Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-10-31
SOME YALE OUTGIVINGS
Productions In Connection With
Late Celebration.
NOTABLE GRAFTON AND POEM.
Justice Brewer Discusses the Prob
lem of Popular Government. Touch
ing Upon the Prevailing Tendency
Toward Consolidation and Concen-
MISUNDERSTANDING Com nm ratfSe
Ode to Nnie.

Toward Consolidation and Concen-
tration-stedmnn's CONNIE IN oratfve
Ode to lnIe.
Among the most notable productions
at the recent bicentenniai ceiebrati ton
of Yale university were the commem-
arative address by Justice Brewer of
the supreme court of the United States
and the poem by Edmund Clarence
Stedman entitled Mater Coronata."
Touching upon the problem of popu-
lar government, Justice Brewer said:
1.-THE structure of popular government
in this republic towers above the hori-
ION of the world great and strong. and
yet the question of its permanence is
not settled. Its possibilities of good
are greater than ever before; yet it
lives under new conditions and faces
new dangers.
These various causes are operating
in our midst to produce wealth. consol-
idation, centralization- The rapidity
and multitude of mercantile transac-
tons are seen in colossal fortunes. in
gigantic undertakings. in enormous
financial consultations and CORE
spending organizations of labor. Local
self control is giving way before the
pressure for centralized power. The
town meeting is supplanted by the
state legislature. while the latter in its
turn is yielding to the expanding pow
err of congress. Political parties are
largely under the management of boss
es and the whole great forces OF indus
try. business and politics seem passing
under the dominance of single central
control
is this centralizing tendency an
tagonistic or helpful to the republic?
Is it consistent with popular govern
ment? Apparently it is antagonistic
against the republican thought of
equality of right; each man a ruler and
equally sharing the responsibilities and
powers of government. Forms may
not be changed. Power seldom cares
about forms; ii seeks the substance of
control. Many and insidious are the
temptations which attend the efforts
of power to centralize and establish
itself: wealth and its offer of luxu-
ries. sweetness of officeholding. popu-
lar applause, even though manufac-
tured and purchased. He who stands
in the center has these and thousand
other strings reaching to every side Of
the surrounding circle.
You cannot stay this movement to-
ward consolidation and Capitalization.
1t is a natural evolution. The CONNER
cial spirit is taking advaa tage of the
wonderful facilities given by steam
and electricity. Injunction against
strikers will not stop it; legislation
against trusts Will not. Attempting to
stay the movement of its chariot
wheels by injunction or statute is lu-
macy compared with which Dame
Partington's effort to stop the Atlantic
with a mop was supreme wisdom. APP
peal must be taken to the great court
of public opinion, whose DEGREES are
irresistible. In that court every man Is
counsel and every man is judge. That
court may not stay the movement, but
will control it. 1t can make the move
ment with all the wonderful things at
tending it subserve the higher thought
OF ennobling the individual
'.Who shall lead and guide in that
court? Not the demagogue. appealing
for selfish purposes to ignorance and
prejudice. In the opening hours of the
French revolution Mirabeau reused the
rabble in Paris, and the reused rabble
whirled social order into chaos. provok-
ing Mime. Roland's dying words. 30
Liberty, what crimes are done in thy
namev We want no Mirabeau here
We turn to the educated lover of his
country, the one who believes in her
institutions: who would not destroy
but keep pure and is filed eyermore
with the thought that true service of
the public is the greatest glory of mau.
We look to him in that court for the
preservation of the liberty of the indi-
nance of wealth and organization, to
inyigorate the SO called generalities of
the Declaration of independence and
to fill the land with such spirit of in
dependence and liberty as shall give
new emphasis TO the grand old song,
America, the Land of the Free We
look TO him in that court to exterminate
the assassin and to put an end to
anarchism. so that nevermore in the
history of this republic shall the sad
story be told that during forty years
out of seven men elected to its highest
office three persisted by the hand Of the
assassin.
Here. then. IS my answer to the
leader of the organization. The or
ganiZation may need only one trained
in its workings-an always reliable
cog in the uachine-but the republic
needs something larger, stronger.
grander; something more than a cog.
1t needs the educated man and that
educated man to whom organizations
and individuals are simply Instruments
TO subserve the higher interests and
glory of the republic. So il is that i'll
these days of tremendous material &C
tIviiies there is as never before the
need for educational institutions filed
with the spirit OF devotion 10 the public
service"
Edmund Clarence Stedman's Poem