The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-16
JUSTICE PORTER AT MONMOUTH
Kansas Jurist Delivers Memorial Ad
dress at His Alma Mater.

Justice Silas Porter has returned
from Monmouth, Ill. where he deliv-
cred the address at the laying of the
corn erstone of a new building at his
alma mater, Monmouth college as
memorial to the first president, Rev.
David A. Wallace.
The Monmouth Daily Review says
of Judge Porter's address:
Judge Porter prefaced his address
with a number of "reminiscences of his
of a humorous nature and DR.. Wal
lace also being one of the chief ac-
tors in many of them. Referring then
to the conditions which confronted
the founders of the college when they
undertook the great task they had
as only a settlement on the frontier
with the development of her re-
sources hardly begun, and with little
demand for higher education. But
undismayed, and actuated by the fear
Of God, the love Of their church and
the cause of Christian education, they
laid here the foundation for this in
stitution and met and Overcame all
| the obstacles and difficulties which
lay in their pathway.
No expert accountant, however
skilled he declared, will ever be able
! to strike a balance sheet which shall
show the true account as it stands be-
| tween Monmouth college and Mon
mouth, and il one were struck thu
city would be found largely in debt to
| the college. He believed that the city
and community have been benefited
more by the presence of this college
than by all the other institutions of
which the city boasts.
A few months ago Monmouth college
met with its first disaster in her his
tory. Within an hour after the fire,
and before the blackened walls had
fallen the splendid young man who
fills the presidential chair and his as
sociates were already planning for a
new and better structure. Nothing that
Emerson ever said or wrote is truer
than his doctrine of the law of COM
pensation. Every disaster and every
calamity that is met with the proper
spirit can be made a blessing. If only
men will not permit a disaster or ca
lamity to overwhelm them-that is the
thing. We owe everything to the fact
that there have always been found
courageous souls who would not brook
defeat, who refused to be overwhelm-
ed with disaster and calamity, who
were not content to sit by the waters
of Babylon and Weep"
The occasion which calls us together
this afternoon is formal one, mere
ceremony which may mean to us much
or little, depending wholly upon the
point of view. To the future of "Old
Monmouth it is of vast Importance,
because it marks the first outward Vis1-
BILE step in what is confidently DeneVed
will be a triumphant march or progress
TO higher usefulness. This ceremony
is an indication that those in charge
of Monmouth colleges destinies have
the courage to begin the work or up
building, and to lay the foundation OF
the new structures, and that they have
confidence in the loyalty. the public
spirit and generosity of the people OF
this community and the friends and
former students to furnish aid neces-
sary for the full accomplishment of
their plans Let us hope that the
building planned to be erected on this
foundation may be only one of many
splendid structures which in the fu-
ture will adorn this campus. We can
not hope that it will stand so long as
the influence of the man it commem-
crates shall last, for buildings built
| Of brick and stone and mortar can not
last that long; but let US hope it will
stand for a hundred years or more as
a fitting memorial to the life and char
acter of a great. splendid, CHRISTIAN
| man David A. Wallace.