The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1900-01-04
President nadley, Of Yale.
Discusses Changing So.
ciety Conditions.
Conceptions Of Public Duty
Must Be Inspired by
Moral Obligation.
BY Wire From Chicago, Jan. 3.

ny wire from chicago, Jan. 3.
The convocation Of the University Of
Chicago was held yesterday These meet:
tngs usually call forth great crowds O,
friends and supporters of the University
but yesterday, with President Hadley Of
Yale as the stellar magnet, Studebaker hall
was packed with an enthusiastic throng
numerically stronger than any hitherto
gathered on a similar occasion.
President Harper, Of the Midway Institu-
ton, introduced President Hadley, who de-
livered the convocation address. 1t was ex-
pected that President Harper would an
nounce gifts to the university aggregating
50, SIS, 900, but this matter was deferred
until after the delivering & the convocation
address.
President Hadley said in part:
An unusually we'll informed foreign
critic. Mr.. Muirhead, has recently published
the opinion that the standard Of personal
morality in America is decidedly higher
than in England, that of commercial moral
ity probably little lower, and that Of po-
litical morality quite distinctly lower.
There is reason to think that in this view
he represents the consensus of opinion of
well informed observers on both sides of
the Atlantic.
The causes for this condition of things
demands serious attention. A failure to
carry into politics the same kind of ethical
standard which is applied In matters of per-
sonal morals implies as a rule, that there
is something in peoples political condition
to whose understanding it has not fully
grown up. Such a failure implies a defect
In public judgment rather than in individ-
ual character. 1t indicates that we do not
know what virtues may be exercised for
the maintenance Of organized society as well
as we know what virtues are necessary to
the harmonious living of individuals among
their neighbors.
UNFAIRNEss OF CONDITIONS.
Organization in business, in local poll,
tics and national politics has brought with
1T an inequality of opportunity and an un
fairness of conditions in which the game of
life is played. Competitive business is CIV
ing place to trusts. The town meeting has
been supplanted by the organized munich
pality. The old federation of states with
strong traditions of home rule has become a
centralized nation, reaching out beyond its
old borders to rule over other nations less
civilized than itself. g.
Under these circumstances it becomes i'm
possible for the community to rest compla-
Gently in that egotistical morality which
seemed sufficient for the needs of a genera
ton earlier. We can on longer rely upon
competition to protect the consumers against
abuse when industry has become so highly
organized that all production is centralized
in the control Of single body. 1t is no
longer true in the sense that it was so years
ago, that each man may be left free to
manage his own business and that the COM
munity will find it's work best done as
consequence Of such freedom. Commerce
and industry are no longer to be regarded
as games where we have nothing to do but
to applaud the most skillful player when
he wins, and rest In the assurance that his
triumph is in line with the best interests
of the community as whole. What once
a. A~@
trust not merely in the superficial and acct
dental sense in which the name trust" Is
now applied to all large combinations of
capital, but In a prOfOunder sense-as q
trust exercised on behalf of the public,
which it Is in the power of those who con-
pleasure, without adequate restraint from
any quarter
NEW SYSTEM OF ETHICS.
"Where competition is thus become a re-
mote contingency, and where law is almost
necessarily inadequate unless it be made
80 strict as to forbid the good no less than
the evil In private business enterprise, a
new system of ethics is a matter of vital
for the American people, system
which shall treat the director no longer as
an individual pursuing private business of
his own and with the right to resent the
suggestion that he should conduct it unset
fishly, but, as having moral responsibilities
to his stockholders, to his workingmen, and
to the consumers that purchase his goods
Or his services. In the absence Of such an
ethical advance, no political or legal solu-
ton of the so-called trust problem is likely
to be effective.
Until there is a fundamental reform In 4
the code of political ethics which the COM
munity imposes upon its MEMBERS public |
trusts will be no more adequately controlled
than private ones. Nay, they are likely to
be even less adequately controlled. because |
a public official, holding his power as tool
If a ring, and acknowledging no allegiance |
to standards higher than those which have
made his organization successful, as a rule |
more firmly intrenched in authority than |
the representative of any private corpora i
lion, however extensive or powerful. Until |
such a change is made the socialistic ideal |
Of reforming abuse of private trust by the
substitution of public trust will be but the
substitution of one set of masters for an
other.
''If this difficulty is felt in internal affairs |
where those who suffer are at any rate |
citizens and men of action, with the power !
% make their protests heard even when they !
much worse will it be in dealing with COL |
onies and dependencies. Under an imper- |
alistic policy our government cannot re- |
main where it was. 1t must grow either |
worse or better. 1t cannot remain a game |
In which the struggle for success is as far |
sense of. the participants. 1t will involve |
either direct breach of trust or direct |
acceptance of trust.
BETTER SOLUTION LIKELY.
"Our own experience with problems other |
than these and the experience of England |
with this particular problem both warrant |
us in the belief that we shall move toward |
l better solution rather than toward a worse.
"a country which has in SO many Of it's |
parts passed in a single generation from |
the lawlessness of frontier life to the ex-
IRENE of legality may readily in a genera
ton more pass from a state where concep-
ions of public duty are bounded by legality |
alone to one where they are Inspired by |
! moral obligation which will carry into
The conduct of public affairs the principles
and the sentiments which we recognize as
private ones.''
Fight LIVES ARE I0ST