A Letter Regarding The National Emergency

Editor’s note: This story from 1951 contains dated language that is no longer used today. In the interest of keeping a historical record, it appears here as it was originally published.

May I congratulate the whole body of Princeton students upon their refusal to be thrown into panic by uncertainties ahead. Of course you are under strain, far greater than older generations — which have less at stake — feel. But your proper worries have not swerved you from pursuing your purpose in coming to Princeton and I know that you will keep your heads in the future. The patriotism and stability which you have exhibited during the last few weeks have made all of us in the administration and faculty very proud.

Circumstances call for calm reappraisal of the future and preparation for probable readjustments, of a comprehensive nature, by both University and students. Clearly, we are in a state of national emergency, which is rapidly destroying our expectations of life as usual, in education as well as in business.

Since conditions and needs will change as the future unfolds, the guiding principle for faculty and administration will be flexibility and adaptability in order to articulate the University as closely as possible with the national interest and with the needs of our students.

We believe that any immediate changes int eh curriculum would be premature, but we shall be ready to make them when the occasion demands. We shall not abandon our faith in liberal education. We shall strive to preserve the content and quality of the courses we offer. The nation needs young men with a college background — the longer the crisis the more it will need them — not so much for the specific information they have, although this is often immensely important, but because in general they have acquired those habits of thought and analysis which fit them to absorb, quickly and accurately, new knowledge and apply it with judgment.

We do propose to initiate, as promptly as possible, a program of lectures and discussions, to be conducted by qualified faculty members, which will afford opportunities for new knowledge concerning the roots of the present crisis and the issues for which the free world is contending.

Unless the provisions of the Selective Service Act are modified by Congressional legislation, you can look forward to continuing on the campus until the end of the school year next June. You know as well as I do — it isn’t necessary to labor the point — that the postponement of a draft call is not a gift by a generous government to an individual it desires to favor. Rather it is a policy in behalf of the national interest, which recognizes — what can be demonstrated and calculated — that leadership is the most important ingredient of victory and that, by and large, it is from Americans in college that the continual flow of leadership must come. For this reason I believe — and I hope Congress will agree — that some flow of men through the colleges and universities must continue — world war or no world war. Obviously however, the volume of this flow will be affected by critical needs for manpower elsewhere.

Modifications in the normal social and extracurricular life on the campus must be anticipated as circumstances unravel. Princeton believes in campus life and extracurricular activities as valuable elements in the cultivation of mind, personality and character. Recognizing them to be an essential part of a man’s life here, we shall maintain them on a scale commensurate with such future shifts in focus and numbers as may become necessary. The shifts to be anticipated will be in the direction of increased emphasis on the academic program. Undoubtedly some parts of our social life are in for severe scrutiny and face probable contraction.

Beware of rumors. At times like these they fly thick and fast. You can count on my colleagues and me to do our utmost to keep you abreast of developments in the government’s program, of changes in your individual status, and of modifications in the operations of the University. Wait until you get it straight from headquarters, and headquarters will try to keep close to the horse’s mouth.

Please do not read into this letter my belief that World War III is necessarily imminent of even inevitable. There are still strong reasons to hope that, by building that degree of national strength and unity of which we are capable, it can be avoided. Of course, in all probability we face an extended period of mobilization of both manpower and industry, unmatched in our peacetime history. This necessarily disrupts our easy peacetime way of life. It brings us sharply to the realization that of all the nations of the world we have been the most favored, and leads to the stark fact that — for the time being at best — standards of living will suffer and careers will be interrupted and retarded. But there are deep sources of strength and power in America which we have only begun to tap, but which we can and will draw on for strength. We shall demonstrate to the enemies of freedom that the lushness of our living — which we shall readily sacrifice in defense of our country — has not made us soft.

It is my opinion (and I think Congress will also agree — but perhaps after some debate) that the stream of young men being educated to become competent scientists, engineers and doctors should not be dried up, for the need of such trained people in the national effort is and will continue to be great. As has been said so often, our safety lies not in superior or even equal numbers, man for man, against our possible enemies; but in our scientific, technological, and industrial superiority.

I hope that Congress is going to take action which will not disastrously interrupt the continued education of young men now in college studying in the fields of science, engineering and medicine. In other words, students whose major concentration is in these fields, which are indispensable to the defense effort, will be, I trust, allowed to continue their education.

Obviously we can’t tell yet how many students will be here next year, or what any individual situation will be. We are still estimating that our enrollment loss will be at least 1,000 next year, which will mean 2,000 undergraduates on the campus. This int urn means more than $1,000,000 loss in revenue. Obviously a University geared for 3,000 must make adjustments all along the line to accommodate itself to one-third less. This of course will affect faculty, course offerings, and particularly the students’ social life and extra-curricular activities. We shall take every possible care to guard against the dilution of our individualized program of study and instruction.

It is probable that we shall be moving into an accelerated program similar to that of the war years, and that acceleration will begin by re-introducing a summer term next summer. I feel certain that the Government will require it for those who are furloughed  to continue their education, and that many others will want it. Young men who graduate from high school or secondary school at 17 can go into college and about 25 per cent of our recent freshman classes have been less than 18 years of age. Whether those who are able to enter college at 17 will be allowed to complete their freshman year remains to be determined, but my strong recommendation is that they be permitted to do so. In any case a good many of the freshmen next year will want an accelerated program. Of course the whole policy of the program of acceleration is up for the faculty to consider; the President can’t decide it himself.

A final word. It is one of the tragedies of the present world turbulence that the heaviest impact is falling on the younger men rather than the older. Tonight the imminent interruption to the life plans of most of you seems very serious, and I agree that it is — I am not trying to soft-pedal or evade that proposition. But when those of you who are not able to continue education without interruption come back to us after your period of service is over, you will find that the experience was not wholly wasted. On the contrary it will have become a part of your education, a part that you will recall, not without pleasure and some source of profit in years to come. In any event, you will recall it in the certain knowledge that you played your full part in preserving a world of the only sort in which you would be willing to live, one in which a free people can live their free way of life. 

This was originally published in the January 19, 1951 issue of PAW.