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President Franklin Roosevelt today received an honorary degree and a gala welcome in Philadelphia when the Nation’s Chief Executive took part in Temple University’s Founder’s Day exercises, commemorating the 93rd anniversary of the birth of Dr.Russel H. Conwell, the institution’s founder. The President ignored any political reference in his brief address, in which he thanked the University for the Honor and lauded education for all. He quoted George Washington on one occasion.
He was Introduced by Governor Earle of Pennsylvania. The honorary degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence was bestowed by Dr. Charles E. Buery, president of Temple.
President Roosevelt: Today, instead of 168,000, less one, over a million students are seeking degrees in our colleges and universities and more than 700,000 are enrolled in extension courses and summer schools. I think that we of Temple University—and you see I am exercising my right now to speak as an alumnus—can take special pride in the part that our institution has taken in this growth, for Temple has carried in practice the basic ideal of its great founder, Doctor Russell Conwell. I am very happy to think back to the days when I was in college and heard him deliver that famous lecture which almost every man, woman and child knew. Doctor Conwell believed that every young person should be given a chance to obtain a good education, and he founded Temple University to meet the needs of those who might not be able to afford a college education in other hails. He believed that education should respond to community needs and fit itself into the many-sided and complex life that modern conditions have imposed upon us.
I shall watch with the keenest interest the working out of the plan recently adopted by Temple for carrying even further the practical application of this practical guiding ideal. I refer to the plan for forming an organization to be known as the “Associates of Temple University,” and to be composed of representatives of the various commercial, industrial, financial and professional interests of the community outside the University’s walls. As I understand it—and this is something that every other university can well afford to emulate- as I understand it, this organization will be far more than a mere advisory body, set up to meet on special and infrequent occasions and to draft recommendations of a general character. The “Associates of Temple University” will be an integral and organic part of the University’s structure; the individual Associates will have clearly defined duties and responsibilities, which they will carry out according to a definite plan, and their purpose will be to serve as the “eyes and ears” of the university throughout the community, constantly alert to the changing social and economic needs, and continuously interpreting these needs to the university itself.
I am proud to be the head of a Government which tries to think along similar lines, a Government that has sought and is seeking to make a substantial contribution to the cause of education, even in a period of economic distress. Through the various agencies of the national Government, we have been helping educational institutions not only to maintain their existence, but to add to their equipment and to their offerings to the youth of the country. Since 1933 the Government has made, through the various governmental agencies of the Administration, allotments of various kinds to communities for schools, colleges and library buildings, amounting to more than $400,000,000. I shall not go into higher mathematics and tell you the man-hours of work that that has created, but you can work it out for yourself, and you will agree with me that that expenditure of money has served at least two purposes. In addition to bricks and mortar and labor and loans, we are also providing through the Works Progress Administration educational courses for thousands of groups of adults wherever there are competent unemployed teachers; and, through the National Youth Administration, funds for part-time employment to help deserving young people to earn their way through accredited colleges and universities in every part of the United States.
Here is that complete address, as given by President Roosevelt at Temple University in Philadelphia on February 22, 1936.
