The Portland daily press., 1868-07-17
Commencement Week Mt Bates College.

Commencement Week ut Bates College.
4 LEWISTON, July 16, 1868
To the Editor Of the Press:
The exercises of Commencement Week
have closed, and very pleasant were they
After the parts by the gradual
ing class at the Free Baptist church yesterday,
came the dinner at the College, in Hatboln
Hail. A large number sat down to the table.
After the dinner had been partaken of, Presi-
dent Cheney proceeded to address the compa-
ny. 1t had been fourteen years, he said, since
this institution of learning was founded, and
seven years since its conversion into a college
began. One year ago there were $4,000 to be
raised in order to secure $4,000 which had
been pledged in Boston. That sum has been
raised; one half of the $4,000 has been paid
over, eight per cent. interest being paid upon
the other half for the present. During the
year some seven or eight hundred volumes
have been added to the library by donation.
President Cheney announced that Benjamin
E. Bates, OF Boston, would, upon certain con-
ditions, give to the College $4,000 in addition
to the $4,000 which he has already contribut-
III.
the College shall raise $4,000; second, that the
College shall become fully a college, as it will
upon the adoption of the new charter; third,
that the buildings shall be completed accord
ing to design which was exhibited. Parker
ball is to be reduced to 120 feet in length, and
a similar building to be erected to the left of
Hathorn Hall. This will demand an expendi-
turn Of Soma Gd0 0l0 laaviuo q ha 10 uHa IF eco :.
600 to be added to the fund of the College, as
desired by Mr. Bates. The announcement o f
this new contribution was received with the
most enthusiastic applause. Within a few
months the 1875 600 will undoubtedly be raised :;
also another $4,000 tor the Seminary which is
now separated from the College. We may
reasonably look for work to begin upon the
new College hall in the spring, and at an early
day new professors will be added to the facul-
ty.
After President Cheney, addresses we're
made by Atty. Gen. Frye, DIR. Garcelon Judge
May, Revs. Balkan, Randall, Mathews, Bur-
CESS and Steere, by Hon. Daniel Holland, and
our prospective Congressman, Mr.. l.. P. Nor
rill. a number of contributions towards the
college fund were made. Rev. Mr.. Mariner,
of Haverhill, read a brief ard humorous poem
In the evening an address subject "Loaf-
ing and Laboring"-was delivered before the
united Literary Societies, by E. P. Whipple,
Esq, of Boston. Trs
.. ADDRESS BY e. P. wHIPPLE, ESQ.
Human beings, said the orator, have been
systematically divided into benefactors and
maletactors. A better classification. perhaps.
hA nj la1 av,I Lon fnr No H. l.
borerS we owe civilization; to the loafers most
OF the vices which disfgure it. Lands run to
waste and men go to ruin, policies fail aud bat
ties are lost literature ceases to inspire and
churches to save, simply because, by some
trick of fortune The idler loafs into the labor
er's place, and saunters through duties whose
proper performance demands the full energies
of body and mind. Woe to the nation which
has its profiigates, tops, dawdlers and imbe-
Giles IN its places OF trust and power! But
even if the loafer does stir with activity til to
accomplish some evil work. The loafer is thus
ever curse to others, and hence proves a
curse to himself. -r -fl.
There is but one cause of loaferism-imbe-
cility of will, feebleness of personality. The
will, the power of selfdirection, that which
individualizes human being, which consti-
tutes him person who can say 81" and my"
this is his essential characteristic. and this
makes him laborer. The INDECENT self-sur-
render of the person to the impulse or caprice
of the moment, the slow fading away of
strength at the heart of his being, this is what
de-humanizes a man and makes him loafer
The orator here referred to the loafing and
laborng nations of the world. India, Turkey
and Spain represent the one; in strong con-
trast 10 these are Holland and Belgium, sup
porting, as they do, in comparative comfort
and intelligence, seven times the population
according to area which Turkey miserably
maintains. Yet Turkey has all natural adj
vantages, while Belgium and Holland have
had vast natural disadvantages to overcome.
So much for the the difference between ma
ton that loafs and a nation that labors
The peculiar advantage of American labor
is, that owing to the immense extent and ex-
haustless undeveloped resources of the coun-
try, population does not press on subsistence,
as it does in the most industrious European
countries. Our population is but little more
than that of Great Britain and Ireland, while
the area of the latter is only $4,000 square
miles against 3480,000 square miles in the
United States. The coal regions of the Uni,
ted States alone cover 100000 square miles
more than the whole area of the United King
dom, yet Great Britain mines more than four
times as much coal as we do. While Great
Britain has nearly reached the limit of her
natural resources, ours are. practically, unlim-
tied. Our 100000 of people are placed in a
country nearly as large as all Europe, and
that, too, at a time when labor doing machines
are wonderfully adding to the the capacity of
a country to maintain population. This ma
chine power is to be yet further and vastly in
creased; and production thereby will increase
so much more rapidly than population that the
remuneration of the laborer must constantly
augment, until nothing but idleness or intem-
perance will prevent any mans acquiring a
competency. The England of Victoria sup
ports four times the population that the Eng
land of Elizabeth did. The increase in ma
tional wealth which this increase in popula-
ton implies was not due to the wisdom of her
statesmen and the skill of h. generals, but to
the genius of her inventors and engineers to
Watt, Arkwright, Hargrayes and Stephenson
These men are entitled to greater honor than
kings or generals, inasmuch as they have add
ed TO the productive force of England an
amount of mechanical power which is equiva-
lent to the manual labor of 100000 men. 1t
may, therefore, be said that, while the Eng
900, the England of Victoria has population
of 520,O00,O00. The revenue of Elizabeth was
hardly more than the pr sent revenue of the
city of New York, but the revenue of Victoria
is $350,000.000, and yet taxation is now less felt
than ever before. 1t must be admitted that
England now supports 20,000,0 900 of people in
more comfort than 100000 in 1000.
After abiding to the great advantage which
the American laborer has over the European,
the orator said that the only fear is that COM
petition will not here be sufficiently active to
be educational, for it is the amount of mind a
dignity and value. Tolift the unskilled work
man into the position of the skilled workman
should be the first object of our institutions
Whatever may be our ind ustrial future
there always will be, in the hands of certain
persons an amount OF capital not employed in
the reproductions of wealth; in other words,
some people will be rich. This unprOductive
wealth should be devoted to the education and
refining OF the pOsseSsors, and not spent in
profuse, luxurious, vulgar or vicious ways. If
this wealth is thus spent in the education of
the possessor, there will be demanded the fin
est kind of work. tl- .,.r
This antithesis between loafpg and laboring
might be extended so as to include all the de-
partments of activity over which intellect
holds dominion, comprising geueralship,
craftsmanship, literature, science and art. For
Illustration the orator referred to Napoleon
and Sheridan, sketching the characteristics of
their minds and their martial modes of activi-
ty. Illustrations were also given of moral
loafing and aboriug Shiftlessness, laziness
and rascality lay in the most grinding of all
taxes on industry and recttude. They do not
merely represent that pauperism of body
which can be slowed away in the almshouse,
but that wider pauperism of soul, that willing
ness to depend for support on the exertions
of others instead of their own which with
killing in them the producing diSp osition and
faculty.
THURSDAY.
A meeting of the Trustees of Bates College
was held this morning. Professor Kicker,
from the Examining Committee, reported that
the classes in the College were in excellent
Condition and the instruction satisfactory.
The following officers We're elected: Ocer-
seers-J. w. Perkins, B. f. Hayes, A. Garce-
Ion and A M Jones' Ernulinio0 Co,nso;ftoo-