Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-23
DUTY OF CITIZEN
TO HIS COUNTRY
Continued from First Page.)

good also because they encourage true
democratic spirit; for in the athletic field
the man must be judged not with reference
| 70 outside and accidental attributes but to
that combination of bodily vigor and moral
| quality which go to make up prowess.
trust l need not add that in defending
atnietics ! would not for one moment be
Understood as excusing that perversion of
| athletics which would make it the end of
NE instead Of merely a means In life. 1t
| ls nrst-class healthful play, and is useful
as such. But play Is not business and 1t
| Is very poor business indeed for a college
man to learn nothing but sport. There are
| exceptional cases which 1 do not need to
consider; but disregarding~ these, 1 cannot
| with SUFFICIENT emphasis say that when
you get through college you will do badly
uniess you turn your attention to the
| VIII render 1t impossible for you to pay
| much heed to sport in the way in which it
Is perfectly proper for you to pay heed
Wnlie In college Play while you play and
work while you work; and though play is a
| mighty good thing, remember that you had
better never play at all than to get into "a
e 90 .ha oi MIND where you regard play
| as the serious business of life, or where
you permit 1t to hamper and interfere with
your doing your full duty in the real work
| OF the world.
A word also to the students Athletics
| are good; study is even better; and best Of
| all Is the development of the type of char
| acter for the lack of which, in an indi-
| NiuodA III d nation, no amount OF bril-
| lfancy of mind of strength of body will
atone. Harvard must do more than pro-
| duce students; yet, after all, she will fall
immeasurably short of her duty and her
| opportunity unless she produces a great
| number of true students, of true scholars
| Moreover, let the students remember that
| IN the long run In the field of study judg-
ment must be rendered upon the quantity
| or hrst-class work produced in the way Of
productive scholarship, and that no amount
OF second-class work can atone for failure
| In the college to produce this first-class
| work course of study is of little worth
| II 1t tends to deaden Individual initiative
and cramp scholars so that they only work
| In the ruts worn deep by many predeces-
| sors American scholarship will be judged
not by the quantity of routine work pro-
| duced by routine workers. but by the small
| amount of f1rst-class output of those who
! In whatever branch, stand in the first
| rank.
Premium on Originality.
| No industry in compilation and in combi-
| nation will ever take the place of this
first hand original work, this productive
and creative work, whether in science, in
| art, in literature. The greatest special
! Its general function of producing good
| citizenship, should be SO to shape condi-
! tons as to put a premium upon the de-
velopment of productive scholarship Of the
| creative mind, in any form of intellectual
| work. The men whose chief concern lies
| with the work of the student in study
| should bear this fact ever before them.
So much for what / have to say to you
purely as Harvard men. Now, a word
which applies to you merely as it applies
| 10 all college men, to all men in this
country who have received the benefits OF
| college education; and what l have to
| say on this topic can properly be said
| under the auspices of your political club
You here when you graduate will take up
| many different kinds of work; but there is
| one work In which all of you should take
part simply as good American citizens and
! that is the work Of self-government. Re-
member, in the first place, that to take
| part in the work of government does not
! IN the least mean of necessity to hold Of
| flee. 1t means to take an intelligent, dis
| interested and practical part in the every
day duties of the average citizen, of the
| aire, but who abhors corruption and dis
! likes fnefhciency: who wishes to see de-
cent government prevail at home, with
genuine equality of opportunity for all men
50 far as it can be brought about; and
who wishes. far as foreign matters are
concerned TO see this nation treat all other
| If need be with generosity, and at the
! same time show herself able to protect her.
self by her own might from any wrong
| at the hands of any outside power.
Duty to the Nation.
Each man here should feel that he has no
| excuse, as citizen in a democratic re-
public like ours. if he fails to do his part
IN the government. IL Is not only his right
| SO to do, but his duty; his duty both to
| the nation and to himself Each should
| feel that, If he fails in this, he is not only
falling in his duty. but is showing himself
| in a contemplate light. A man may neglect
| his political duties because he is too lazy
| too selfish. too shortsighted or too timid ;
but whatever the reason may be it is GER
| tainly an unworth. reason, and it shows
either weakness or worse than a weak
ness in the mans character. Above ALL YOU
! college men, remember that if your educa-
| ton, the pleasant lives you lead, make you
| too fastidiouS. too sensitive to take mart in
the rough hurlyburly of the actual work
of the world, if you become so overcultivat-
| cd, so overrefined that you cannot do the
hard work of practical politics, then you
mad better never have been educated at all.
The weakling and the coward are out of
place in a strong and free community In
republic like ours the governing class is
composed of the strong men who take the
trouble to do the work of government; and
If you are too tinid too fastidious or
too careless to do your part in this work.
then you forfeit your right to be considered
one OF the governing and you become one
of the governed instead-one of the driven
cattle of the political arena l want you to
feel that 1t is not merely your right to take
part in politics, not merely your duty to the
state but that it is demanded by your own
self-respect, unless you are content to
acknowledge that you are unfit to govern
yourself and have to submit to the rule of
somebody else as a master-and this is what
government.
Misuse of Education.
Like most other things of value educa-
ton Is good only in so far as it is used
Alright, and if it is misused or if it causes
the owner to be so pulled up with pride as
to make him mtsestimate the relative values
of things it becomes a harm and not a
benefit. There are few things less desir-
| able than the arid cultivation, the learning
and refinement which lead merely to that
intellectual conceit which makes a man in
a democratic community like ours hold
himself aloof from his fellows and pride
himself upon the weakness which he mis-
takes for supercilious strength Small is
the use of those educated men who in after
life meet no one but themselves and gather
in parlors to discuss wrong conditions which
they do not understand and to advocate
remedies which have the prime defect of
being unavoidable.
The judgment on practical affairs DO
litical and social of educated men who
keep aloof from the conditions of practical
life, is apt to be valueless to those other
men who do really wage effective war
against the forces of baseness and Of evil
From the political standpoint education is
harm and not benefit to the men whom,
1t serves as an excuse for refusing to
mingle with their fellows and for standing
aloof from the broad sweep of our national