The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-06-10
COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES.

The commencement exercises In the
various universities and colleges OF the
United States, which are now COM
manding public attention. are this year
marked by unusual depth of thought,
united to practical applications. In
| California, at both universities, the
views expressed OF their relationship
| to common life were broadly educa-
tional. David Starr Jordan, of stan
ford, delivered an address upon typical
college men, which was Enthusiastically
great He showed the tendency
throughout the civilized world, and
especially in our own country, to use
men of university training, not merely
in the schools but, more conspicuous
ly. in every department of business.
With intense earnestness and In
graphic and condensed sentences, he
asserted the necessity for the employ
ment of graduates In the various divi-
sions of trade and commerce, and he
enforced upon his eager listeners the
absolute Importance of acquiring ex-
perience in definite careers and avoid
ing premature immersion in the flux
OF politics.
Professor Jordan's address touched
the heaving breast of the times. Or
ganization, system, co-operated in
dustries, vast combinations, are the
texts of progress in the twentieth CEN
fury. But underneath and controlling
them all is individual training and dis
cipline. Only a short while ago, the
universities We're the nurseries of
statesmen, philosophers, lawyers, doc
tors, clergymen, and other members
OF the learned professions, and were
also considered as finishing schools
for gentlemen, within the narrow def
milton of that appelation which pre-
vailed for many centuries. Now edu-
cation, from its simplest to it's most
complex and elevated forms, has
broadened to the extreme limits of life
as extended year by year in the
wonderful development of civilization.
When trade, finance, agriculture, horti-
culture, and all other phases of pro-
ducing industry, were conducted by
isolated individuals or copartnerships,
academical education was profaned by
association with these material ele-
ments in human advancement. Then,
a gentleman" possessed of inherited
opulence, considered his fingers soiled
If they touched a counter or a ledger,
and even merchant princes and the
shrewd financiers, who virtually ruled
the fate of nations, We're excluded |
from what were deemed to be the |
higher social circles. Now these ta-
booed occupations have risen to the
top Of the human ladder, and have be-
come identified and interviewer with
the destiny of man.
University methods particularly in |
the United States, under the lead of |
men who are fitted to rule and to pre-
pare other men to travel on the roads |
towards leadership, have been adopted |
to the changed and better order Or |
ganization and combination have be-
come regnant, and the man OF all |
work, who used to depend exclusively |
upon his own brains and industry for
success, has been virtually relegated |
into obscurity and has been superseded
by the man of education, both gem
era' and specialized, who has learned
to discard superfiuites, to use time
and opportunity for specific ends, and |
to press his upward way through the |
innumerable avenues of systematized
energy and enterprise.
The Duke of Argyll's conception of
tn Reign of Law" Is quickly being
hardened into fact, and the mass of
with perfected individualism
as its base, is raising and also con-
solidating its standards. This Is the
grand and irrepressible movement,
which the typical address of Profess
sor Jordan at once interpreted and
promoted The car of progress Is at
every mans door, and he must either
enter or be thrust aside and crushed.