The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-30
AT HIGH SCHOOL.
Thirty-seVen Graduates in Mid
winter Glass.

school building resolved to carry out the
class motto, ITO do, not merely to
think
The high school assembly room was
decorated with the colors of the var
1ous classes and the motto of the mid
winter class was supported by Grecian
columns of gold,at the rear of the stage,
which with the purple hanging carried
out the idea of a temple.
There were IL boys and 26 girls in
the graduating class. The sweet girl
graduates always outnumber the boy
ish guards. The girls received flowers
in profusion and the boys received
tauntS and jokes of their fellows. Miss
Eleanor Mcdonald was the vaIedictor
ian. Miss Jessie Riach and Miss Airline
Dietrich tied for the honor of salutator-
ian. The male members of the class
were not represented in the honor
places.
Rev. Philip Wendell Crannen deliver
ed the prayer. The Anphion Mandolin
club and the Washburn college quar-
tette furnished the music. Rev. F. E.
Mallory, president of the board of ed
ucation, delivered the diplomas. Super
intendent W. NJ. Davidson acted as
master of ceremonies and ]. Willis
Gleed delivered the class address on
National Wealth. Mr.. Gleed said in
part:
The practical aim of political econ
omy is to teach the governing power
how a nation may be made and kept
rich and strong. Wealth is a very prac-
teal and interesting thing. 1t is here
and now. 1t can be touched, tasted and
handled. 1t means ease and comfort
and power. The American people need
no instruction as to it's virtues. They
have agreed seemingly that 1t is the
chief end of man.
political economy is to teach US how
to make and keep this nation wealthy
the wealthiest possible. What IS
wealth? That nation is accounted the
wealthiest which, other conditions be
ing equal. Vas the largest quantity OF
useful and agreeabIe things, generally
the product of labor and capable of be-
ing exchanged. Great cities fine build
ings, mines, railroads, factories, accu-
mulated stocks of goods, tools and I'M
plements for production are wealth, and
the nation which has these things most
abundantly is, other things being equal,
the most wealthy. But is this all that
goes to constitute wealth? If wealth
is as the writers say the stored product
of past labor. then we have yet to
enumerate the very greatest item OF
national assets. That item is the ca
pacfty of our so millions of people to
produce other wealth not now in exist
ence. 1t lies in the seeing eye, the
quick ear. the skilled hand. the firm
will, the dauntless courage, the trained
intellect, the stored brain, the self
control the perseverance. the energy.
the SObriety and integrity and virtue OF
the whole American people-in every
quality of heart and mind that makes
of a man a good productive machine.
1t is beyond debate that the greatest
item of national wealth and greatness
lies always in it's slowly accumulated
and painfully developed human caDac-
ity-in the moral and intellectual
strength and excellence of it's men and
women. It is this factor of national
wealth that seems to be constantly
overlooked by economists and states
men,
This is supposed to be period of
great economic problems. What are the
great economic problems according to
the legislation and literature and ora
tory of the past twenty-five years?
Look over the Congressional Record. 1t
is made up almost wholly of questions
like these: Who shall hold the offices;
how shall the taxes be raised: shall we
have high tariff or low tariff; how
shall our exchanges be carried on;
what kind of money shall we have. and
how much; what shall we do with the
railroads, the CORPORATIONS, and the
trusts; how shall we get all we can
out of the public treasury-how shall
we carry the country for our particular
party? These questions are some of
them important. but are not most OF
them secondary? Let me state what
seem to me to be some of the really
important economic problems.
"One Of these problems is how best to
get and keep our men and women in
public exhortation, all political effort,
organization and strategy, all legislation
and official action, which tends to en-
throne and exalt and glorify honest
dealing and honest speaking and honest
men in the hearts of the people, is pri-
marily and fundamentally good; and the
reverse is primarily and fundamentally
bad. Great is the man who neither.
steals nor defrauds. Great is the man
who makes no debts, or, having made
them, pays to the last farthing. Great
is the teacher, the parent, the legisla-
tor, the judge, the jury, or the preacher
who makes two honest men grow where
only one grew before. Great, I mean,
morality or esthetics or any other form
of what some call moonshine; but from
the standpoint of political economy. No
man can measure the wealth producing
power of just, plain, common honesty.
No man can measure the wastes and
losses which drain and sap society
through public and private dishonesty.
Thou Shadt not SteaP contains more
economical wisdom than any thousand
volumes ever written. For stealing is
more than petit or grand larceny, high
way robbery or burglary. He steals who
peculates, who defaults, who embezzIes.
He steals who defrauds, who overreaches
or OVerchargeS. He steals who adulter-
ates his goods or gives short weight He
steals who places incompetent or dis
honest men in office-who uses political
power in any way for the private ad-
vantage of himself or friends. He steals
who CANDLES. He steals who eats and
will not work. He steals who by specu-
lation endangers his capacity to pay
what he has borrowed. He steals who
does not, to the last nerve-fash and
heart-throb, endeavor to pay what he
owes. Gambling and speculation and
bankruptcy are bad political economy
What is lost in bad debts each year in
this country would well nigh pay the
annual tax.
"A nation of thieves and gamblers is
a nation of paupers aIways-no matter
how blessed they may be in natural re-
sources. Look at Italy! A nation of
heroically honest men will thrive, how
ever thin the soil or bleak the Cline
Look at Scotland. Honesty produces;
thievery destroys. This may not be
universally true of individuals, but it is
of nations.