Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-05
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE.
John Clark Ridpath on College Men
and Aspects Of American Politics.
Some of the Common Errors of the AIumnus
Shall the Existing Order be Perpetuated
or SHAH There be Change.

The following address was delivered
by John Clark Ridpath, LII. D.. to the
alumni of the Depauw university a
Greencastle:
Mr.. President, Members of the Alumni, Ladies
and Gentlemen:
l shall endeayor to explain, as well
as may IN q brief address, some of the
reasons why college alumni in general,
and ourselves in particular, are SO OBJ
scr"e and insignificant in the sum total
of the public and private life of the ma
ton. The theme In its fundamental
assumptions is not very fiattering, but
apprehend that it makes up in truth
what it lacks in compliment. OF GER
tainty, the college allumnus, especially
during the fret decade of his post
graduate pilgrimage, thinks himself one
of the greatest of men. He believes,
moreover, that his fellow bearers of
diplomas constitute great order of no.
bility, to which the respectful obeis-
ance of the multitude is due as to be-
ings of a higher rank and birth.
1t takes q long time, indeed, to dis
abuse him of his hallucination, and many
no doubt cherish the delusion to the end
of life. 1t is the fashionable thing 10
flatter our American college alumni at
least once year with the story of the
great honor in which they are held, and
the conspicuous place which they keep in
the public eye. The orator of the
evening stands, as I do, before the rep
resentatives of the 1000 or 1900 gradu-
ates, old and young, of the university to
which he belongs, and in glowing eulo-
GUM enumerates six or eight names out
of the whole list, two of which are sem
ators of the United States, two ENJOYS
extraordinary to foreign powers, two
cab'net ministers, one governor and one
judge In Western territory, and Gays:
"Hear, o earth, and behold, o heaven,
how glorious we arel'' As to the other
1892, they are simply thrown in for fill
ing. The fallacy, however, passes for
sound exposition, and the average alum
nus Is actually fiattered with the belief
that he belongs to one of the most dis
tinguished groups of persons in the
United States.
As matter of fact he does not belong
to any such a class. He belongs TO a
GLASS characterized by very superior or
der of intellectual and moral attachments,
but to a class otherwise obscure, as
things go. He is associated with a sooi-
ETY. OF men and women of elevated taste,
refined manners and noble aspirations.
But it is a society without power and
almost without influence in determining
the destinies and developments of our
national life. 1t is society so weak in
the matter of will ana purpose that it
may be ridiculed with impunity by any
small demagogue who would be afraid TO
speak satirically of the Salvation Army.
Why, then. let me ask, do we hold this
place in the public esteem of the Amer
lean people? Why is it that it is almost
q disadvantage TO the actual struggle of
life TO be an alumnus of an American
college?
While 1 certainly believe that Ameri-
can alumni are obscure, l also accept it
as a hopeful sign that they are so. In
deed, ! believe that the very obscurity
of which we sometimes fretfully COM
plain is the omen and The augury of
better things to come. Let US grant,
then, at the outset, that obscurity, as
well as conspicuity, may be-and in this
case is--a badge of honor to be proudly
worn as the evidence of merit and repu-
tatiOn. The first reason, L believe, why
the average alumnus of an American
college is likely on his issuance from his
alma mater to pass into occulation ia the
erroneous teaching TO which he has been
subjected during a large part of his
formative period. / have been led to
believe by actual observation and e1-
perience that a good part of what may
be called the general instruction received
by young man al college is false. 1t is
not so Intentionally, but is so out of the
usage and cant of the times. The young
man is taught to believe in the inviEci-
BILE power or q certain class of ideal viz
tues, which. as a matter of fact, are as
light and useless as chaff IN the struggle
of the actual arena. This teaching Is
generally given out IN the form of apo
thegms which pass for the whole truth,
when, as a matter of fact, they are so
fragmeutary as to be utterly misleading
and delusive. Here is what the ethical
teacher in an American college says, and
says in all sincerity, TO the youth:
young man, merit is the only thing
that wins. You have only to be true to
yourself and success is sure to follow.
Be humble ana you shall be exalted.
Do not strive for worldly ends, for if you
strive they will elude you. Seek not
you own and everything will be added to
your treasury. Do not be anxious about
success, for all the world cannot keep
you from success when you have deserved
il. Desert Is everything, contrivance
nothing. Whoever iutrigues for place
and power defeats himself and cores to
shame. Scorn the demigogical ways of
the age. for they lead you to confusion,
dishOnor and bankruptcy. Right is the
only thing that triumpbs. Falsehood
deceIves nobody, while truth has legion
of angels at her command. Only be pa
tient and toll, and the everlasting gates
shall be opened at last to receive you at
the head OF the triumphal column. -
And so on, sd infinitum.
Now, all these aphorisms. each and
several, are true; and they are all false.
They are true in one sense and false in
another. They are true in the abstract,
and false with respect to the whole pres
eut conditions of human society. Our
ethical master at college sits up in his
ideal world and delivers his ideal princi-
pies to the neophlte just rs though his
postgraduate inheritance was to be an
ideal state. The whole thing is precisely
analogous TO the Soeratio dialogue of the
republic. The island of tho Atlantis has
TO be created in the first place, and then
peopled with race of beings who obey