The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-07
Orators Speak For Gray
Medal
Continued from Page one.)

Kilgo Sunday-and these were all loud
in their praise of the high order of
sermon preached by Rev Mr.. Wilker
son. of New Orleans 1t was fine eff
fort of man who has proven to these
people his ability to speak The must
cal feature was one that was interest
ing. The music was furnished by a
choir picked from the various city
churches
Rev. Mr.. Wilkerson's subject was
"Pilate," who he said, was not mere
ecclesiastic figure, in church history,
unsuited to his position and incapacl-
tated for civil or religious trusts
PLATE, he said, was an ecclesiastical
statesman, man of honor, capable
calculating, considerate, shrewd one
who is able to analyZe situation IN all
its relations and bearings.
/ PLATE, he said, was not car. he
was not an unlimited monarch. He
was merely Caesars representative in
a foreign court and at this very mo-
ment threatened with political ohense
-graVest of all charges-but If he had
been free from restrictions the popu-
lace had an opinion and a voice or
their own. If wrong and cruel theirs
| was the sin and not Pilates.
The speaker also illustrated from
Napoleon at Arcis, Louis TX, and
| Marguerite at the siege OF Damletta'
| the celebrated General Jackson when
holding the court in his native county
leaving the bench to arrest a rufflan
who had cowed the officers of the
| court and from Togo in the Japanese
| war. But such was not the crisis IN
Jewish history. 1t was not leadership.
| not dictatorship, but constitutional
amendments, the reversion or state
policies.
| The spectacle and message for the
| world, he said, is not Plate with
out honor, conscience or convictions
but the impotence of human reason
even though welded by a master
hand to control a supposedly out
| ragged people intent upon a common
purpose. They were intoxicated with
their power and imaginary wrongs,
! like a despicable mob in twentieth
century intoxicated with the awful
crime of modern demon.
| @"But while / eXonerate Pllate, ne
said there is a species of twentieth
century life which l shall designate
Modern Pilatism. Not quality OF lite
| illustrated and exemplified by this his
toric character.
This species of modern life is the
awful record in the human history or
treachery, disloyaIty, untrustworthi-
ness in the hour of the direst need and
greatest expectancy. 1t is the active
force of modern life which felgns
friendship but fails, at the crucial
time; pays compliments. transfers re-
sponsibiIities, seeks to be on both SIDES
| Of every issue and with regret dls-
covers 1t impossible.
"The most vital question of these
closing hours of college life is not the
reaches of your intellectual acqulsl-
ton. but who shall direct and control
your life The undecided, hesitatlng
man stands with uplifted hands
against the best of his life and the
| life Of the world. And remember III
this mental attitude toward Jesus
| Christ is not alone the secret of your
success or failure at a crucial hour:
but the secret OF your success and
! failure at all hours Of the whole life.
1t is the key Of all false and upright
eous living before men"
Contest for Medal.
The oratorical contest for, the Willy
GRAY medal took place tonight in the
/ Craven Memorial Hall. In this con-
! test four men are Selected from the
graduating class. The selection OF
| these sneakers is made by a contest
among those who wish to enter for
the high honor
The Willy Gray medal is given by
Mr. r. #. Gray, of Raleigh, in memory
| of his brother. who lost his life dur
! ing the civil war, and whose remains
now rest i'm some unknown grave
with thousands of others of his fell
| lows from the South, The medal is
one of the highest honors the college
| gives, standing to Trinity in much the
same place as the Willy Mangum medal
stands to the senior orator at the
State University.
The four speakers tonight were as
| follows: Mr.. e. r. Franklin, Raj
eigh; Mr.. C. T. Hins6n, Monroe; Mr..
E. F. Lee, Newton Grove. and Mr..
NJ. f. Newsom, Jr., of Littleton.
Mr.. e. r. Franklin of Raleigh.
spoke on Another View of His
tory" and the address in part was
as follows:
1--WE are accustomed to think that
the hero of some battlefield, or the
originator of some great movement in
history, or the author of some great
poem or novel, is the only man that
deserves our praise and admiration.
To them we have justly been fair for
| it is easy to recognize that great men,
leaders in thought and action-haVe
been the great factors in the world s
progress. But in our praise and ad-
miration for the heroes we have been
unmindful of the great work that has
been accomplished by the So-called
common people of the world, and have
never paused to pay tribute to the
rank ana HE oil humanity. we HAVE
accepted too literally Carlyle's aphor-
ism, That the history of what man
has accomplished in the world has
been the history of its great men, If
we accept that we must blot out of
our minds the work that has been done
by the millions of miners who have
labored in the earth, by the millions
of farm laborers who have made their
mark in the world with the pillow and
the axe, by the millions of iron work
ers who have stood at the forge, made
iron as plant as putty and have
changed it into a thousand forms.
What we read and call the history of
people may portray the career of
its great men, but the true history
must have a broader meaning than
that. History is more than the biog-
raphy of its politicians and military
heroes. The tragedy of human history
cannot be acted with all of its char
acters great and renowned. We grant
that great men will be the leaders of
mankind and will be the men to whom
the world will look for guidance. That,
| however, does not blot out the fact
| that the common people having an