The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-11
Charles Moreau Harger Deliv-
ers a Scholarly Address.
"The Kansan of Today Is
Thoroughly Dissected.
HE HAS WEAKNESSES.
Spends Too Mach Time With
Products and Values.
How the Easterner Has Ad-
vantage of Westerner.

Lawrence, Kan, Sept. 11.-At the
opening exercises in the K. u. chapel
this morning Charles Moreau Harger OF
Abilene delivered the address. His SUBJ
ject was THE Kansan of Tomorrow"
1t was well received. Mr.. Harger said:
Exceedingly fortunate am in being
permitted to address you at the begin
ming of the school year-even before
your learned professors have been able
to give you of their wisdom. Now, with
the sunshine Of summer yet in your
eyes and with the joy of the prairie
winds yet on your cheeks, you are will
ling to listen to the counsel and adj
monition-I had almost said admiration
of those who have travelled farther up
the hill of life. At the middle of the
year you will know as much as we: at
commencement, our poor harvestings
from the fields of experience viii sink
into insignificant nOthingness before the
opulence of your attainments.
Yesterday, at a hundred prairie sta
tionS, goodbyS were spoken; fathers
said, Take care of yourself and turn
ed away to hide moist eyes; mothers
tenderly bestowed the kiss of separation.
AS the train sped over the level track
soon to disappear in the dim distance,
there may have been tears-but they
were crystalization of hopes for your
future; of dreams of your accomplish
ments. Today, in the homes of Kansas
the thoughts and prayers are for the
young men and the young women away
aration for the years to come.
Let me tell you a secret. Kansas has
drawn her will in your favor. Every
thing now possessed by this generation
has been beuueathed to you This OBJ
long bit of earth'S faireSt fertility, 10000
square miles of it, capable of producing
the largest wheat crops, the richest al
falfa, the tallest corn, and the deepest
floods of any commonwealth on the
globe, equipped with herds and fiocks,
business houses and dwellings, with
manufactures, churches, schools, bank
deposits, football fields and bargain
counters, is yours-all is your legacy.
How will you develop your lives upon
it? Is it not fair that your benefactors
ask your plans? The next generation
ought to do better than the past or the
present. Those who were responsible for
the states early history have gone
some to their reward above. some have
mGaely gone. Those of the present have
not succeeded fully iE Bringing about
perfection. Kansas is not heaven-if IL
were, perhaps few of us would be here
this morning except the ladies' and the
professors. We look to you TO Improve
KANSAS HAS A KING.
Kansas, supposed to be the birth
place of freedom. has a king and an
idol. 1t bows at the feet of the god of
statistics So many bushels of this. so
many tons of that so much money. so
much debt. so much gain or loss. KAN
sas dreams of products and values. It
takes its morning bath in averages.
combs it's hair with totals. and makes
it's meal on patent. predigested break
fast food percentages. My generation
is responsible-not yours. We have
deemed it better to know the per capita
of the currency than the story of the
Iliad; we have deserted the song OF
Shellev's lark for the clatter of the
self binder.
Time was when this commercialism
may have been necessary-when It
was the only way to impress the world
with the opportunity for the settler
That day has passed.
What profits it to boast of new
school houses if the teachers be given
no better recognition? Why herald
the number of students in this mag
nificent university if there must be
biennial struggle for funds to conduct
it. and if we lose instructor after in
structor because of the temptation of
better salaries? .
The Kansan of tomorrow has before
him the task of bringing. a higher ideal
into the state. rather of uplifting
the peoples thoughts to realization OF
the greater things of this life. There
may have been excuse for the viewpoint
of other days: there can be none for
carrying it into the future. 1t is a. time
for virile Sympathetic, courageous bat
Ting for the higher life, for building
here IN our splendid commonwealth de-
votion to arts noblest aspirations. To
whom is this duty more direct than to
the college student of today?
| The Kan5an of tomorrow will strive
less for the worlds attention and more
| for the DEVELOPMENT of self. The weird
procession of fakes and freaks that has
afflicted the Sunf1Ower state has given
us notoriety-but it has not added to
our standing. One Ingalls,, one John
Brown. is worth more to the common
wealth than any crop it ever raised.
\ This is only another Way of saving
that the things of the soul are above
those of the flesh. But ii cannot be re-
peated too often. for unless it is a part
of the life of our young men and young
women it Will never enter into the warp
and woof of our civilization. 1t would
be better far for the Kansas OF to-
morrow to produce a Hawthorne or a
| Longfellow than a Pierpont Morgan or
a Carnegie The captains of the in
| dustrial host strut the stage of today,
but they will be forgotten when the
kings of literature and art stand with
ever Frightening names before the ma
tan.
1t has seemed to me that the average
Kansan becomes cynical and exacting
as he grows older that somehow too
soon in his life's course he finds the en-
thusiasm of existence. the keen Dercep-
ton of natures beauties. the sweet
sympathy of youth fading, and in its
place coming the materialism of age.
/ It means that something has been lost
that within the soul dwells no more
the deity of dreams. In the coming
years of Kansas we shall see those who
do not lose this precious gift, who feel
through all the years of maturity and
of age the impetus of high emotion.
whose pens and voices. whose lives and
| influence. shall bring to the state
mightier glory. Drouths and floods de-
stroy the farm and the factory-but
they do not take from the possess0r one
| iota of his soul-wealth. 1t requires
years sometimes to replace a hail
lruined crop, but the harvest of books
and the riches of meditation are eternal
KEEN COMPETITION.
The kansan of tomorrow will have