The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-06-10
IT'SALL OVER NOW
Commencement at Kansas Uni
versity for Glass of 'O9.
Degrees Conferred Upon Over
300 Young Men and Women.
MIR. HARVEY SPOKE.
Talk One of Most Brilliant Ever
Heard in Lawrence.
Addressed Students on The
Power of Tolerance"

Power Of Tolerance"
Lawrence, Kan, June 10.-Wednesday
morning in Robinson gymnasium at
the University, the annual commence
ment day exercises were held, when de-
grees were conferred upon over 800
young men and women who have COM
pleted their course at the University.
The largest audience that has attend
ed commencement in many years was
present. The address of the day was
made by George Brinton Mcclellan
Harvey, editor of the North American
Review, and president of the Harper &
Brothers publishing house. Col, Har-
vey spoke on 1.-The Power of Tolerance
and his talk was a classic. Col. Harvey
said:
Address of Colonel Harvey.
History is chiefly a record of battle.
From the beginning, strife has redden-
ed its pageS,-the strife essential to
physical existence the strife requisite
to mental development, the strife
which cleared the way for moral
growth and the gratifying of spiritual
longings.
1T is appalling story, that of hui
man kind. But from whatever view
point we regard creation, whether of
directly divine origin or Indirectly di-
vine through natural processes, the in
cesSant struggle plainly appears as the
product, not Of accident, but of design.
When God set man over the beasts of
the field, by that very act He called
upon man to maintain his supremacy,
if necessary, by force. When Nature
evolved the primitive savage, she did
not leave him to bask in the sum- but
enforced upon him constant activity of
mind and body to Withstand the perilS
of the night Such was the beginning,
such has been the unbrOken contin-
uance, and such surely will be the per-
petuation of the strife for life, for the
life Of oneself necessarily, but also for
the life Of Others to the end.
by precept and example we must
inculcate the love of peace throughout
the world. That God and Nature in
tended that we should do SO is clearly
evidenced by physical conditions. En-
vironment plays leading If not indeed
a controlling part in the development
of man.
THE great commercial cities of our
seaboards are peopled by millions
whose natural attitude is that of de-
fiance and too often of truculence;
from the hills the first bugle-note
tempts those whose manner of life has
made them eager for fray; on the
plains men instinctively think before
acting, counsel precedes rash under
taking, the cost is reckoned, the family
is Of first consideration. Once enlisted
in response to the call of duty they are
invincible because of the very sobriety
out of which their determination has
sprung; but they engage in conflict not
lightly and never willingly except in
defence of principle, life or property.
1.-The conclusions then are these:
that, in conformity with a fixed law of
the unceasing development of the hui
man race, Tolerance has supplanted its
antithesis as an actual force; that the
beginning of a supremacy was co1nc1-
dent with the discovery Of America;
that here it received it's first national
recognition in formal and absolute
separation of church and state; that
older countries have been and are be-
ing stirred to emulation; that. con-
seduently, a peculiar responsibility de-
velops upon our people not only to
maintain, but to enhance the new and
better and higher power among men;
and finally, that we cannot hope to full
fill our mission unless we accord 1t
supremacy among ourselves-among
ourselves. not only as individuals, as
north. east, south and west, holding
fast to faith in the integrity and well
meaning of one another so long as the
last vestige of uprightness and Of pa
triotism shall be manifest.
I'm marshalling the facts from which
to make these deductions, have drawn
largely upon the record Of the past,
upo,, that surest and safest of guides,
experience The present I have touch
ed upon lightly because I feel that in
recent years We have concentrated our
thoughts too sharply upon what Is and
have accorded too little consideration
to what has been and what may be.
Remains the future. To those OF yes
terday be their due. to us of today is
left hardly more than consciousness of
passing; it is you of tomorrow who hold
our thoughts and bear our hopes. L
have spoken only to your minds. By
simple reasoning have tried to make
clear a vital truth. Whether more is
within my province 1 cannot say. But
no one who loves his country could
stand in this presence and look into
your eyes and realize that you repre-
sent so many, many thousands like
in all parts of our land about
to 60 forth to take up the burdens and
and meet with the joys
and sorrows of life. without longing for
the magic wand of appeal with which
to reach and touch the nobility of soul
contained within every human breast.
Other religions require faith of one kind
or another; other religions inspire hope;
but Christianity puts the seal of it's
supreme approval upon charity, greater
than either-not the charity of giving,
but of forbearance. of tolerance. of the
brotherhood of man! Here is the foun-
our ideals Ignore it and you drown
in the sea of confusion. Despise it and
you adopt distrust of all things, human
and divine. Forsake 1t and you bury
conscience and love and all of the
sweetness of life. Refuse to see it and
a cloud sweeps across your vision and
hides IN darkness the sun Of inspiration