The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-05
A Day of Oratory
At the University.
Continued from Page One. J


many. 1t was Julius Caesar who trans
formed the politics Of Rome and in no
less degree was it the upright life and
spotless character of George Washington
and his associates that engendered in the
wilderness of America the love for a
measure of human liberty which hither-
10 the world had never experienced
If We accept the ancestor theory with
out reservation we should make our own
fathers the mere tools of time, the vic
Tins OF current that they could not
stem, and rob their services of all that
n axes them commendable and praise
worthy: while to accept the opposite
view in it's entirety would be to ascribe
10 these supernatural powers and so i'm
rregnate their deeds with noble and heroic
dai,Ag that the average citizen of today
r,ust feel himself an unworthy descend
ant from such distinguished sires. Per-
haps If We can strike the medium aureum
of Vergil, If we could hit upon that hap
by middle ground from which We may ex-
tract the salient truths of each without
Incorporating the extravagances of either
our position shall be most fortunate
And this / Think the correct solution of
the problem. There was something of
new in the birth of this nation.
But, however patriotic may have been
the deeds of our forefathers in the war
far independence, however heroic may
have been their sacrifices in that uneven
struggle. their real, genuine service to
humanity was not in the battles they
fought but in the plain, simple, practical
government they instituted among men.
ach Ofn q =; &c
thousands, Washington as statesman
has blessed his tens of thousands And
= tbeSfact that enhances the value of his
labor fer us today is that the corner
stone, the entire foundation in fact of this
republic was the rights of the individual
citizen. H
For one-third OF "a century this princi
pie without question guided the young ma
tion in her steady march toward progress
and development. eliminating in the era
of go I'd feeling in 1924 under President
Monroe, up to that point American history
reads with the charm of romance and
the thrill of fiction.
But rom this point the pendulum
swings backward and a darker phase of
the picture comes into view. The ivigOr-
Gus and justified energy of individual mi
tiative became swallowed up in a fiercer
contest between larger administrative
units. For time the rights of the in
dividual were lost in the approaching
storm between conflicting interests of
geographical sections.
The wholesome principle of compromise
that had so often bridged the gap be-
tween contending parties under the direc-
tive genious of such men as Henry Clay
vas entirely brushed aside, prejudice was
weighed in the scale against reason and
passion became the determinant of judg-
ment. Two hostile armies took the field
and million firesides disbanded to unite
nc more on earth. The very foundations
of government were quivering as though
with the tremor of-an earthquake, and
war was imminent, and war must come,
and war did come, and what war it was
l am inclined to be of the class of those
who, while they deplore the conditions
that made our Civil War necessary, while
they regret in fullest measure the i'm
mediate consequences that resulted there
from, yet do not conceive it with all its
blood and peril as an entirely unmixed
evil. The terrific and murderous heights
of Gettysburg, the beautiful banks of the
Rappahannock, the fertile plains about
Richmond, and the forest-crowned knolls
of Appomattox speak to us today in elO-
quent tones of lesson that we had been
slow to learn. These were the refining
fires through which the American spirit
must pass in order to burn up its dross
of selfishness. This was the period of
wandering in the wilderness for the puri-
fication of the people before they might
possess in security the promised land of
individual rights. And this liberty whose
supreme manifestation is service is the
basic principle that underlies the vigo-
rous policy of the American people. Each
individual citizens holds simultaneously
two relations-on the one hand he is
sovereign, and equal among equals, ac-
knowledging the superiority of none. On
the other he is a subject, servant to
each one of his equals and owing allie
glance to them all.
With nations as with individuals, there
is a beautiful and sublime reciprocity in
human affairs. The man who enters life
with the purpose of helping somebody
else will find that some one else will help
him, and he who expects to profit only
at the expense of others will find that
others will profit at his expense. And no
ration can be accounted good and great
l0dL uOeS not dSSCTe u even the HuIuUIeSI
OF its citizens the unquestioned right to
improve his condition constantly by help
ing his community and his State.
The favorite maxim of the Roman was,
it Is sweet and honorable to die for
ones native land, but in the evolution
of American patriotism we believe that it
is far more honorable to live and work
for ones country.
This has been the growth of the Amer
lean idea. Planted firmly upon the equal
ity of opportunity, the eighteen century
saw the young nation in the swaddlinS
clothes Of infancy, the nineteenth CEN
fury has witnessed a marvellous external
expansion and an internal strengthening
of character even though at the expense
of human blood; it remains for us of the
twentieth century to carry forward this
crystallized product of an advanced civil
ization and make American citizenship
synonym fox all the cardinal virtues of
mankind.
INDUSTRIALISM
The thil speaker was Mr. Robert
Ransom Williams, whose subject. I'm
dustrialism,' was we'll considered and
we'll mt He said in hrief.