URGES DECISIVE ACTION

"Procrastination is the misuse of tomorrow," declared the Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick in a talk to Freshmen yesterday evening in Smith Halls Common Room. "To many people," he said, "procrastination means simply putting off a decision, not deciding anything. It is, however, a very definite form of decision, for natural forces continue to act whether you decide or not, and nature makes the resolution that you cannot make yourself. A ship drifting on a lee shore is as surely bent for destruction as a craft that heads directly toward the rocks.

"I do not mean that every question that comes up should be decided summarily on the spur of the moment. Weigh your evidence well, decide carefully and deliberately, but when you have made up your mind, then act."

Dr. Fosdick then illustrated why procrastination was a form of decision. "You may think that in your garden you may have either flowers or weeds or you may not be able to make up your mind as to which you want. But while you are trying to decide, nature will take its course and soon even if you have done nothing your garden is full of weeds. Your procrastination has been a decision."