A Far Greater Bearing

Posted on Jan. 9, 2019

As the Great Depression began to give way to war, Franklin Delano Roosevelt assured a packed house in brand-new Woollen Gym that he was no ogre, no consorter with Communists, no warmonger.

The president clearly targeted students with his message on Dec. 5, 1938, urging them to strive for “plain decency, for the plain democracy of the plain people who believe in honesty and in fair dealing,” and always to keep a sense of proportion and perspective, practice good will and maintain a sense of humor. Don’t wait until you are middle aged to fight for what you believe is right, he said.

One remark would prove prophetic: “What America does or fails to do in the next few years has a far greater bearing and influence on the history of the whole human race for centuries to come than most of us who are here today can ever conceive.”

This is the academic hood he wore that day. It is among the treasures given to and kept in Wilson Library.

The hood had belonged to a prominent member of the faculty, Charles Holmes Herty, to whom the 1914 Yackety Yack was dedicated for his exemplary work as a chemistry professor and who 22 years earlier had founded the football program at the University of Georgia. Herty had died earlier in 1938.

FDR might have appreciated Herty’s emphasis on the University as public servant. It was said that he never “missed a chance to tell us that we should use chemistry to do something for our state or country.”

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