These are responsibilities in keeping with mankind's highest capacities. But neither these rights nor these responsibilities will ever be

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fully realized in America until we prove worthy of them. And I can. I call on you, as citizens of the land, the university, to make the image of your generation One of

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such clarity that there can be no misunderstanding of it. An image not of despair, but of hope. Not of selfishness, but of selflessness. Not of escapism, but of open challenge to the hard realities of

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our time. Thomas Huxley, when he visited America a century ago, wrote these words I cannot say that I am the slightest, in the slightest degree impressed by your bigness or your

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material resources. As such, size is not grander and territory does not make a nation. The great issue about which hangs

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the terror of overhanging fate is what are you going to do with these things? Never has a land had so much powerful, rich, equipped with great capacity, tremendous ability, great universities, with almost 7 million of our young men

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and women now attending them. But the question is, what shall we do with these things? Who shall speak for the people? Said Carl Sandburg, who has the answers.

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Where is the surer interpreter? Who knows what to say? These are the questions more important, my young friends, who can do what must be done if this America of ours is to stand one day as a place where the rights of man were fully and finally

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achieved, because the responsibilities of men were fully and freely exercised. My answer. You are the ones.

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We are the ones together. Thank you.