Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-06-09


the close of the program by Marcus
Skarstedt on the class motto, Know
Thy Opportunity
Get Into Public Affairs.
Don't be afraid to take part in pub
lie affairs" said Judge Grosscup.
Don't be afraid to go into your CITY
council for fear that men will call you
a bOodler, nor to become a member of
your state legislature for fear men will
regard you with suspicion. Take the
risk, take the hazard, Christian men
like you are needed to rescue our
legislative bodies from corruption.
I'VE have too many men in our coun-
try today who remember the names
of Washington and Lincoln. but for
get the name of Jesus Christ. There
fore, l congratulate this Institution
which has now reached its 50th ami
versary for the work it has done and
is doing in imparting Christian culture
and Christian education to its stu
dents. Men from Institutions such as
this, where character and intellectual
honesty is impaired, are the men who
have led every great movement in the
worlds history.
place your ideals on a high stand
ard of character and honesty and you
will not fail to attain your goal. There
is no failure for a Christian man. Go
forth and do your duty as Christian
men.
Can Peoples Rule Endure3
in,
America, the supreme test of whether
government of the people, by the peo-
pie, can endure. We have not yet
been put TO the test of dealing with
great economic questions at the cost
of distinct disaster in case they are
wrongly dealt with. Thus far. the
surplus of our soil, sold to the world
each year, has made good our eco
nomic and political mistakes-a sur
plus so great that, no matter what,
during the year, our mistakes may
have been, at the end of the year the
bank account has been made good
again. But the day is coming when
this insurance against logical conse-
quenCes will be cut off. Every census
shows that the growth of population
men and women who bear no relation
to the soil and its products except
that of consumers. are rapidly out
numbering those who till the soil.
And when that day fully comes-when
We are no longer a people with a con-
staEtly recurring surplus, but have be-
come a people who each year eat up
what they productive consequences
of political and economic mistakes
will make themselves felt
Spiral Solution VIII Not Last.
This solving of our problems by
spiral stairway will not last-every
increase of expenses bringing on in
crease of prices and wages; every in
crease of prices and wages bringing
us back 10 increased expenses: the |
entire movement in circles, at each |
turn little higher up than We were |
before. There is a limit to such a |
structure. And it is when that limit |
is reached and return to solid ground I
begins-when we have to meet and |
solve political and economic questions |
that require the nice balance of one |
mans interest against another's, and |
the interest of the whole, as distin- |
guished from the interest of each in |
divi6ual-that the supreme test of |
whether the people can govern them |
selves will be upon us.
Personal Honor In Politics.
'Will that test be successfully met? |
Are we capable of meeting and solv- |
ing the complex questions of the flu |
ture as We have met and solved the |
simpler moral questions of the past? !
What will equip us to meet this test?
What power, more than anything else, |
will hold us to our course as a people |
capable of self-government? Without /
doubt there must be personal honor
and personal honesty in politics, as
personal honor and personal honesty |
is Affected by money; but financial
dishonesty is always individual, never
general and is quickly overtaken and
unarmed. Without doubt the public
must be kept quickened:
but our American conscience is not
hard to reach and quicken
"The one force in this universe,
without which the test cannot be sue
cessfully met-the one force more
than anything else, that as a nation
we must acquire before We are equip
ped to successfully meet the complex