dots-menu
×

Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  William Allen White (1868–1944)

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 157
AUTHOR: William Allen White (1868–1944)
QUOTATION: In several educational institutions during the last few years manifestation of student activity in riots has been exciting the country. To the conservative mind, these riots bode no good. As a matter of fact student riots of one sort or another, protests against the order that is, kicks against college and university management indicate a healthy growth and a normal functioning of the academic mind.

Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in the world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily—certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn’t enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay. If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all the youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow.
ATTRIBUTION: WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE, “Student Riots,” editorial, The Emporia (Kansas) Gazette, April 8, 1932.—White, Forty Years on Main Street, comp. Russell H. Fitzgibbon, p. 331 (1937).
SUBJECTS: Campus violence