The San Francisco call., 1898-05-26
DR. JORDAN
 ON THE WAR Says America Should
 Not Hold Cuba. IT WOULD BE C0WARDLY OURS A WAR OF MERCY, NOT
 OF CONQUEST. National Policy Discussed in His
IT WOULD BE CoWARDLY
National Policy Discussed in His Annual Address to the Grad uates of Stanford Uni
 versity.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

l
 day the exercises of commencement
 week came to closo The degree of bachelor of arts was conferred on 161 students. Ten degrees of master of arts and two of docto~ of philosophy were given.
 The feature of the day was the an-
 nual address by President Jordan, in which he dwelt upon the war with Spain and held that this nation should not hold conquered territory. Dr. Jor- dan said:
 With you and such as you lies the so- luton OF the problems in the century to come. This is my justification in speak ing to you of the problems of the day. For this year of 1898 marks one great crisis in our national life. Its stern de- mands are on us, though we be yet un- conscious. Before we realize the i'm portdrce of the choice, the hour for choosing shall have passed. Twice before in the history of our republic has a great crisis come to us, and each time in the past has our choice been a wise one.
 The first crisis followed the War of the Revolution. Its question was this: What relation shall the emancipated colonies bear to one another? The answer was the American constitution, the fed eration Of self-goYernment and united states The second crisis came through lHt SIOh LII LII SldNSTy. The union or the States could not endure, half slave half free.
 The third great crisis is on us now. The war with Spain is only a part of 1t. an incident in the great movement. The question is not, Can we capture Manila. Havana, Porto Rico or the Canaries? It The American navy. and the American army can accomplish all we ask of them with time and patience.
 Battles are fought to-day through en- gineering and technical skill not through personal fearlessness and dash. The great cannon speaks the language of less before it. The standing of our naval officers in matters of engineering is be- yond question They are all abreast of the heutenants in our warships alone who, if opportunity oHered, could write their names beside those of Grenville and glory of Manila is not dim before that of Mobile snd Trafalgar.
 The cool strength and soberness of Yankee courage added to the power of naval engineering could meet any foe on earth on equal terms, and here the terms are not equal. Personal fearlessness our adVersaries possess, and that Is all they nave That we have in like measure. Everything else Is on our side. We train our guns against the empty shell of a Whether we are right or wrong in our main contention we cannot fail to win. into the war. Was it inevitable? w. Was sit if wise? Was it righteous? No need to ask these questions, because the answers will one or all of these, but all doubts we must keep to ourselves. We are in the midst 1 of battle and must fight to the end
 The crisis comes when the war Is over What then? Our question is not What will we do with Cuba, Porto Rico and the ph1lippinesg aT11dp dn tn It is What will these in honor or in safety? If not, what if we hold them? What will be the reflex effect of great victories, suddenly realized strength, the patronizing applause, the conquest of strange territory, the raising of our flag beyond the seas? All this is new to us. It is un-American; it is con- trary to our traditions; 1t is delicious; 1t is intoxicating.
 After speaking on the minor results of the war Dr. Jordan referred to the retention of the territory which we will capture and in answer to the ques- tion: Why shall we not hold Cuba if she becomes ours by conquest?" he
 said:
 Because that would be cowardly thing to do. The justification of her capture is that we do not want her. If we want Cuba, common decency says we must let her alone. Ours IS a war of mercy, not of conquest. This we have plainly de- clared to all nations, and we meant what we said. If we retire with clean hands 1t must be because our hands are empty To keep Cuba would be to do as nations have done in the past-perhaps. as England would do if she were in our place.
 pr. Jordan spoke of the changing policy of the Government since Wash ington's message and said:
 The America of which Washington dreamed should grow strong within her self, should avoid entangling alliances with foreign nations, should keep out of all fights and all friendships that are not l1a inty fc our Government must be changed for our changing needs. We must give up the checks and balances in our constitution If we are to deal with the crises in for we have met the Cuban question. We cannot move accurately and quickly un- der the joint leadership of a conservative and level-headed President, hysterical or venal Senate and @ House intent on it's own reelection
 Professor Walter Miller delivered the commencement address, entitled "The old and the New" He said in part:
 The land in which we live is called ''the cast in the newest part of it. The prob Iems-educational as well as political which our country has had to face are, as far as we have grown, under the stim- ,Ilus of conditions all our own. We have been bound by no distant past nor ham, pered by the Ia traaitions or Hne mest tand rom
 
 short national life has so far been an ex- pertinent. What the experiment will prove will be known when our young Western world has grown to age. In the mean time all the civilized world Is watching with eager eyes each new stage of our ex- perimenting.
 In our present state we are generally accused of being a nation of mediocrity, except in bulk. One century has seen us suddenly transformed from 5000 900 sub- feet coionists on the Atlantic seaboard into a nation of 60,000, 900 sovereign citi- zens whose dominion reaches from ocean to ocean Similarly, our culture is full grown but immature. like boy of sixteen six feet tall.
 The like of our system Cor want of sys- tenn of education was never seen nor dreamed of before. Our grammar school may find it's counterpart in the Old World; but our American high school is neither the English grammar school nor the German gymnasium nor the French ycee Our American college may be the | of the Oxford and Cambridge | dea further developed, but the American | university is not the English university nor the German university. It is a mixed l product grown under new conditions on | lew soil.
 Professor Miller called our present | system with its 4s1 colleges and uni | versailles a development with the vari- )us additions and other changes that