The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-17
PRESIDENT Low ON CITIZENSHIP

President Low, of Columbia univer-
sity, is fast becoming known as one of
the leading educators of the country
Against him cannot be brought the
charge that he is an educator merely,
doctrinaire, a man without expert
ence in the affairs of life. Before he
became an educator he was a man of
large affairs, and as mayor Of Brook
Ign he acquired a practical knowledge
of politics that few men attain. There
fore when he speaks of the affairs
of the state and the duties of Ameri-
can citizens, his words carry a weight
that is often wanting in the words Of
others in positions similar to his.
In his address to the graduating class
of Columbia university the other day
he spoke on the duty of the country
that scholarship alone can discharge.
After referring to the dedication of the
new site for the university and the
fact that on the same day the flag of
our country was unfurled over the new
grounds by men who had fought for
the preservation of the Union, and that
the flag was still waving there, the
emblem of national unity, of liberty
under law, of freedom of opportunity,
and the constant reminder of a pa
triot's duty. President Low said:
1 ask you to reflect, for a moment,
upon the significance of this circum-
stance. Surely it ought to mean to
every one of us that scholarship, also,
has duty to the country that only
scholarship can discharge. 1t may
mean in some dreadful day of trial that
the scholar, like all other men. must
shoulder his musket as our fathers
did, and become soldier. Or it may
mean that like some modern Curtius.
a single man shall sacrifice himself for
the public good. But always and
everywhere it must mean that scholars
ought to make themselves good citi-
ZenS by punctually discharging every
duty of the citizen, and by making
their special knowledge of service to
the state. Last of all, see to it that
it means, | beg of you, men of Column
bia and women of Bernard, that you
carry into your citizenship something
of that idealism and something of
that enthusiasm that are the best
gifts to its favored children of an
American university. A democracy.
believe me, is as capable of idealsm
and of enthusiasm as bearlless
youth; but it needs the idealist and
the enthusiast who shall hold before
its eyes the inspiring vision If he be
benefactor who makes two blades of
grass grow where one blade grew be-
fore. so much more is he a benefactor
in our day who so lives as to raise in
any direction the standards that de-
mocracy applies to its own life.
That is a noble appeal. In the busy.
bustling life of us Americans we do
not take time to idealize our love of
country and upon that to base our
patriotism. This land that we all love
so, with it's forests and its mountains.
its rivers and it's lakes, is no more
beautiful than the land of other coun-
tries. 1t IS our idealization of it that
makes it so more beautiful and glorl-
Gus than other lands. We idealize our
land but not our lives. 1t is for this
that President Low pleads. In his re-
lation to the state the citizen allows
himself to be too much swayed by his
convenience rather than by his duty.
In a country where the government is
by the people and for the people. It is
most essential that every citizen shall
know his duty and discharge it. Such
words as President Lows encourage
men to do this.