The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1907-05-08

permanently under such a n obligation. WHEhE LIE olAlE
HAS BESTOWED EDUCATION THE MAN WHO ACCEPTS
IT MUST BE CONTENT TO ACCEPT IT MERELY AS A
CHARITY UNLESS HE RETURNS 1T TO THE STATE IN
FULL IN THE SHAPE OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP. I do not
ask of you good citizenship a a favor to the state. I demand it of
you a $ a right and hold you recrcant to your duty if you fail to give it.
From all our citizens we have a right to expect good citizenship,
but most of all from those who have received most, most of all from
those who have had the training Of body, Of mind, Of soul, which
comes from association in and with a great university. To the man
of means much has been given, too, and much will be expected from
him and ought to be, but not as much as from you, because your pos
session is more valuable than. his. If you envy him, l think poorly of
YOU.
ENVY IS MERELY THE MEANEsr FORM OF ADMIRATION. AND
FERIoRlTY.
We have a right to expect from the college bred man, the college
bred woman, a proper sense Of proportion, a proper sense Of perspec-
tive, which will enable him or her to see things in their right relation
one to another, and when thus seen, while wealth will have a proper
place, a just place, as an instrument for achieving happiness and
power, for comforting happiness and power, it will not stand as high as
much else in our national life. The names that come up before us,
the names to which we turn, the names of the men of our own people
which stand as shining honor marks in our annals, the names of those
men %typifying qualities which rightly we should hold in reverence,
AXE THE NAMES OF THE STATESMEN, OF THE SOL
D1ERS, OF THE POETS, and after them, not abreast of them,
the names of the architects Of our material prosperity also.
You, men and women, you who have had the advantages of a col
lege training are not to be excused if you fail to do, not as we'll as, but
more than, the average man outside who has not had your advan-
tages. " r Your education, your training, will not confer ON you
one privilege in the way of excusing you from effort or from work.
All it can do, and what it should do, is to make you a little better
fitted for such effort, for such work.
1t is incumbent upon you to show that the training has had that
effect. 1t ought to enable you to do a little better for yourselves, and
II U have III " SOUS CdIHDp VI Il LuIlu 4 ScucTOuS cmOuOu III
capable of understanding what you owe to your training, to your alma
mater, to the past and the present that have given you all that you
have-if you have such souls it ought to make you douby bent upon
disinterescd work for the state and the nation.
EDUCATION MAY NOT MAKE A MAN A GOOD CITIZEN, BUT
MOST CERTAINLY IGNORANCE TENDS TO PREVENT HIS BEING A
GOOD CITIZEN.
Washington was far too much Of a patriot, had far too much love
for his fellow citizens, to try to teach them that they could govern
themselves unless they could develop a sound and enlightened publ,
opinion. NO NATION CAN PERMANENTLY RETAIN FREE
GOVERNMENT UNLESS IT CAN RETAIN A HIGH AVER
AGE OF CITIZENSHIP. and there ca be n such hmh ayerar,
of citizenship without a high average of education, using the word il
its broadest and trest sense to include the things of the soul as wei
as tho things of the mind.
SCHOOL EDUCATION CAN NEVER suppLAnr OR TAKE tn,
PLACE OF SELF EDUcATloN-sTlLL LESS CAN IT IN ANY WA
TAKE THE PLACE OF THOSE RUGGED AND MANLY oUALlTlE
WHICH We GROUP UNDER THE NAME OF cAARAc1ER-sur l.
CAN BE OF ENORMOUS USE IN sUPPLEMENTING BOTH.
1t isl scarce Of just pride to every American that our people hav
S. consistently acted in accordance with Washngtons principles o
promoting institutions for the diffusion of knowledge. There is moth
ing dearcr to our hearts than our public school system, by which FIRE
primary education is provided for every II within our borders. .
The men who founded this nation had to deal with theories
government and the fundamental principles of free institutions. w
are now concerned with a different set of questions, for tho republ
has been firmly established, its principles fully tested and approved
TO MERELY POLITICAL ISSUES HAVE SUCCEEDED
THOSE OF GRAVE SOCIAL AND ECONOMI IMPOI
TANCE, THE SOLUTION OF WHICH DEMANDS THE BES
EFFORTS OF THE BEST MEN. We have a right to expect thu
a wise and leading part in the effort to attain this solution will h
taken by those who have been exceptionally blessed in the matter
obtaining an education. That college graduate is but a poor creatu
who does not feel when he has left college that he has received SOM
thing for which he owes a return.
WHAT He THUS OWES HE CAN, As A RULE, ONLY PAY q
THE WAY HE BEARS HIMSELF THROUGHOUT LIFE.
The educated man is entitled to no special privilege save the inc
Unable privilege of trying to show that his education enables him
take the lead in striving to guide his fellows Alright in the difficult ts
which is set to us of the twentieth century. The problems before
today are very complex and are widely different from those which IL
men of Washngtons generation had to face, but we can overcon
them surely if we approach them in the spirit which Washington an
Washingtons great supporters brought to bear upon the problems
their day-the spirit of sanity and Of courage, the spirit which cor
bines hard common sense with the lnftieSt idealSm