Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-02-24

into a condition of 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.
s4 A word also to the students. Ath-
letics are good; study is even better;
and best of all is the development Of
the type of character for the lack Of
which, in an individual as in a nation,
no amount of brilliancy of mind or of
strength Of body will atone. Harvard
must do more than produce students;
yet, after all, she will fall immeasur-
ably short Of her duty and her oppor-
tunity unless she produces great
number Of true students, of true schol-
ars. Moreover, let the students re-
member that in the long run in the
field of study Judgment must be rem
dered upon the quantity of frst-class
work produced in the way of product
i've scholarship, and that no amount of
second-class work can atone for fail
ure in the college to produce this first
class work. A course of study is of
little worth if it tends to deaden in
dividua1 initiative and cramp scholars
so that they only work in the ruts
worn deep by many predecessors.
American scholarship will be judged,
not by the quantity of routine work
produced by routine workers, but by
the small amount of first-class output
of those who, in whatever branch,
stand in the first rank. No industry
in compilation and in combination will
ever take the place of this frst-hand
original work, this productive and Gre
ative work, whether in science, in art,
in literature. The greatest special
function of a college, as distinguished
from its general function Of producing
good citizenship, should be so to shape
conditions as to put a premium upon
the development Of productive schol-
arship, 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 I have to say to
you purely as Harvard men. Now, a
word which applies to you merely as
it applies to all college men, to all
men in this country who have receiv-
ed the benefits of college education;
and what have to say on this topic
can properly be said under the aus
pieces 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. Remember, in the first
place, that to take part in the work Of
government does not in the least mean
of necessity to hold Office 1t means
to take an intelligent, disinterested
and practical part in the everyday
duties Of the average citizen, of the
citizen who is not a faddist or a doc
trinaire, but who abhors corruption
and dislikes ineffciency: who wishes
to see decent government prevail at
home, with genuine equality Of oppor-
tunity for all men SO far as it can be
brought about; and who wishes, as far
as foreign matters are concerned, to
see this nation treat all other nations,
great and small, with respect, and If
need be with. generosity, and at the
same time show herself able to pro-
tect herself by her own might from
any wrong ait the hands Of any outside
power.
Each man here should feel that he
has no excuse as a citizen in demo-
cratic republic like ours, IL he fails to
do his part in the government. 1t 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 shortsight-
ed, or too timid; but whatever the rea.
son may be it is certainly an unworthy
reason, and it shows either a weak
ness or worse than a weakness In the
mans character. Above all, you col
lege men, remember that il your edu-
cation, the pleasant lives you lead,
make you too fastidious, too sensitive
to take part in the rough hurlyburly OF
the actual work of the world, II you
become SO overcultivated, so oyerre.
fined that you can not do the hard
work Of practical politics, then you
had better never have been educated
at all. The weak1ing and the coward
are out Of place In a strong and free
community. In a republic like ours
the government class is composed OF
| the strong men who take the trouble
to do the work OF government; and
If you are too tinid or too fastidious