The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-01

In Tuesday mornings News and OBJ
server five columns were devoted to the
speeches incident TO the opening of the
elegant new library at Trinity College,
donated by Mr.. ]. b. Duke, of New York
city, president of the American Tobacco
Company The building alone cost $780,
900, and the donor has added $4,000 to
his gift for the purchase of books.
The principal address on that occasion
was delivered by Mr.. Walter II. Page,
editor of the Worlds Work. 1t is so ex-
eellent an address that we procured it for
publication in our Sunday issue.
MIR Page spoke as follows
Geographically reported by D. w.
Newsom.)
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
| trust / may be permitted as a wan
derer who has never yet quite left home
to say with what extreme qualification
l received the invitation to meet you this
evening, because it gives me pleasure
tc have this first opportunity that l have
had to bear testimony to the colossal
common sense and the prodigous ad-
yancement that is marked by the pro-
gresS of this institution This is
new thing not only in North Carolina
foI men of fortune, while they yet live,
to see the outcome of an investment like
this; and it marks an epoch in the
movement, in the appreciation with
which the great world which brings
things to pass, holds an institution of
this kind-that the benevolent benefactors
of this institution should have brought
ii into being so soon. 1t is the wonder
of
ago. when he steps off the cars here now
to see that you have a city where then
there was but village. But that is
not half so wonderful as the very fact
that these buildings stand here and that
they came to you in The way they have
come. through the benevolence and good
sense Of men who have made it possible
that not only you should have sprung
up into life all at once, but that the
community should have come into pos
session of an institution like this. 1t
is the difference between carrying civiIi-
cation forward all abreast and building
it piece meal Towns spring up in
Montana and the West, but usually great
colleges like this are not built up except
in the homes of old and settled civiliza-
tons. More than that, they build towns
to teach boys trades in a great many
places, as soon as money begins to fill
the Golfers. This is not school like
that Here you have established az
standard for scholarship that is as high
as if you had had a century to grow up.
and take your place at once along with
those great institutions which are the
standards by which We measure all work
For these reasons, sir, hope you will
pardon me for expressing my profound
thanks for the very great compliment
you have paid me in thinking of me on
an occasion like this; ard l should not
have failed to respond for any cause
short of sudden death.
/ propose to speak to you with the
briefness which l conceive to be appro-
pirate to this truly great occasion that
we are met to celebrate, about what
seems to me the greatest truth that civ
ilization has wrought out 1t seems to
me, a student of contemporary
events and Of public affairs for some
thing like thirty years, to be not only
the most important fact that we have
wrought out. but to contain the central
secret of human progress For by our
mastery of one great principle which in
Guided all others in social advancement,
and by its application, we may move
civilization forward where we will, NOV
ing of course, always zigzag, never in a
uniform line OF course what | mean
is the application of an unhesitating,
robust uncompromising democratic
principle to life, and the democratic
principle is nothing more nor less than
this, that society shall be so organized
that every individual shall have the
same opportunity for his development
that every other individual has, where
each one may find his natural aptitude,
where men are not hindefed so that a
man who has growth in him may achieve
it, and most easily. We have applied
this principle in three notable places in
our national history which / propose
very briefly to remind you of. l will
not say inform you, because they are all
commonplaces in our historical life. The
first application of the democratic prin-
ciple, which was brand new, was made
by the fathers of the Republic when
they applied ii to government. The
whole thing which we fought for in the
Revolutionary times,-namely, that every
man should have hand in the structure
of the Government, and thai the struc-
turc of the Government should be such
that every man should have equal poll
teal privileges. duties, and opportuni
ties. That is all that the fuss was about,
that is all that enabled us to beat the
Kingdoms of the old world; yet it was
simply the application of that principle
TO politics, TO the political structure. to
the building of the Government, which
made the creation of the Republic thing
so momentous that it marks an epoch in
all human history. 1t came in the main
against the will of the kingdoms and OF
all the countries of the old world, and
yet ii began to have its liberalizing in
fluence year after year. till century
had passed, and the whole conception OF
human government everywhere has been
changed by it, and there was never any
political event quite so potent as that
in its liberalizing influence. 1t is OF
special interest to us as il prepared the
way for the institution of the great Re-
public that was nothing but the applica'
ton of the great democratic principle Il
the structure ,of the Government VIZ
had not applied it then socially. In
In, h.