The Anaconda standard., 1899-06-04
SUCCESS AND FAILURE
Brilliant Address by President
Reid at Deer Lodge.
STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY
Men Are Striving to Attain Something
That Has Not Yet Been Attained
What Shall Be the Ma
tional Ideal?
Special Dispatch to the Standard.

Special Dispatch to the Standard.
Deer Lodge, June 3.-President Reid
of the Agricultural college, Bozeman,
gave the address at the High school
commencement, taking for his subject
The Influence of the Ideal in Individ-
ual and National Life" He enforced
the thought that success and failure
for the individual lay in the possession
OF high, noble ideals. The person with
a noble ideal will not complain of the
hard and uncongenial in life, but
will concentrate his energies on high
achievement
The speaker drew many illustrations
from literature and our national his
tory to show the power of noble aspi-
rations. The march of humanity to
higher degrees of civilization, every
struggle for liberty has been because
men were striving to attain something
not yet attained
The humblest task, the menial toll
is ennobled by the whole aspiration of
the toler," said President Reid. God
may use the hunablest service to bring
acter. The greatest danger that can
threaten our national life is that amid
the sordid and material the people may
lose sight of the ideal. The capacity
of man to overcome is developed
through its agency. To know the real
worth of liberty he must struggle for it
through long centuries
Mr. Reid spoke on the national ideal
as follows, which shows that the
speaker is, in a certain sense, an eX-
pansonist:
THE most perplexing question of the
present is what shall be the national
ideal. In standing forth as the advo-
cate of liberty, and the champion of an
oppressed people. we assumed far
Having taken the step. with all it in
volved, can We go backward without
proving ourselves recreant to our trust?
There are those to-day who are crying
peace, peace. Would we have peace
and be branded forever as towards?
Would we cast down the white mans
burden and give millions over again
to gross barbarism? Who would say
that peace at any cost would have been
better than national honor in 1861?
What shall be our ideal? A life of
sordid commercialism needless of the
higher national spirit that must come
only through toll and effort! Men who
helped to precipitate the war with
Spain would now have the nation play
the coward by casting down duties and
responsibilities which are the most
logical and inevitable results of the war
for which they voted. 1t is with ma
tions as it is with individuals. We
cannot tell all that may be involved in
some choice we make in life, and yet
having made it, while we shrink and
would turn back honor and all that is
| !, .t.tNr Ia,
shall go forward. We owe much to the
energy and effort that have developed
the material resources and prosperity
of the nation. but away with the
thought that material prosperity and
enterprise are all nation needs. We
| need these, but We would mot have
| them without honor and virtue and
| truth and righteousness.
"The man would would sell nations al
| honor for political place and power is
a petty political huckster and not a
| patriot. Let us have peace, by ali
| means, but let it come in such a way
that having secured it. we shall be able
| to stand up before all the world and
say without any feeling of shame, i
| am an American I do not hesitate to
! say that | reserve the essence of con-
! tempt and scorn for the man, be he
| republican or democrat or populist,
| who will barter the nations honor and
| virtue for the interests of any party.
| If we do not bear the burdens imposed
upon US manfully, then the duty shall
| be left for some nation better fitted for
| the task
I'VE don't like the word imperialism
| in political sense. but we do in an
| ethical sense We believe in the i'm
perialism of high ideals, noble achieve
ments. We believe thoroughly in the
expansion of nobility, of purity, of light
| and liberty. The white mans burden
is a reality responsibility we can
not shake off,
"'Take up the white mans burden
Ye dare not stoOp to less
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your WEAKNESS
BY all we will or whisper,
| BY all ye leave or do.
The silent. sullen peoples
Shall weigh your God and you
"Kipling's message is for all of us"
The speaker closed with aNfew prac.
tical remarks to the graduates.
At the conclusion of President Reid's
address, Rev. A. B. Martin of the Col
lege of Montana. in few well choser
remarks presented the graduates witt
| their diplomas, after which Miss Mabe
| Beaumont rendered in a most artistic
| manner two vocal selections. w. F
| Gullette and Miss Sue Larabie gave {
| violin duet. accompanied by Mrs. Gul
lette: the Citizens band discoursed sey
eral national airs, and a few minute:
| past II o'clock the largest and best
| pleased audience ever assembled il
| Cottonwood hall received the benedic
ton from Rev. f. G. Prout and dis
persed to their homes.
President Reid left on the noon trair
to-day for Missoula, where he will de
| liver the baccalaureate sermon at the
commencement exercises at the Statt
university tomorrow.