Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-29
AT THE ROCK or
AGES"


BY John Temple Graves In the Chi
cago Examiner.
To the May Cosmopolitan Harold
Boice, student, thinker and trained
journalist, contributes the first of
three articles which give the result
of his diligent and deliberate two-yesr
study of the spirit and trend of Amer
lean colleges.
What Mr.. Boice has here set down
is astounding to the general reader,
and to the orthodox alarming in the
highest degree. No statement SO SEN
sational has startled the civilization
of tie decade.
Out of the curricula of American
colleges a dynamic movement Is up
heaving ancient foundations and max
Ing an open way for a revolution In
the thought and life of this people.
Those who are not in close touch with
the great colleges of the country will
be astonished, in most cases indig-
nant, to learn the creeds that are be-
ing fostered by the strong men In, the
professors chairs.
In hundreds Of class rooms there is
scholarly reputation of all solemn
authority, and it is being taught daily
that "the Decalogue is no more sacred
than syllabus: that ''the home as
an institution is doomed; that there
are no absolute evils; that elm
morality is simply an act in contra
yention Of society's accepted stand
ards: that democracy is a failure
tho nooJorot{o,, ~ III
only spectacular rhetoric; that "the
change from one religion to another
is like getting new hat; that moral
precepts are passing shibboleths"
that conceptions of right and wrong
are as unstable as styles OF dress;
that wide stairways are open between
social levels, but that to the climber
children are encumbrances" that
''the sole effect of prolificacy Is to fill
tiny graves" and that there can be
and are holier alliances outside the
marriage bond than within it,"
Every quoted sentiment is from the
spoken or written word OF some one
Of the leading and famous professors
Of the great colleges.
And the colleges carrying such new
anu ASFoiutioldiy SlSSuS ttlS NV IuS
minor schools, but those vaster semi
naries such as Harvard, Yale, Prince
ton (shade Of Jonathan Edwards be-
hold IT'D University of Pennsylvania,
University of Chicago Columbia. SYRIA
cuse, California, George Washington,
William and Mary, Northwestern, the
universities Of New York Iowa, Kan.
sas, Michigan. Wisconsin, Cornell
Brown. Leland Stanford, Union, Ne
braska and others.
In each of these great institutions
some professor, neither infallible nor
inspired, but free thinker rioting in
the mere license Of opinion, and some
alas, hungering for the notoriety of
the utterance, are flinging down daily
doctrines like these. not to strong
and mature men capable of discrimi.
nation and accustomed to disputation
but speaking from responsible stations
to youthful and undeveloped minds
comes from the scholar in the chair
Of authority as the unchallenged gos.
pei of the time.
Meat for strong men and milk for
babies" has no restraining influence
upon the riot of opinion among these
so-called professors of today. II
these men really believe the mon
strous conceptions which are stirring
the age to unwholesome revolution
against the doctrines Of the ages, they
should at least voice them first in
serious councils of their peers, and
submit them solemnly and primarily
Is hjoh
fairly defend its Gibraltar and stand
by It's own.
But to strip every shred Of rever
ence from the foot Of thought-to
march out before unf1edged youth Of
either sex-to dissect God and religion
and homage and home and Govern
ment as If they were mere fossils, .,
vertebrates, or equations-it leaves
morals afloat upon inclination and Sc
unsettle standards of virtue that every
youth might swing unsmitten of con
science from the classroom to the
scarlet woman in the street-this Is
carrying liberty Of thought to the ranl,
license which makes the intellectual
commune and presages the revolution
which is the beginning of the chaos.
The presidents of these great insti
buttons, held in check by boards and
councils, are not usually the voices
of this amazing propaganda. But col
lege professors, in the enjoyment o!
apparently too much liberty and d
rarely questioned responsibility, are
sowing the seeds of these dangerous
doctrines day by day in the minds Of
a quarter of a millions American
young, men and women who are going
out to make the morals, the manners
and the civilization of our country
protest the initial exploitation 81
these doubtful disputations" upon
the great body in whom all Of us have
such vital concern. deny the right
of teacher or professor to take such
advantage OF youth sent by orthodox
, parents to university halls.
am neither preacher nor Puritan
I neither cavil nor cant. i am an or
binary man of the world, who, as I'M
worthy as he is, keeps yet in rever
ence the old orthodox faith @of his
fathers, and | do not hesitate to say
that If had son In one of these col
leges and heard that such doctrines
were being fed to him out of the IT.