Evening star., 1895-06-12
Secretary Herbert's Advice to College
Graduates.
PROMISING FIELD FOR THEIR EFFORTS
Great National Problems Settled
Forever.
QUESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

AUBURN, Ala, June 12-The chief fea-
ture of the commencement exercises at the
Agricultural and Mechanical College today
was the address of Mr.. Hilary A. Herbert,
Secretary of the Navy, to the graduates.
Preceding the Secretary's remarks there
were the usual addresses by college stu
dents and professors. Secretary Herbert
was warmly received. The Secretary in the
course of his remarks said:
I'm the first place, let Inc advise you to
carry with you into the world, and cherish
in your heart of hearts, the friendships you
have made at college. Time and again will
the memory of the days spent and the
tasks accomplished within these walls in
sptre and prompt you to grapple with the
problems that beset you, and many will be
the occasions when the friends of your COL
lege days will rejoice to lend you helping
hand.
But, young gentlemen, beautiful and
helpful as friendship is, you cannot In this
world rely for your own success on the
help of friends; you must count on YOUR
selves. conditions have been rapidly
changing In our country during the whole
OF the century that is now drawing to its
cioSe. Our country is, however,
still the most promising field of human
effort, and. let me add, young gentlemen,
that If the task of success for you Is to be
more arduouS than for your fathers the
conditions are broader, life is more intense,
ana the PRICES, when captured, will be more
brilliant even than those that were won by
your fathers"
Great Problems Settled.
Mr.. Herbert then briefly discussed two
problems, which, he said, gave great con-
corn to our earlier statesmen. The first
and fundamental question was as to the
relative power of the general and state
governments. The great civil war settled
1t forever. Another question that divided
the sccuonS north and south, was slavery.
Ihat question, too, was settled by the war
The power of this government no citizen
deres to dispute except in its courts.
Men may question, and they are free to
question, the wisdom of Congress, or of
the President, or the justice or correctness
OF the decisions of the Supreme Court.
That government, nevertheless, stands su-
rremc. You are fortunate, my young
friends, that your fathers have not left to
you. as their fathers did to them, any un-
settled fundamental question pregnant with
civil war.
Permit me to express the hope, young
gentlemen, that none of you will leave this
Institution vaunting yourself upon having
gotten away from the Bible lessons you
learned at your mothers knee; that none
of you will affect to look down with pity
upon the religion of your father as a su-
perstition, claiming that scierce, the little
smattering of 1t you can acquire in a year
or so, has taught you all this"
Evolution, the Secretary said, had done
much in some quarters to undermine faith
in Christianity, but this was because it had
heretofore confined it's researches to the
discovery of laws governing the physical
world.
Problems of the Future.
Secretary Herbert believed that the prob
lem Of the future that seemed now most
difficult Of solution would grow out of the
relations between capital and labor.
What" he asked, 'is to be the outcome
of this struggle betw cen them? Will it be
socialism? Socialism by attempting to
Gqualizc conditions would abolish the
springs of action. 1t would place energy
and thrift and Intellectual activity. aloug-
side of ignorance ard sloth and profiigacy.
On that dead level society would stagnate
and man would relapse into the condition
of the brutes of the field. No, gentlemen,
this cannot and will not be. So long as
human nature remains as 1t is men will
strive to excel. competition will go on, and,
judging Of the future by the past, 1t may
be predicted with certainty that unless our
people forget God and His teachings and
go to cutting each others throats, as they
did in the French revolution. the outcome
Of this conflict between capital and labor
will be the betterment of social condi-
tions."
The address closed with earnest advice to
the students to be honest with themselves
and not be deceived with the belief that
they can be one thing and seem another.