The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-08
DIR. w. l.. BRYAN PREACHED.
Delivered the Baccalaureate Com
mencement Sermon mt Earlham.

Special to the Indianapolis Journal
RICHMOND, Ind, June 7.-Dr. William
Lowe BRYAN, president of Indiana Univer-
sity. delivered the baccalaureate address at
Earlham College this morning. His subject
was Education by Occupations" and the
address was full of splendid suggestions to
the graduating class and to all who heard
IT. DIR. Bryan said in part:
s'Your chief interest at present, as / sup
pose. is i'm the occupations which you are
about to follow. What have TO say 1aIis In
line with that interest. In the outset beg
to remind you that every important occu-
nation has been made what 1t is by
guild-by an ancient guild whose history
stretches back in direct or Indirect success
sion to the farthest ANTIQUITY; Every suuh
historic guild of artisans, scholars, lawyers,
prophets, what not, rose, one may De sure
to meet some deep social necessity. In ev-
cry generation these necessities were pres
ent demanding each the perpetuation OF It's
guild And because in the historic arts ana
crafts and professions mankind mas spent
in every generation all that IL mad OF
drud.yery or of genius, il has won In them
ITS whole estate The steel mill, the Dattle-
ship, the court of justice. the university
these and the likes of them are not acct
dents nor miracles of individual invention.
nor products of the vague groupings ana
longings of society in general Tney are
each the product of a brotherhood or gen.
eraions working to meet one soctai netes-
, Tvy, IL in the service of one ideal And so.
Young ladies and gentlemen, II is these
brotherhoods of labor w,,h Is e rrime s and
scars, that stand before you to-day inviting
YOU to initiation.
1.-The fact that an occupation can teach
Ire far-brought wisdom to the men OF each
generation makes civilization and progress
possible. But this one condition, that
many of the people and some or the pest
of them. shall be able TO make that occu-
nation their life business. The mission or
society, says Geddes, is to bring to bloom
as many sorts of geniuses as possible AND
this IL can do only when each sort or gem
ius has the chance to choose freely of its
own life occupation.
ssHere as l think. is a programme Tor
our educational systemic MAKE pam
highways from every corner of the state
tn every occupation which history mas
proved good. 1t is no light matter 10 make
the choice. 1t is to elect your physlcai ana
social environment. Ii is to choose where
YOU will work. in a scholars cloister, on
farm or in the cliffs of city street IL is
to choose your comrades and rivals III is
TO choose what you will attend to, what
Won will try for. whom you will follow.
In a word. Ii is to elect for life, for better
or worse, some one part of the whole social
heritage. But there is, OF course. no magic
in morally choosing an occupation. If you
can do nothing to an occupation but choose
IL il can do nothing at all TO you. III you
are an incorrigible lover OF holidays, so
that the arrival of a working day makes
Won sick IL every task thrust into your
hands grows intolerable If every calling,
as soon as you have touched Its drudgery
grows hateful-that is TO have the soul of
a tramp 1t is TO be stricken with incura-
BILE poverty.
another. If for the fear of being narrow and
with the hope of being broad he forsakes
every occupation before 1t can set its seal
upon him. IL he is through and through
dilletante Jack of-all-trades, he Is ian
only less poverty-stricken than the ira.
He has the illusion of efficiency.
s.There is another sort of man who will
learn little in any occupation because he Is
is all wrong. full of errors. absurdities. in
iquities To serve apprenticeship Is 10 in
doctrinate oneself with pernicious ortho-
doxies We must rebel. We must begin at
the beginning. We must do something en-
tirely new and revolutionary. And vet. for
NV part / am convinced that this Is a
fatally one-sided view of things. Is there
I'm existence one great work of any sort
which owes nothing to the historic guild
great man in history who gave TO the
future without getting anything from the
past? The bare scientific fact Is that no
man escapes the tuition OF society.
but now that we have told of these three
classes who will not learn what society has
to teach. we have happily left most of man.
kind: certainly hope most of you have sub
mitted 10 the instruction OF society thus
far. And IL Isl you who are willing to work
and eager for the best instruction that So
ciety can give you. whom the question OF
occupations especially concerns. For one
thing IL Is necessary that your calling at
its best, the best that IL has done the best
that IL may do, should lay before you a
programme Of tasks. the first OF them ly-