On the Threshold of Life...

This is the month of the schools: every year in it they graduate for us a company of young women and young men, and push them out into the great school of life — at times provided with what they will need in it, at times empty-handed. It is thus a month of beginning for some, and for others a month of ending (read Miss Rose Ghorayeb's article beside this column).

The students of one of the American colleges recently addressed a question to hundreds of the leading men of thought and politics in the country, asking them what advice they would wish to offer the graduates. The newspaper the New York Times published a number of the answers; here are some of them:

Dean Acheson, America's Secretary of State, said: "You are on the threshold of entering a treasury of minds, which is the touchstone of our civilization. Enter it with eagerness and enthusiasm. And if you come out of it trained in tolerance, having acquired the spirit of criticism and of balanced judgment, you will be worthy of the opportunities you have now obtained."

Harold Ickes, the former Secretary of the Interior, contented himself with saying: "Do not be afraid."

Trygve Lie, Secretary-General of the United Nations, said: "Understand and help the United Nations in its struggle to prevent the outbreak of a third world war."

As for George Marshall, who today heads the American Red Cross, he said: "Sincerity, uprightness, and tolerance are, in my view, the first requirements for acquiring a strong and excellent character. They are the qualities that all of us must practice in our daily lives."