The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1910-04-30

vengeance of Charlemagne when the
lords of the Frankish host were
stricken at Roncesvalles.
Need of Individual Character.
Let those who have, keep, let those
who have not, strive to attain high
standard of cultivation and scholar
ship. Yet let US remember that these
stand second to certain other things.
There is need of a sound body, and
even more need of a sound mind. But
above mind and above body stands
character, the sum of those qualities
which we mean when We speak of.
mans force and courage, of his good
faith and sense of honor. l believe in
exercise Of the body, always provided
that we keep in mind that physical
development is a means and not an
end. L believe, of course, in giving to
all the people a good education But
the education must contain much be-
sides book-learning in order to be
really good. We must ever remember
that no keenness, and subtleness of
intellect, no polish, no cleverness in
any way make up for the lack of great
solid qualities-self-restra self-mas-
terry, common sense, the power of ac-
cepting individual responsibility and
yet, of acting in conjunction with
others. Courage and resolution; these
are the qualities which mark a mas
terful people. Without them no peo-
pie can control itself or save itself
from being controlled from the out
side. speak to brilliant assemblage;
l speak in a great university which
represents the flower of the highest
intellectual development; | pay all
homage to intellect, and to elaborate
and specialized training of the intel
lect; and yet l know l shall have the
assent of all you present when | add
that more important still are the com
monplace, everyday qualities and vir-
tues.
The Evils of Sterility.
In the next place the good man
should be both a strong and a brave
man; that is, he should be able to
fight, he should be able to serve his
country as a soldier if the need arises.
There are well-meaning philosophers
who declaim against the unrighteous-
ress of war. They are right, only
they lay all their emphasis upon the
unrighteousness. War is a dreadful
thing, and unjust; war is a crime
against humanity. But it is such q
crime because it is unjust, not because
it is war The choice must ever be in
favor of righteousness, and this
whether the alternative be peace or
whether the alternative be war. The
question must not be merely. is there
to !,
must be, is the right to prevail? Are
the great laws of righteousness once
more to be fulfilled? And the answer
from a strong and virile people must
be, Yes" whatever the cost. Every
honorable effort should always be
made by the individual in private life
TO keep out of a brawl, to keep out
Of trouble; but no self-respecting indi-
vidual, no self-respecting nation, can
or ought to submit to wrong.
Finally, even more important than
ability to work, even more important
than ability to fight at need, is it to
remember that the chief of blessings
for any nation is that it shall leave its
seed to inherit the land. 1t was the
crown of blessings in Biblical times,
anu IL 10 the CION IL VI DlGSSlDSS nOW .
The greatest of all curses is the curse
of sterility, and the severest of all
condemnations should be that visited
upon wilful sterility. The first es-
sential in any civilization is that the
man and the woman shall be father
and mother of healthy children, so
that the race shall increase and not
decrease. If this is not so, if through
no fault of society there is failure to
increase, it is a great misfortune. If
the failure is due to deliberate and
wilful fault, then it is not merely a
misfortune, it is one of those crimes
of ease and self-indulgence, of shrink
ing from pain and effort and risk
which in the long run nature Furnishes
more heavily than any other.
Idle Achievements.
If we of the great republics, if we.
the free people who claim to have
emancipated ourselves from the thral-
dom of wrong and error, bring down
on our heads the curse that comes
upon the wilfully barren, then it will
be an idle waste of breath to prattle
of our achievements. to boast of all
that we have done. No refinement of
life. no delicacy of taste. no material
progress, no sOrdid heaping up of
riches. no sensuous development of art
and literature, can in any way com
pensate for the loss of the great
fundamental virtues; and of the great
fundamental virtues, the greatest is
the races power to perpetuate the
race.
But if a mans efficiency is not gui-
ded and regulated by moral sense,
then the more efficient he is the worse
he is. the more dangerous to the body
polite. Courage, intellect, all the mas
terful qualities, serve but to make a
man more evil if they are used merely
for that mans own advancement,
with brutal Indifference to the rights
of others. 1t speaks i'll for the COM
munity if the community worships
these qualities and treats their pos
SCISSORS as heroes regardless of wheth-
er the qualities are used rightly or
wrongly. 1t makes no difference as to
the precise way in which this SIMS
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