Remarks Before the Students of the Georgia School of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia

Gentlemen and ladies:

President Mathison, I thank you heartily, but I am only the first citizen of the world in so far as America is the first nation of the world; and America can be the first nation only by just the kind of training and effort which is developed and is symbolized in institutions of this kind.

If America stands for anything it stands for trained intelligence and effort; and we get such trained intelligence and effort at the best through instruction of this character. I want each man of you here to feel that he is getting an education for his own benefit, but not merely for his own benefit; that he is to do well for himself, but that he is also to do well for America by the effort he develops. Every triumph of engineering skill credited to an American is credited to America. Every triumph of productive science put to the credit of any individual American goes to the credit of America as a whole; and I trust that you will feel that it is incumbent upon you to do well, not only for your individual sakes, but for the sake of that collective American citizenship which denominates the American nation.

I believe in play. I believe you are all the better for it. Play just as hard as you know how, but when you quit playing, quit, and then work with all your heart, and as hard as you know how.