The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-09-18
President AIderman's Ad-
dress to the Students.

On Tuesday, the entire University,
numbering four hundred and twenty-five
students. with a number of the Faculty
and citizens of the village, gathered 70
hear the annual address of the President.
IT was an inspiring sight to see gathereh
together so many strong, earnest, en-
thusiastic young men. full of desire lor
learning and enthusiasm and loyalty Tor
the University. President Alderman
smoke to them for an hour and received
nm enthusiastic reception. He welcomed
them to the great fellowship OF the Uni-
yersity and spoke of the duties ana re-
sponsibilities that rested upon them Dy
reason of this fellowship. The first part
of his address was devoted TO the ne OF
COLLEGE students. The last part was a
consideration of some lessons to be learn
cd from the recent Spanish-American
war. He spoke of the increased respect
the conduct of the war had given us in
the eyes of foreign nations OF the hu-
mainly which har marked its progress.
and of the elevation of the moral tone OF
the youth of the land through the eN-
Raglev and Ship He discussed the
grave responsibilities resting upon the ma
tion in the new problems of the admins
trafion of the foreign lands that had
fallen TO it through the might of on"
arms. He declared that the first lesson
TO he learned from the war was the
lesson that even in military affairs the
trained mind and the trained conscience
Jo4 irin oil
cess. and that the war was not really
q war between Spain and the United
States. but between education and IL
Iiteracy. He concluded his speech with
the following statement of the part that
institutions of learning had to play III
our development:
1T is n common tendency of men to
think of the days that lie behind them
as the stirring eventful times, but it is
not wholly So 1t was indeed good to
have been young with Dante in Italy
in that sweet morning time of the hui
man spirit. 1t was good to have been
young with Shakespeare in England.
when the bud of our glorious race was
bursting into flower, but it is equally
good to be young now and to have OPP
portunity and to walk with knowledge
before our very eyes and a strange new
century is calling in our ears, when the
westward march of empire has doubled
up upon itself and the stored East is
falling to pieces before the impulses of
humanity and adventure and trade. IT
is indeed something to be alive and
young and to have power when the flag
of the great Republic has advanced so
hir in tho baavanC that tho nypc IF MI
peoples behold its stars and perceive,
some with dread and some with pride
through the yividness of war. the noise
less might that dwells within its folds.
Uplifting and expansive as all this is.
compelling us not to shirk any respon-
sibility forced upon us by the might of
our own arms, we should not be deluded
by it into following the career of an inn
perial freebooter, howsoever fascinating
that career may seem.
Our manifest destiny is peace Just
SO surely as Greece spread abroad her
beauty and her art, shall we preach the
doctrine of human sympathy, not as a
term of sentiment but as n political az
preston. As the Roman cast his net
work of law about the world we shall
prove the fitness of democracy as the
final form of government. BY demo-
cracy, mean equal opportunity. not
equal possessions for nature. by inexor.
able degree, has rendered that forever
impossible. And as the Englishman cs-
tabished many Of the primary rights Of
men, we shall devote our unmeasured
strength to the problems of industry and
economies, of wealth and poverty, of la
Dor and capital. Has this University sit-
ting so still and quiet here among the
trees, or has any University. a part 10
play IN the vital struggle? You should
know That out of such quiet places have
come the creative movements and the
creative men of the world. Adam Smith
ana Martin Luther, Isaac Newton and
John Wesley, speculated and struggled
and prayed in such places From such
SPOTS come the captains of thought, in
dustry, faith and enthusiasm that mould
the world
Our motto here is Lux Libertas
Here the truth is sought whether in ma
tufe, III literature, in law or in society
Iiefe IS where sanity reigns and iudg-
ment is sober and liberation prevails and
humility seems a virtue. Here we would
see things straight and clear with vision
uhdlmmed by passion or prejudice or
Zealotry Here men may meet on the lev
el of equal opportunity and may rise
by the might of merit to the
quiet power of Christian manhood A
University is mighty piece of social
machinery, but it can never be an organ
or propagandist. 1t does not stand for
the rich as against the poor. nor for the
poor as against the rich, but for rich
and poor alike, that each may know the
best of the other. 1t does not stand to
bend to any breeze of popular delusion
but rather to withstand, and to lead the
people in quiet ways to the larger view.
IL does not exist to lie snugIy and
costly in the arms of power, but rather
10 remind power of its high duty, to ap-
prove when that power is nobly used,
to condemn when UNANIMOUSLY put forth
whether by States or individuals
"A University is q discoverer of
truth, conseryator of cas-, sower of
seed, missionary OF 'emocracies. a
store-house of high fractions. 1t has
no passion save for the truth and the
betterment Of men, no warfare save
against ignorance, no enemies save those
Of the dark. Born of the people, nour-
ished by the commonwealth, it stands as
the servant, but not as the slave of