Harwell Goodwin Davis

Published on June 14, 2017

Harwell-Davis "And in that moment, I resolved, that if I should return to my native land, that I would endeavor to serve my God and my fellow man a little better than I had in the past. "

Transcript

HARWELL GOODWIN DAVIS: At the time I was asked to be president of Howard
College, I was the tax collector for the United States government for the State
of Alabama, Collector of Internal Revenue. It was a good position and I thought
it carried the promise of an assured future. One day, Mr. Crawford Johnson came
to my, called at my office. He stated that he had been appointed to suggest a
president for Howard College. Then I realized, probably from newspaper accounts,
that it was a difficult position. He said that he knew that there were a good
many men that were able to handle the job but he considered that I was the most
available. And he said that if I would accept the position, that he would
support me with his time and his money. When this offer got some publicity,
there began to build a pressure that I accept the position. Not so much, in my
opinion, to secure my services as president as to secure the financial support
of Mr. Johnson. He was a liberal multi-millionaire. But it was not this pressure
that caused me to accept the position. One afternoon, during World War One, I
was ordered to move my command into position where I could, under cover of
darkness, move into a gap in the front line and be ready to attack at the H-Hour
the next morning. To reach that position, it was necessary to march several
kilometers through what had been battlefield a few days before and from which we
had not been able to remove all of our dead. As I was marching with my command
to reach the position I saw a young officer, sitting by the side of the road,
leaning against the bank of a small cut we were passing through. My first
impression was that he had not been in an attack because his uniform was not
soiled. He looked so life-like that I decided that he had fallen asleep from
fatigue and I went across to wake him and tell him to join his command. When I
reached him, and placed my hand on him, I found that he had been killed. In that
dramatic moment, I realized as never before that I was travelling along that
road in the twilight of that afternoon in virtual safety because that young man,
and others like him, had given his life to clear the way. And in that moment, I
resolved, that if I should return to my native land, that I would endeavor to
serve my God and my fellow man a little better than I had in the past. So while
Mr. Johnson was talking about Howard College and its presidency, somehow I was
seeing that handsome young officer sitting beside the road in the Argon Forest
in France. And it almost seemed to me that he was asking if I remembered the
resolution that I made that day. What was the verse that Colonel McCrae said in
his poem "In Flanders Field?" "To you, from failing hands, we throw the torch.
Be yours to hold it high. If you break faith with us who die, we shall not
sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Field." As illogical as it might seem as
a valid reason on which to base a serious action, to me it was a challenge to
keep faith with that resolution. A challenge somehow that I did not dare ignore.

Audio Information
Attribute	Value
Interviewee	Harwell Goodwin Davis
Repository	Samford University Oral History Collection
Collection	University Library, Special Collection and University Archives
Accession	SUHist/SamfordHistory/010