The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1901-05-23
BUSINESS OR
PRAYER.
DR. kllGO OF TRINITY De
CLARES THAT GOD WILL
GET INTO CHINA
THROUGH THE
BUSINESS
SPIRIT.
MEN Or sR0AD IDEAS NEEDED.

inoepeooence OF Thought Has Bcra
Hamp.r~d-By Both Political and de-
Dominssioa.I Influences and Church
and society Have Timed Men.
Greensboro, n. c., May l7.-IAs.
night Rev. DIR. John &. Kilgo ad-
dressed meeting in this city of a
few friends Of Trinity College and
Greensboro Female College.
Ten years ago, DIR. kilgO said,
Trinity had ali endowment of ST.
$50; today it is $685. Ten years
ago there were but ten buildings.
There are now twenty-one, and
preparations are being made to erect
a library building at cost of$4, 900.
During the past decade the faculty
has been increased from nine 10
twenty-nine men, of which nineteen
were trained at Trinity. This was
a record that no other institution in
the South could show. There are
now $50 students in the college and
high school.
In speaking Of the trials and diff
culties that had beset the college,
DIR. Kilgo said he thanked God that
Trinity had some enemies. When
certain men realized that they could
no longer use the college as a politi.
cal football and to advance their sell
fish ends, their wrath boiled and
they set about to cut the throats of
the men who had brought about the
change. He said one great drawback
to Southern colleges had been an at
mOsphere of provincialism surround
ing the institutions, making it diff
cult to train men fitted for the re
sponsibilities of broad and agrees
i've leadership. Ifa spirit Of indie
pendence began to assert itself in a
State institution, the wrath Of
dominant political party might be
invoked and legislature stood rea-
dy to threaten the withdrawal Of an
appropriation. If an instructor stood
up for the truth as he saw 1t and ad-
yanced new idea, he had his mouth
closed, and young citizens sent to
the college for instruction had set
before them an example Of free
speech suppressed. The same cOndi-
tions have existed i'm the denomina-
tionaI institutions, and out of this
atmosphere the world, the church
and society have gotten timid men.
Speaking of the poverty with
which church colleges had been af
fiicted, DIR. Kilgo said the worst
form of tyranny in the world was
the tyranny of dollars, whether it
be a lack of them or a multiplication
of them. Speaking of the influence
of commerce on life, he said: "The
broadest spirit in this country today
is the business spirit; not the relig-
ious or political spirit. Civilization
is now engaged in a great fight for
supremacy in the celestial empire. i
tell you that God will 60 into China
through the cotton factory, the rail-
road and the telegraph quicker than
through the prayer meeting"
DR.. Kilgo said it took him eight
cen months to induce Mr.. Washing
ton Duke to do anything for Trinity
College. He found that the only
idea with which Mr.. Duke had any
Isympathy was the idea of free in
Istitution, an institution so free that
a student might hold to any relig
ion or political belief he saw fit, sc
long as he believed what he did vel
enough to tolerate the belief Of 9th
} ers. Mr.. Duke wished to assist in
freeing the fettered thought anC
spirit of the Southern manhood, anl
he had given Trinity College NOR
than 100000.