Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-06-20

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inmate or fashion an egg that will
hatch. We are not free. We are in
: debted to the labors of others and to
the constant bounty of the Almighty.
Back of the loaf is the snowy flour
And back of the flour is the mill:
And back of the mill is the wheat and
the shower.
The sun, and the Fathers will"
We, then, as members of a family,
as citizens of our great nation, as COL
lege graduates. and as those who have
reflected on the complexity of human
life are among those who have re-
ceived much. and of us much is rightly
expected. What shall we do? Shall
we repudiate these debts? Shall we
live for ourselves alone? Every in
stinct of honor shudders at such a
possibility. Every noble feeling leaps
to the responsibility involved.
How shall we repay the debt to our
parents? BY being what they are
praying we may be. The sacrifices
they have made from our earliest in
fancy. the treasure of love and SYM
pathy they have poured forth upon us,
shall be repaid in the coin of love and
gratitude as long as they live. But
such debts can not be paid. They are
paid to the next generation. And the
highest return one can possibly make
is in terms of noble, Christian char
acter
How shall we repay our debt to the
college? Perhaps some of us will be
so circumstanced that, in future years,
we can repay in money what we have
received in terms OF money. But those
other subtler, rarer, more exquisite
lthings-they can be repaid only in
kind. The college has a right to ex-
pect idealism, faith, honor, integrity
above the average from her sons; and
in SO far as these precious fruits are
brought forth, her hopes are answered,
her sacrifices repaid.
Our debt to the nation,--how shall
that be paid? Repayment is partially
made in taxes, but that is insufficient.
1t must be made in public service,
either by holding office, or as an in
telligent broad minded, pubic-spirt-
ed citizen, interested in molding opin
ion on municipal and national prob
Items. While this will ordinarily pay
ones debt to his native land, there
come great crises when more is de-
manded, when the State asks her sons
for sacrifices. for heroism. perhaps for
life itself Our Memorial Hall with
its marble tablet of heroes is a per-
petual reminder OF the patriots of fifty
years ago who laid down their lives
that the Union might be preserved;
and that list is roll of honor for
ever. In the light of such patriotism,
how dastardlM>is the impulse to live
selfishly. to make private gain out of
public loss, to sacrifice the common
veal for personal ends. How utterly
mean and contemplate is that para
site attitude that we know by the
horrid name of graft"
IF man will not work. neither shall
he eat" said the apostle. The idle
IMAM, rich or poor. is a curse to him
Iself and to humanity. "Dscernest
thou any idle hero. saint, god, or even
devil? Not vestge Of one. One
monster there is in the world: the idle
Imam Every member of the crew is
expected at least to pull his own
weight" Who does not is a chump.
But does this entirely liquidate the
obligation? l think not. Thinking of
the pleasant circumstances in which
we shall do our work, with the COM
partnership of noble friends and good
books, and remembering in contrast
those who are getting our rubber and
rice, our coal and iron. under what
conditions they labor in what houses
they sleep. and how little they get out
of life, | believe we shall agree that
we owe them something else. We to
whom libraries and pictures and mu-
sic. the social dinner. the church, the
club, the summer outing. the concert,
the lecture. and foreign travel mean
so much must remember those less
fortunate than ourselves. and conse-
crate our lives to social betterment.
I'VE then that are strong ought to
bear the infirmiteS of the weak, said
Paul. and he was right.
/, Thus, as we have reflected so far on
our fourfold obligation and on ways
of settling our debt, two words have
emerged They are the great words,
service and character 1t is right for
use to look at them little closer.
} Ruskin somewhere writes of a table
) loaded with good things for a group
of hungry boys, to which a strong man
thrust himself in and by the power
} and length of his arm got possession
of the food, some of which he ate and
the rest he sold at a high price to the
starving boys. What a brute. we say.
But what if the table be the world and
the strong man. instead of being long
armed. have the far greater advantage
OF being long headed? once we would
have called him smart and admired
, his success in making a corner out
of the necessities of life. Today. pub
lie conscience is aroused over such fla
: grant misuse of power. The ideal of
) service glows alluringly before us.
who are the popular heroes today?
One landed on our shores yesterday
with such a reception as has rarely
been accorded an American citizen
The people believe in the altruism Of
Roosevelt. Was there ever more I'M
t aninous praise from the press of the
country that Gov. Hughes received
when appointed to the Supreme Court
t 1t was because he had sacrificed pri-
waite interests to the public welfare,
and stood forth as the champion of the
people against strong and willy foes.
The spirit that Elijah Lovejoy showed
martyr that he was in the struggle for