The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-04-23

Of medieval Europe at time when no
one dreamed that there was q New
World to discover. Its services to the
cause of human knowledge already
stretched far back into the remote past
mt that time when my forefathers, three
centuries ago, were among the sparse
bands of traders, plowmen, woodchop-
perS, AM fisherfOlk who, In hard strug-
gle with the iron unfriendliness Of the
Indian-haunted land, now become the
giant republic of the west. To conquer
a continent to tame the shaggy rough
ness of wild nature, means grim war
fare; and the generations engaged IN
It cannot keep, still less adu TO- us
store % garnered wisdom when once
were theirs. and which are Sun IN ing
hands Of their brethren who dwell IN
the old land. To conquer the WIDER
ness means to wrest victory from the
same hostile forces with Wh1ch man
kind struggled in the immemorlal VI
fancy Of our race. The primeval con-
dftions must be met by pr1meVaI qua
tiles which are Incompatible Win :nS
retention of much that has peen pdlu,-
fully acquired by humanity as tnrousti
the ages it has striven upward toW Ntalra
cfvfliza ton In conditions so primitive
there can be but pr1mltlve cuIe CUT. ne re-
At first only the rudest schoolS SeI L..o o
estabIished. for no others would mee-
the needs of the hard-drlVen, slheWy
folk who thrust forward the frohtler III
the teeth of savage man ana saV slse
nature; and many years eldPs o9o,o it,
anv OF these schools can develop l NJ
seats of higher learning ana proaoer
PROGRESS of Civilization.
The pioneer days pass: the stump
dotted clearings expand i I'D the
stockaded clusters of log caplns cH'u ~
into towns; the hunters or game: oto
fellers OF trees, the rude trohtler lIdu
ers and tiIlers of the soil, the men VINO
wander all their lives long through the
wilderness as the heralds ana mar Dlhs-
ers of an oncoming civllzatioll, Ine III
selves vanish before the civilization LOT
which they have prepared the way me
-riIdren of their successors ana sup
pIanters and then their children ana
children's children, change ana ueNeiUP
with extraordinary rapldlty. me conul-
lions accentuate vices and virtues. en-
errx- and ruthlessness, all the goou
qualities and all the defects of an IN
tense individualism, self-reliant, ser
centered far more conscious OF Us
rights than of its duties. and blind to
its own shortcomings To the nara
materialism of an industriallsm even
more intense and absorbing than thdI
OF the older nations; although these
themselves have likewise already en-
tered on the age Of a complex ana pre-
dominantly industrial civilization
AS the country grows, its people, VINO
have won success in so many lines
f11rD hack to try to recover the possess
sions of the mind and the spirit, Whlch
perforce their fathers threw aside IN
order better to wage the first rougn
battles for the continent their cnlIureI
Inherit. The leaders of thought and of
acti l grope their way forward TO
new life. realizing, sometimes dlmiy,
sometimes cIear-sightedly, that the Ire
of material gain, whether for a nauoh
or Individual. is of value only as a
foundation. only as there is added to 1t
the uplift that comes from deVotlon 70
loftier ideals. The new life thus sought
can in part be developed afresh from
what is round about in the New World;
but it can be developed in full only oy
freely drawing upon the treasure
houses of the Old World, upon the
treasures stored in the ancient abodes
of wisdom and learning. such as this
where I speak today. 1t is a mistake
for anv nation merely to copy another;
but it is an even greater mistake, 1t is
a proof of weakness In any nation, not
to be lxious to learn from another,
and willing and able to adopt that learn
ing to the new national conditions and
make 1t fruitful and productive therein
1t is for us of the New World to sit at
the feet of the Gamaliel of the Old;
then. If we have the right stuff in us,
we can show that Paul in his turn can
become teacher as well as scholar.
individual Citizenship.
Today I shall speak to you on the
subject of individual citizenship, the
one subject of vital Importance to you,
my hearers. and to me and my country
men, because you and we are citizens
OF great QeInOcTdIlC T0puDIcS- n OeIIi-
ocratic republic such as each of ours
an effort to realize in it's full sense gov
eminent by, of, and for the people
represents the most gigantic of all pos
sfble social experiments, the one
fraught with greatest possibilities alike
for good and for evil The success Of
republics like yours and like ours
means til glory, and our failure the
despair of mankind; and for you and
for us the question of the quality of the
individual citizen is supreme Under
other forms of government, under the
rule of one man or of a very few men,
the quality of the rulers is all-impor-
tant If, under such governments, the
quality of the rulers is high enough,
then the nation may for generations
lead a brilliant career. and add sub
stantially to the sum of world achieve
rnent no matter how low the quality of
the average citizen; because the aver
age citizen is an almost negligible
quantity in working out the final re-
suits of that type of national greatness
Case Is Different.
But with you and with us the case is
different. With you here, and with us
in my own home, in the long run, sue
cess or failure will be conditioned upon
the way in which the average man, the
average woman. does his or her duty,
first in the ordinary, everyday affairs
of life. and next in those great occa-
sionaI crises which call for the heroic
virtues. The average citizen must be
q good citizen If our republics are to
succeed. The stream will not per-
rnanently rise higher than the main
source; and the main source of national
power and national greatness is found
in the average citizenship of the ma
ton. Therefore it behooves us to do
our best to see that the standard of the
average citizen is kept high; and the
average cannot be kept high unless the
standard of the leaders is very much
higher.
1t is well if a large proportion of
the leaders IN any republic, in any
democracy, are, as matter of course,