The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-06-19

ideal pleasure comes with commencemenJ
day for the college man. He passes tho
fleeting hours In flood of delightful
recollections or glorious anticipations.
1--WE live not for the past, but for the
present and future; that every period has
it's problems to be solved, its dangers to be
met and its opportunities. What seem to
us the commonplacos 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 tho college mon of the country us any
which have agitated the nation since the
formation of the government IT Is not
for all OF us to be Legislators, or governors,
or cabinet ministers, or presidents, but 1t
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 spoutlng currency
fallacies. Public service Is not alone in
Inb HOluluB Vi bllCb' III buB IOb tOIllDc-
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
ho is assured in some way of Independence
| from the emoluInents of office, can afford
I to enter public life. The most lamentable
wrecks which have seen in the thirty odd
years since 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 busi-
ness world had beon occupied by younger
men, leaving them helpless and stranded.
But every town caucus, every village
primary, every ward OF county convention
is the opportunity and the duty of the
educated man. He must belong to one
or the other of tho great parties, because
in representative government 1t is only
by such organizations that wise politics
can eventuato 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
| tho 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
monoInetalism or free coinage OF silver,
| according to our party affiliations. II the
educated mon of tho country who are
ministers, lawyers, doctors, journalists,
| business men or farmers would perform
their duties in the primary school Of the
caucus we never would experience that
| despotism OF mnchine which blights
ambition, destroys honest effort for good
government and punders impartially
partisans and antagonists.
"If we have neglected our duty to the
community, to the state and to the nation
by neglecting the beginnings of govern
ment, we are not without IA remedy. Then
Is tho 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
wayered for a century All other ques.
tions can walt 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 tho
state and the city. The efficacy of this
method, though a late one, and an un-
necessary ono 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, a hundred independent citizens in
Brooklyn, the triumph of civil service in
Chicago by the popular vote, and other
equally significant manifestations of the
reslstless power OF u combination Of indie
eendent voters"