The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-06-19
cHAuNcEY NJ. pEPEM.
Joyous occasions

to the complete realization of actual and
ideal pleasure comes with commencement
day for the college man. He passes the
feeting hours in a flood of delightful
recollections or glorious anticipations.
1--WE live not for the past, but for the
present and future; that every period has
its problems to be solved it's dangers to be
met and its opportunities What seem to
US the commonplaces of the day will add
to or diminish the happiness of those who
shall come after us. Anarchy, socialism,
taxation, currency and the relations of
labor and capital are questions as difficult,
requiring as much judicious and patriotic
consideration and demanding as much
of the time and attention of the colleges
and the college men of the country as any
which have agitated the nation since the
formation of the government. 1t is not
for all of us to be legislators, or governors,
or cabinet ministers, or presidents, but it
is for all of us in the sphere in which we
move to take that interest in public af-
fairs which voices the opinion that guides
legislatures, congresses and presidents.
"a man can serve his country more
effectively and with greater practical
benefit in preaching the doctrine and pro-
noting the building of good roads than in
spending his time in spouting currency
fallacies. Public service is not alone in
the holding of office. In the hot compe-
titions of our American life, in the obli-
cations which man owes to those about
him and dependent upon him, in the
duties and happiness which come from
marriage and domesticity, no man. until
he is assured in some way of Independence
from the emoluments of office, can afford
to enter public life. The most lamentable
int t1,a
years since l was graduated have been the,
men who have abandoned everything for
the public service, only to be thrown out
by the changes of politics and TO find that
their places in the professional and bust
ness world had been occupied by younger
men, leaving them helpless and stranded.
But every town caucus, every village
primary, every ward or county convention
is the opportunity and the duty of the
educated man. He must belong to one
or the other Of the great parties, because
in representative government it is only
by such organizations that wise politics
can eventuate in wise measures. We
hear much-too much-of rings and
Bosses They are the natural result of
neglect of the primaries by the citizens.
The boss and the ring on one side, in secret
partnership with the ring and the boss on
the other, present tickets made up of
thieves or tools and then shout for us to
vote for the one or the other in the name
of protection or free trade, in the name Of
monometalism or free coinage of silver,
according to our party affiliations, If the
educated men of the country who are
ministers lawyers, doctors, journalists,
business men or farmers would perform
! their duties in the primary school of the
/ ar
despotism of a machine which blights,
ambition, destroys honest effort for good
government, and plumbers impartially
partisans and antagonists.
If we have neglected our duty to the
| community, to the state and to the nation
by negleoting the beginnings Of govern
ment, we are not without a remedy Then
| Is the time for those, and they exist in
every community, who have been trained
| IN the schools to formulate their ideas and
| to express them upon the platform, or
through the press or by the pamphlet, to
say to the people protection and free
| trade can wait;' they have waited and
wavered for a century All other ques-
tions can wait as they have waited and
wavered for generation.
Thieves are in possession of the state
house, robbers intrenched in the city hall
| Unite, discard party disregard cries, shib-
boleths and phrases, and so rescue the
state and the city. The efficacy of this
method, though late one, and an un-
necessary one If the educated brains Of the
country attended to their duties, has been
seen within year under the inspiration
of seventy independent citizens of New
York, hundred independent citizens in
Brooklyn, the triumph Of civil service in
| I,,r
equally significant manifestations of the
! pendent voters"