The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-06-30
ACHIEVEMENT
John w. Wadman the Graduating Glass of Oahu Col
legs, June27, 1908.

AS we participate in these impress
sive exercises this evening and think
of the expenditure of time and energy
which it has taken on the part of the
teachers and students to reach a Com
mencement of this kind and as we look
around upon this Campus, with it's
beautiful buildings, representing an in
vestment of nearly one million dollars,
and recall the sacrifice all this has en-
tailed on the part of those whose eff
forts have made this splendid school
such a magnificent possibility, the
question arises: Why are schools so
necessary and why is Education re-
garded as such an important factor in
our present day civilization? A simple
analysis of facts, with which we are
all familiar furnishes a sufficient an
swer.
In the first place, schools are a neces-
sity because children exist. That is
because the human family includes
members incomplete but capable OF
development. In the second place
schools are a necessity because there
are higher and lower grades in mature
life.
Children are educated for some
thing. The conception of a goal, or a
kind of life which is reany worth liv-
ing, presides implicitly or explicitly
over all educational effort. The neces-
sity for such a goal grows out of the
completely of human life. We live in
a world in which the amount of wis
dom or wealth or friendship, one is
capable of possessing or distributing
is predetermined by the amount &C.
quired. The flow of your kitchen fau.
Get is determined by the fulness Of the
reservoir. The speed of the electric
car is fixed by the amount of energy
stored in the power-hOuse. The power
of the piston is in the push of the ac'
cumulated steam. The Nile has force
to feed civilizations for centuries be-
cause a thousand streams and more
feed its original supply.
II you and | could sit down by the
famous Santa Barbara vine and, speak
ing with it as with a familiar friend
ask how it came to pour into the laI
of its happy owner a half ton of pur
pie treasure in a single season, the re
ply would be that such an output in {
| single summer was possible becaus
two hundred summers or more hat
been spent in growing a vast root, ;
vaster trunk with huge branches
bending low to the earth, beneath tn
weight of millions or purple clusters
When Nestor stood before the brav
Greek generals and counseled attacl
upon Troy, he said among othe
things THE secret of a great victor
is a getting a good ready" Wendell
Phillips was once asked how he ha
acquired his skill in oratory. He re
piled: "By spending a hundred night
of delivery back of one"
And this no doubt explains how
was that Sir William Jones had t
give hYS years TO mastering his mrs
language while six weeks alone wer
sufficient in acquiring the fortieth dia
lect in which, it is said, he could flu
emily speak. You will remember tina
Shakespeare reminds us that tn
clouds give back to the thirsty cart
in quantity and quality just what the
receive from the rising vapors-a poe
tic way of stating that which Henr
Ward Beecher once put in a MOI
homely manner when in addressin
the students graduating in Theolog
at Yale, he said; young gentlemen
your pulpit inspiration will Deepen
much upon your study perspiration.'
Some years ago a young man asIe
"A distinguished scholar and write
what he thought Of higher education