New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-06
delusicn that he possesses some OF the requisite
qualifications for party leadership.
TIE EDUCATIOyAL SAFEG U4RD.

Tho address of Professor Won Hoist at the
cbicago University convocation on Monday, OF
which we print the greater part this mornIns'
scts forth truths to which the American people
cannot afford to be Indifferent. The eminent
German has done the country whose lhS'l'u-
tions have been the study of his life an I'M
poltant service by this candid statement Oh inc
dangers which he believes confront us ana tne
work which we must do for our salvation. his
spirit is most friendly and it is not despalrlng'
but the future of the United States seems 10
him TO he crowded with perils, and his warning
is solemn one.
Neither our national existence nor our form
of government is threatened, in his vieW' pu'
the soundness of the great social BODY. lhls
country can never be endangered, he declares
except by its own people, and no power on
Garth. within or without, can put 1t IN peru
;e they arc true 70 themselves &" In the whole
civilized world tho future belongs to denioc-
racy. and in the United States democracy mas
in all essential respects better chance han,e-
" moro favorable conditions to work out the
great problem successfully, than it ever can
hayo anywhere else" But here not less and
perhaps moro than anywhere else eternal vigil
lance. expressing itself in "incessant work"
is still tho price OF liberty
Professor Won Hoist has not the slightest
apprehension that the American people Will
ever again have to make a supreme ebert, as
when tho Constitution supplanted the Articles
If Confederation and in the Civil War. But
il is 4 profound truth, as all history teaches
and as no declares, that "a crisis requiring
l. ~ St. and
bavo 70 fear the most The obviating of great
crises by the solution OF political ana social
nrobloms is "tho crucial test OF peoples vital
forces" Some of the facts and tendencies which
most seriously menace our national wel-being
o,o found Nv Professor Won Hoist in the rapidity
of our material development, tho concentration
Of population rs well as wealth, the lack OF
conservatism which long national existence has
PRODUCED elsewhere under different conditions
of growth and. most serious of all perhaps, the
influx Of alien elements which threatens 70
ovrrtax our power of assimilation.
The best safeguard against tho perils which
bcsct rs Professor Won Hoist discerns in tho
multiplication of those moral forces which the
truo university cngcndcrs. The time has come,
he SAYS. when this country not only deserves
10 pos scsS cducltOnaI lNSltulloHs Oh INC HIEHco'
fvpe and the greatest efficiency, but impera-
lively needs thon Not merely or chiefly be-
cause they make scholars and professional ex-
rcrts but because they produce independence
in thinking and lively sense OF individual
responsibility" "thc twin pillars on which the
dome Of democratic liberty rests" What
America needs, in the estimation OF this student
and observer is Gan ample number OF men
and women thoroughly imbucd with the spirit
which true university education tends to
awaken and strives TO develop"
II this forecast Of our national perls Is
accurate. and if this is the way 10 meet and
master them. tho outlook is certainly not hope
loss. For undoubtedly tho educational advance
mcnt Of the United States is tho dearest object
Of moro lives to-day than ever before, and that
object is pursued with more knowledge if not
with moro devotion. If, a. Professor Won Hoist
avs. vc have not a single university IN the
.cnsc attached 70 this word by Europeans, we
have many institutions which are steadily APP
proaching the Old World standard of efficiency,
though they may never assume the Old World
tyuc. and perhaps ought not 10.