Address to Freshmen

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ADDRESS TO FRESmreN
Swarthmore Meeting House
September 20, 1926.
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It is a great pleasure indeed to welcome the members of
this class to Swarthmore. We feel as if we knew you already in a
certain ~, because we have seen most of you here in Swarthmore, and we
have spent a good many anxious hours ' poring over the things that your
professors and your friends have said about you and about your record in
high school. We are very Iffilch pleased with what those things are and a
little awe-struck, I may s~, by the ver.y fine things that have been said
about you in advance and which we are now expecting you to live ,up to.
You come here ver.y vrell recommended to us. I imagine you
come here ver.y ambitious about those things that you are going to do in the
four years that you are at Swarthmore . I don't care how ambitious you are;
I doubt whether you are more ambitious for your own personal sakes than we
are for you. , \'1e don't place any limits on what we expect and what we would
like to have our undergraduates do . I am glad we don't place any limits on
them, because I think it would be ver.y unwise and ver.y rash to undertake to
set limits on the kind of young people that we a re getting into the College.
You are, I think, the smallest Freshman class that has come to Swarthmore
since I have been here . I expect, however, when you are Seniors that you
will be larger than any ,Senior class that we have had up to date. If you
don't do that, then the class t hat preceded you or the class that will follow
next year will be sure to beat your record.
I want to say '" few words of advice to you about your
college course,- about the realization of these ambitions which I hope you
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