The Topeka state journal., 1897-09-11
EVA MORELY MURPHY.
SPEECH OF w. A. WHITE
Inc Emporia Editors Address to
Lawrence Students

Lawrence, Sept. lin University
nail yesterday, Chancellor Snow intro
duced William Allen White of Empor-
IA who delivered the annual opening
address to the students who had arriv-
ed and to many town people. His sub
Ject was "A Western Education and
ms remarks were in part as follows:
During the thousand years last past
most OF the worlds history worth re-
cordIng has concerned the development
of the people who have lived upon a
belt of land and sea stretching from
Berlin through London to San Francis
co.
In this zone lies the west. Here in
dustrlaI civilization has achieved bet
ter success than elsew here on the globe
Herein federal government triumph
ed more signally over tribal warfare-a
parbarous relic-and here the Individual
IS more surely architect of his fortunes
than he is in any part of the earth
beyond the boundaries of this imagin-
ed parallelogram.
THE western people seem to be the
chosen people. With them has rested
the ark of the covenant-the covenant
between God and man to make the
world better. Their heritage seems to
be the ultimate establishment of peace
on earth and good will among men. 1t
IS a magnificent bequest, one that
should draw US together. nation to ma
tlon as brother to brothers. One branch
OF this family should not boast of its
variations from other branches as the
Sharisee exalted his piety. We of the
new west should not glorify in our new
ness nor should the old west make
a virtue of antiquity. Yet we of the
new-we of the newest west who dwell
here in the Mississippi valley-we may
well afford to be generous in our esti-
mate of our kinsmen. If they seem, in
sular, ignoring our accomplishments
denying US place on their map of CIV
ilization, it profits us nothing to meet
mlstortunes with anger, provincialism
with provincialiSm.
We Kansas people call ourselves
pioneers in western thought. 1t is
our greatest glory; it, more than our
hogs, more than our corn, more than
our longhorned steers, more than our
statesmen living and dead, more than
our wheat, more than our history, gives
us a reason for our pride.Th establish
ment of one school like this will bring
you justice far more surely and in few
er years than will the slaughter of a
million OppreSsorS of the poor So long
as the weak and the strong exist there
will be oppression; but i assume that 1t
is the purpose of the university to make
the per cent of the weak, the ignorant,
the violent, the vicious. smaller year
by year, while it teaches those whom it
makes strong to be kind. If there is
any fault in modern education, it is its
tendency to make mere machines. If
YOU come here to fit yourselves to make
money, go home. You have come here
to learn how TO make a living, an en-
tirely different thing. The truth is, that
the man who gives the best happiness
hack TO his fellows, who really makes
a living. does not live to make money
Any fool can make money. Most fools
can sQuander it. Many fools can hoard
il. The primary object of an education
should be to instruct men and women in
the gentler art of spending money after
the5- have earned it. So long as there
are people in the world who forget that
their talents are only evidences of their
obligations to others, so long as the ac-
cumulation of wealth for the sake OF
wealth and not for the good that wealth
can do remains the chief end of man
AS it seems to be today-so long the
great machine of education should kssp
o gnrts- N N. N. N N. Nm
on grinding. The world is just begin
ming to realize the glorious meaning Of
Christ's lesson to the rich young man.
When the world knows that lesson,
feels it as we feel the wrong OF murder
we shall change our petty maxiIas
licensing parsimony; then we shall no
longe say: The fool and his money
are soon parted We shall understand
that the fool and his money are in
eeOara ble.''