The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-04-18

4 bODiC NOllsOfd l1Dif vi III" Ed kGu10 eD1Itty
and even amid the rayages of war, the
unrayaged vision o farts and philoso-
ply.
Secure, therefore, in the dignity OF
an intellectual authority which Ii has
earned, and Il national service which Ii
has rendered. enriched by the currents
of a gentle civilization flowing about 1t
for generations, protected by the love
and yeneration OF thousands, seated
among the hills of quiet strength and
beauty, and stamped upon its outward
form with 1.-The glory that was Greece,
and the grandeur that was Rome Ii l
may use the very words of its most
gifted child Of genius and song, this
university faces the future, which sum-
mons you and me to preserve and
strengthen, as it summons the foun-
ders to conceive and create.
The glory oil Jefferson was his enthu-
siasm for the future. 1t Ia the proph-
esy in democracy that charmed his
spirit. A noble past might be a dan
gerous thing, he thought, if it brought
contentment with a compsacent present
Or an uncertain future, and there was
no splendor in it for him. if it did not
urge men onward. 1t has been given
to this university, to render wide and
definite service for political freedom
and human culture and character in an
age of national development and
trial. Is there not equal work for it
to do in behalf of spiritual freedom
and economic independence and justice
in an age ofsocial expansion and exper-
age of social expansion and expert
iment Is it not just as much a piO-
neer in the latter struggle for a larger
life as it was when it came from the
hand of its founder in the generous
fervor of a new hope? There is still
a democracy to be served, with its
dreams u~nrealiZed, it's ideals changed,
its point of view advanced. The de-
mocracy of the young century was a
theory of politics and philosophy. The
democracy of today is society fused
by the divine energy of the Master,
seeking unity and development, a COM
mon heart and conscience. If some Of
it's early dreams have faded in the
light Of common day, it is because eco
nomic and social questions strike deep
Ell than issues formal and political, and
for their solution make demand less
upOA CIloIloIo liz Ihipu1SSS, dIio In
upon sound knowledge, ordered think
ing and constructive ina ginatiOn. The
craving of it's present mood is for op-
portunity to share in the fullness of
life, to break up it's masses into units,
to sift it's units for hidden treasures,
and to enter into the finer inheritances
Of the civilization which it has helped
to build. The great-grandsOns of the
men who fancied the suffrage would
bring Utopia O set their hearts more
upon the wages of labor, the nature
of capital, good country roads, the en-
richment Of rural life, the village libra
ry, the comely school house, the unim-
peded path to some such spot as this.
1t is too clear to call for proof, how
ever, that the chief allegiance Of this
university is to Virginia and to it's nat
ural contributing territory. Its elemen-
tary duties are to furnish a liberal edu-
cation substantially free to the youth
Of Virginia, II to care for Virginia
and the South in their growing life, in
educational, cultural economic direc-
tons. If there be a question touching
life on the farm, or in the factory, in
institutional development, in the pub
lie schools, in manufacturing or mum
cipal problems, some intelligent an
sWer should issue from the university.
If this union symbOliZes the effort or
freemen to combine freedom and JUS
tice with wealth and power, the most
impressive phase of this effort is the
proud, s~elf-reliant re-entrance of the
South after isolation, and submersion
into the work of the modern world.
xrifh0,,t looo of ann;pnf oroIlorac onl
with access of modern vigor and mo-
bility. This is still a land of romanti-
cism and personality, of conservatism
and reverence, of loyalty and capacity
for devotion, but it is as well a land Of
community, progress and social sympa-
thy, perceiving the necessity and dig
nifty of industrial efficiency and realiz-
ing n mastering the economic forces
of society. 1t has indeed begun All
economic movement, destined to revo-
lutiOniZe it's life. Disciplined and ho-
m~ogeneous. u educated youth are
reaching up int Olife, through sacrifice.
They are no better than other Ameri-
can youth, but God has been good to
them, because He has let their young
eyes see life as duty and opportunity
and not as pleasure. and the republic
needs their tempered strength ana
their quality of soul and their scorn Of
dishonOr. Nowhere in the world are
there more difficult and dangerous do
nestle problems. Nowhere in the
world do both nature and man ask so
plainly for the trained hand, the train
ed mind and the trained will. Every
where there is wealth to be won and
institutions to be nodded and ideals to
be maintained, and a giant task accom-
| plished of relating in democratic life d
master race and freed race on the
basis of justice, but conformable to the
solemn obligations of racial growth
and of an unimpaired civilization.
Humanism produced the man of cul.
ture and his peril was self-sufficiency
and a conception of culture as orna'
ment- Applied science and the impe-
rious demands of commerce have pro
duced the man of efficiency, and his
peril is personal ~barrenness and in.
stinctive greed. Our country needs the