The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-09-28

are present ou lHtS OGSdSlouH anu Co
pecally those who generously have
come from abroad to share with us
the experience which they have gain
ed for themselves through leader
ship and service in the work Of edu-
cation. And here. perhaps. are most
apparent the real good and perma-
nent benefit which the next few days
may result in for the university and
for the state as whole.
First, as regards the university.
Someone has we'll said that the mo-
ment of epoch making in the growth
Of the individual when he makes 1.-The
thrilling discovery that he is not a
Robinson Crusoe" think the same
holds true of an institution as we'll.
Not that l would convey the impress
sion that the university thus far in
her history has held aloof and stood
isolated educationally, and that this
is moment of entering in and becom-
ing socialized, as it were, for the
first time. That to which l allude
is something deeper and more funda-
mental. These days, during which
other institutions. by their repre-
sentatives, touch hands and exchange
greetings with our own, ought to
bring us to quickened conscious
ness that we are not alone in the
great work We are trying to do, but
that We are vital and organic part
of mighty general movement, I'M
doubtedly the most far reaching in
it's scope, and the most beneficient
in its effects of anything the world
of today has to show.
Recently in a book store in the
east my eye was caught by new vol
,lme Of poems by writer Of some
renown and the first title happen
ed to read on opening it was this:
AN Ode to the Universities of
America" The poem was not es-
pecially successful. I must admit, but
there was inspiration and insight in
the very choice of such a theme.
Bryant hymned. as we know. the for
ests and prairies of America; here
was an effort to hymn phenomena in
the world of spirit which surely are
as worthy of being extolled in song
as any material manifestations. how
ever overpowering and awesome. Dur
ing these days there ought to come to
us the deepened feeling and inten-
sifed consciousness of being confed-
crate as university in a mighty
general concerted effort for the fur
therance of what is highest and best
in state and national life-for the
upbuilding and completer realiza-
ton of the kingdom of God upon
earth.
AS regards the state, what will be
the chief good of holding inaugural
exercises such as there? In this mer-
chandizing age, to many one it may
seem that they have been planned
and are being carried out mainly for
the sake Of a little institutional adj
vertising. If such were the truth. it
would be, to say the least. doubt
full investment of time and energy.
Not advertisement is the aim, if 1
catch the spirit Of the occasion
rightly. but rather deepened con-
sciousness on the part of the state
of her own selfhood. The soul of the
state where is it manifest most, if
not in her institutions of learning?
This inauguration will be call to the
state know thyself!" l recall stand
ing with friend at one time out
side the house of parliament in Lon
don and of his remarking to me
with something of awe in his voice:
1T seems to me here as if my finger
were laid upon the pulse of the
world" Where If not in the place of
her highest institutions of learning
can one best feel the pulse beat of
state? Here there are very vital
arteries beneath the surface. Here
the state is most vascular. We are
justly proud Of our wheat yielding
prairies, of our more than Egyptian
storehouses of corn, to which the
world is an Israel coming empty.
handed for supplies. But woe to us
were this the sum total of our
achievement. We have need of the
mart, of the ploughing and sowing Of
fields, of industries and commerce
but We have need as we'll of the sa.
cred fire in the altar. And to keer
that sacred fire still burning, what
sacrifice can be too great. Wher
Hercules shifted the load of the
world to the shoulders Of Atlas, hi
did this that he might instead plucl
the golden apples from the weighed
down branches of the Hesperian tree
Every institution of learning means
a vicarious sustaining of the world
burden by the one, that the othel
may for a little while be pluckel
of fruit richer and more golden thar
! fable or myth ever dreamed. 1t is t.