Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-22
PRESENT PROBLEMS.
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upon Rear Admiral Clark, DR.. Mitchell
said
1.-THE unequaled story of the battle ship
Oregon Is well known to all this vast au-
dience. 1t served but to crown with larger
popular recognition, career long familiar
to the navy as valuable example OF the
skill of the officer, and the ability OF the
diplomatist in conditions of unusual diff
Guilty.
Il feel honored by this opportunity at
the request and by the authority of the
trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
to ask the provost to confer upon you
Charles Edgar Clark, rear admiral, the de-
gree of doctor of laws.
At the conclusion of the ceremonies Pro-
vost Harrison made a few brief introduc-
tory remarks and President Roosevelt de-
livered his Grafton. He said:
The Presidents Address.
AS a nation we have had our full share
of great men, but the two men of pre-em-
nent greatness who, as the centuries go on
will surely loom above all others are WASH
ington and Lincoln; and it is peculiarly
fitting that their birthdays should be cele-
brated every year and the meaning of their
lives brought home close to us.
No other city in the country is so closely
Philadelphia. He served here in 111o In
the Continental Congress. He was here as
commander of the army at the time OF the
battles of Brandywine and Germantown
and it was near here that with that army
he faced the desolate winter at Valley
Forge, the winter which marked the turn
ing point of the revolutionary war Here
he came again as president of the con-
vention which framed the Constitution
and then as President of the United States,
and finally as lieutenant general of the
army after he had retired from the pres-
dency.
One hundred and eight years ago. just be-
fore he left the presidency, he issued his
farewell address. and in 1t he laid GOWN
certain principles which he believed should
guide the citizens of this republic for All
time to come, his own words being, when
appear to me all-important to the perma-
nency of your felicity as people,
Lincoln's Gift of Expression.
Washington, though in some ways an
even greater man than Lincoln, did not
have Lincon's wonderful gift of expression
that gift which makes certain speeches of
the rail-splitter from Illinois read like the
inspired utterances of the great Hebrew
seers and prophets. But he had all of Lin
coins sound common sense, far-sighted-
ness and devotion to a lofty ideal.
Like Lincoln he sought after the noblest
objects, and like Lincoln he sought after
These two greatest Americans can fairly
be called the best among the great men
Of the world, and greatest among the good
men of the world.
pacity to secure under our system the
priceless union of individual liberty with
governmental strength. Each was as free
from the vices of the tyrant as from the
vices of the demagogue.
To each the empty futility Of the mere
doctrinaire was as alien as the baseness
Of the merely self-seeking politician. Each
was incapable alike of the wickedness
which seeks by force of arms to wrong
others, and of the no less criminal weakness
which fails to provide effectively against
being wronged by others.
Washington's Maxims
Among Washington's maxims which he
bequeathed to his countrymen were the
two following: "Observe good faith and
justice toward all nations and ITO be
prepared for war is the most effective
means to promote peace These two prin-
ciples taken together should form the basis
of our whole foreign policy. Neither is suf-
fcient taken by itself.
1t is not merely an idle dream, but a
most mischievous dream, to believe that
mere refraining from wrongdoing will in
sure US against being wronged Yet, on
the other hand, nation prepared for
war is a menace to mankind unless the
with good faith and justice.
In any community it is neither the con-
scientious man who is a craven at heart,
nor yet the bold and strong man without
the moral sense who is of real use to the
community; it is the man who to strength
and courage adds a realizing sense Of the
moral obligation resting upon him, the
man who has not only the desire but the
power to do his full duty by his neighbor
and by the state.
So. in the world at large. the nation
which is of use in the progress of mankind
is that nation which combines strength of
character force of character and insistence
upon its own rights, with a full acknowledge
ment of it's own duties toward others.
Just al present the best way in which we
can show that our loyalty to the teachings
of Washington is a loyalty of the heart
and lot of the lips only is to see to it that
the work of building up our navy goes
steadily on, and that at the same time our
stand for international Righteousness is
clear and emphatic
Never Waged an Unjust War.
Never since the beginning of our coun-
trys history has the navy been used in an
unjust war Never has it failed to render
great and sometimes vital service to the
republic 1t has not been too strong for
our good, though often not strong enough
to do all the good it should have done.
Our possession of the Philippines, our in
terest in the trade of the orient, our build
ing the isthmian canal, our inSiStence upon
the Monroe doctrine, all demand that our
navy shall be of adequate size and for it's
size of unsurpassed efficiency. If 1t is
strong enough 1 believe it will minimize
the chance of our being drawn into foreign
war.
If we let it run down it is as certain as
the day that sooner later we shall have
to choose between a probably disastrous
foreign war or a peace kept on terms that
imply national humiliation.
Our navy is the surest guaranty of peace
and the cheapest insurance against war
and those who, in whatever capacity have
helped to build it up during the past twenty
years have been in good faith observing
and living up to one of the most important
of the principles which Washington laid
down for the guidance of his countrymen
Nor was Washington the only one of our
great Presidents who showed far-sighted
patriotism by support of the navy. When
Andrew Jackson was in Congress he voted
for the first warships we ever built as part
of our regular navy: and he voted against
the grant of money to pay our humiliating
tribute to the pirates of the Barbary states
Old Hickory was patriot through and
through, and there was not an ounce of
timidity in his nature, and, of course, he
felt only indignant contempt for policy
which purchased an ignoble peace by cow
ardice instead of eXacting a just peace
by showing we We're as little willing to
submit to as to inflict aggression Had
a majority of Jackson's colleagues and
70 hn n oh