The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-06-29

lead in the creation of just such a spirit. 1 We all know that, as things actually afe' : many of the most influential and most l highly remunerated members Of the Oar in every center of wealth make Il their special task to work out bold and ingeni- ous schemes by which their very wealthy clients. individual or corporate. can eVade the jaws which are made 10 regulate Tn l the interest of the public the use of great wealth.
 Now, the great lawyer who employs his talent and his learning in the highly remunerative task of enabling very wealthy client to override or circum- vent the law is doing all that in him lies to encourage the growth in this country of a spirit of dumb anger against all laws and of disbelief in their efficacy. Such spirit may breed the demand that laws shall be made even more drastic against the rich, or else 1t may mani fest itself in hostility to all laws. Surely Harvard has the right to expect from her sons a high standard of applied morality, whether their paths lead them into public life, into business, or into the great pro- fession of the law, whose members are so potent in shaping the growth of the national soul.
 But inaddtion to having nigh ideals it can not too often said to a body such as is gathered here today, that to- gether with devotion to what is right must go practical efficiency in striving for what is right. This Is a rough, work aday practical world, and if in 1t we are to do the work best worth doing, we must approach that work in a spirit remote from that of the mere visionary, and above all remote from that of the visionary aspirations after good find ex- pression only In the shape of seolding ana complaining. It shall not help us if we avoid the Seylla of baseness of mo- tive, only to be wrecked on the Charybdis of wrongheadedness. of feebleness and inefficiency. There can be nothing worse for the community than to have the men who profess lofty ideals show themselves so foolish, so narrow, so impracticahle. as to cut themselves off from commun- ion with the men who are actually able to do the work of governing, the work of business. the work of the professions. It is a sad and evil thing if the men with moral sense group themselves as impractical zealots, while the men of action gradually grow to discard and laugh at all moral sense as an evidence Of impractical weakness. Macaulay, whose eminently sane and wholesome spirit revolted not only at weakness, but at the censorious folly which masquer- ades as virtue, describes the condition
  century in a passage which every sincere reformer should keep constantly before him.
 "It is a remarkable circumstance that the same country should have produced in the same age the most wonderful speci- mems of both extremes of human nature. Even in things indifferent the Scotch Puritan would hear of no compromise: and he was but too ready to consider all who recommended prudence and charity as traitors to the cause of truth. On the other hand, the Scotchmen of that gener- aton who made a figure in parliament were the most dishonest and unbushing time-servers that the world has ever seen. Perhaps it is natural that the most callous and impudent vice should be found In the near neighborhood of un- reasonable and impraeticable virtue. Where enthusiasts are ready to destroy or be destroyed for trifles magnifed into importance by a squeamish conscience, it is not strange that the very name of conscience should become a byword of contempt to cool and shrewd men of business
 The men who go out from Harvard into the great world of American life bear heavy burden of responsibility. The only way they can show their gratitude to their alma mater Is by doing their full duty to the nation as a whole; and they can do this full duty only if they com bine the high resolve to work for what is best and most ennobling with the no less resolute purpose to do their work in such fashion that when the end of their days comes they shall feel that they have actually achieved results and not merely talked of achieving them