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

work everywhere. and the American or
ganizer is the king of the world today.
Ladies, and gentlemen this is not al
accident, and forgive me il you think j
am making a mere boast of our in
dustries. They need not be boasted of
though / am sure there is no fact il
our history which, if properly inter
preted, we need be prouder of, because
ii has shown the capacity of America
manhood, and demonstrated the value o.
the democratic principle. But the Sc
eret of it is the great thing and that
secret is that men are unfettered. Let
them do their best. If our industry
were not making US the richest nation
on the earth as it is, it would yet have
been remarkable as having worked q
revolution to human society. We ana
Englishmen come Of a common blood
traditions and qualities. The English
man is hampered by immemorial tradi-
tions. We are no better than he ex-
cept We enjoy the inestimable, incalcul
able benefits of a democratic organiZa-
ton. We have not advanced beyond the
Germans. The German is first cousin tC
us and has as deft fingers and able
bodies as we, and in some things better
training than We have. Nevertheless,
because he is hampered by a military
government and traditions of aristocracy,
he cannot keep his pace with us. So
that, in Boosting, we are not after all so
much boasting of ourselves as we are
boasting of the one great central prin
ciple of human progress that we have
discovered and applied.
Now, if the democratic principle has
worked a revolution in the organization
and in the very conception of the Gov
eminent (for government is not looked
upon by men anywhere now in anything
like the light it was one hundred years
ago., if it has worked a revolution in
the conquest of a continent and in
dustry and organization of every sort,
why this same principle may work a
revolution in other parts of life, and
will. just as sure as it is applied. You
gentlemen who have the privilege to pur-
sue your studies in this college have,
l hope, read all those interesting books
called Utopias, from Plato to Edward
Bellamy. Interesting, dreams they are
of great minds engaged in the effort
to picture conditions under which human
society may reach perfect development.
They nearly all rest on this at last,
namely, that man will accumulate so
much that he will have surplus left
and can spend from half to wo-thirds
of his days listening to the opera through
a photograph and enjoying the converse
tion of his friends in the sWeet-scented
drawing rooms Now these Utopias are
idle dl cams, because man would degen-
crate under such conditions, but there is
one Utopia, l mean by that, one con-
tinuous movement towards the far-off
possible perfectability of human society,
and there is only one way yet discovered
to reach it: the highest constructive
imagination that we have bred in our
civilization saw it. ~.
He talked of it, dreamed of 1t, was
never tired of pointing to it. That man
was Thomas Jefferson. Suppose we had
got there, or nearer there than we are,
what should We find an ideal community
to be like? 1t would not be a place of
idleness, for the trouble with us now is
that all men do not work to the best
advantage, or do not work at all Let
US see what an ideal community, town,
city or State would be like. We should
find that every one has equal opportuni-
ties before the law. We do not achieve
it in every case now, nevertheless that
is our ideal We have an ideal com
munity in that respect in proportion as
We approach it.
Next there would be equality of op-
portunity, not simply the chance for
men to get themselves into proper ad-
justment after long trials and many
failures, but society would be so or
!, 1Irv do hi @
proper place and falls into it, The next
thing 1 should say that we should find in
such a community would be compulsory
training. L do not mean necessarily what
we mean by compulsory education.
Training children and youth may mean
a thousand things. We can train them
By schools, by libraries, by work, by in
Vulnerable influenflces that come to bear
upon the whole social structure. l can
not help thinking that when we get any
where near the ideal state every citizen
will be trained to something, for now
the waste that goes on, that is our him
drance. Now if that waste should be
eliminated, then there would be no more
to do except to hold society together
where you have got it.
Then the next thing is sanitation. 1t
| is wrong that any community should per-
nit any human being to have typhoid
fever, small pox or any other of the
preventahle diseases. We have already
demonstrated that nearly all dis
| eases are preventable, by the action
of the community, State or nation. Where
such action is necessary to make the
civilization in which we live healthier,
that is the community's business. Then
we will come to look upon the appear
| ance of any disease as a crime and some
enc will be punished for it every time.
So that the ideal community must be
| healthful. There is one other thing
about which our fathers talked a great
| deal and of which We have heard much.
| There can be no conception of an ideal
democracy except it's very corner stone
| be free thought and free speech. 1
| mean really free. 1 do not mean free
| simply on a few general propositions
which a man may approach on the
Fourth of July. / mean freedom about
| anything that is for the public welfare,
| There is no subject of public concern so
| sacred that it is not a part of the pub
IA