The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-11-04

were driven slowly through number of |
streets to Music hall The sidewalks were
lined with people and at many places
cheers went up. Music hall, which COM
fortaoly holds 200 people was well filed.
The gallery had been reserved for the
Yale men, and applause without stint
was given by them as Mr.. Parker took
his seat on the platform. AS the gather
ing was entirely informal. there was no
presiding officer. Judge Parker said:
Judge Parker Speaks.
For number of years now l have |
been delivering a course Of lectures at
the Albany Law school. This work and !
the personal contact with these bright |
students of the law, many of whom are |
helping themselves as did / when taking |
my law course in that same institution,
gives me an interest in young men which |
Is steadily growing. 1t is perhaps mac
curate to say that this work has given
me this interest. 1t is possibly due more
than anything else to a kindly act of
great judge-Chief Judge Church, the
recollection of which ready sympathy
helped me and gave me the motive for a
deep interest In young men. | remember
standing before that great jurist in my
first case, weighted down with the re-
sponsibility of making an effective pre-.
sentation of my clients cause At the
moment I arose to begin my argument 1
feared failure Chief Judge Church, di-
vining my difficulty bowed and said:
NOW we will hear you Mr.. Parker
Nervousness Disappeared.
My nervousness disappeared as if by
magic under his kindly tone / plunged
into the argument at once and when the
decisions came down my case had been
won. In the many years l have been on
the bench IN hardly a case has a young
man appeared in court that Chief Judge
churchs Kindness did not flash over me.
And | have been trying all these years
to discharge the debt owe him by treat
Ing the young men coming into court as
ne dealt by me.
1T has become fashion during re-
| cent years to exhort our young men
to learn what has been called the siren
uous life Not content with our uni
versal activity in industry, our work in
| quest of a continent and the effort to
spread our popular ideas into all the
world and thus to make ourselves an
| example for other peoples who are look
| ing toward freedom and opportunity, the
conclusion seems to have been reached
that somehow we had overlooked some
thing.
I'VE always had an efficient army of
brave soldiers we'll commanded 1t has
have been able to resist the onslaughts
of the savage; to ward off foreign ag-
gression and to settle our own internal
troubles.
Does Not Seem to Satisfy.
but this does not seem to satisfy. We
must be strenuous, not alone in all things
which make for God, for safety and for
| permanence, but we must be strenuous
! In adventure, for personal glory and even
in looking for a fight. 1t is apparently
not enough that we should be active in
every moral and religious movement,
these apparently do not assure real prog
ress So we are invited to turn aside
from these into the lines of activity and
adventure which smack of the crusades
and of the time when the moated castle
was the only home in which human be-
ings could be fairly said to have a right
to live.
Even the students in our colleges have
been invited to become strenuous. A
little investigation or knowledge serves to
show that the college student has always
been so. But in what direction? He has
been devoted to his studies as our schol-
arship and our universal education am
ply attest. Nor has this activity been
lighted to the few, 1t has permeated the
mass; 1t has been heritage Of the coun-
try. But the student has not accredited
1t to himself as a virtue but as a duty,
something he owned to the society in
which he found himself; to his parents
who perhaps were making great sacri-
fices to enable him to be better fitted
for the duties of life, and to himself.
Activity Goes Even Further.
This activity goes even further until
we find that in all the great colleges of
our country now a fourth; now third,
again almost a half, willingly and cheer
FILL 1t. w.Ir..- -
which can .-ied sufficient money to car
ry them through their college course,
academic or professional You here in
Yale have known strong, energetic, able
young men, who belonged to families in
which this process has gone on through
several generations. They have furnish
ed to their country great jurists and
lawyers; great physicians, eloquent
divines men who have carried our ira
ditions into whatever part of the world
they have gone and upheld our honor
They have gone forth to form new COM
munlties; 20 promote new business en-
terprises and to play a strong and eff
fective part in our life.
How much greater activity in this
respect is demanded by our time than we
now know?
Sports Universally Practiced.
But even if they were this greater
demand, there was never a period wher
sports were more universally practiced
or when they were more perfect. Oul
successful rivalry in these has beer
shown in every quarter of the world
And this success has not been purchased
by the sacrifice of efficiency In scholar
ship.
No act that | can think of Is more
important than the first vote In a greater
majority of cases it attaches a man fol
all time to one of the political parties
1t is most important, therefore. that the
first vote should be wisely cast The re-
sponsbility for that act is too great fol-
it to be lightly or carelessly done.
Pardon me- therefore, for venturing
the suggestion that If you have not al
ready done so. you give the subject every
earnest consideration in the few days
remaining before the election. Study the
, tendencies of the two leading parties anC
see whether one or the other aims to dc
the greatest good, to the greatest mum
ber
You will find that neither party is
free from fault, indeed both of then
have from time to time done things they
ought not to have done, as we'll as omit.
ted to do things they ought to have done
But as many of these faults are. they
will not prevent you from finding if you
! look for 1t which one of them possesses
in the largest measure. that spirit upon
which republics can alone thrive"
PARKER ATTACKS THE
EST AND PAT" POLICY