Alma record., 1912-06-20

to become, mistakes are to be recti
fed, hostility between labor and cap
ital is to cease, and a great human
brotherhood is to be established
Someone may ask, What has all
this to do with the graduates of the
Alma High school? Very much in
deed We have laudable desire to
keep our choicest and our best peo-
pie for ourselves, we are casting
about for means of making our city
more attractive from financial stand
point as we'll as for its natural beau
ties. But our world here is not big
enough for us. We train our young
people with the knowledge that they
will go out into the greater world
And we know that from just such
small communities as this many Of
the leaders in political life, in profes-
sions, in commercial life are con-
stantly coming. And we know that
we are sending you out to grapple
with the gerat problems of the great
world
1t is altogether probable that dur
ing this month at the graduating ex
ercises of educational institutions
throughout our country, all the prob
lens which perplex the leaders OF
thought will be discussed in essays
and orations In some OF our papers
we shall see cartoons satirizing the
budding orators and ironically sug-
gesting that all our questions are
ansW -. but nevertheless, these
very novices are the men and women
that eventually in these changing times
are going to bring us nearer the set
Element of these problems than we
have ever been before.
Graduates of the Alma High school,
you are going out some to further
preparation, some to take up active
work in the busy world, all of you to
greater responsibilities. What do you
need in order to worthily adjust your
selves to the changing order? ! sug-
gest that you need;
/. Respect for the past and the
present All that has been and that
is, is not to be despised We do not
want change for the sake OF change.
Young people enchanted with new
ideas and impatient with what they
too easily call old-fogey notions, are
all too ready to become iconoclasts.
The radical who would sweep away
all we have and make a new begin
ming has not the solution of our
problems. Nor is the ultra-conserva
tive any more helpful, he who clings
to all that is simply because it is, is
the foe OF progress, and there are
some who set themselves against all
that is new; they will have none Of
these new-fangled notions, and they
regard as arrogant upstarts all who
champion the new ideas. Somewhere
between these extremes lies the solu
tion
2. For the changing order you need
the open mind. We are likely to be
governed by our prejudices. The
trouble with Chinese civilization, be-
fore mentioned. was that all questions
were settled beforehand; there was
no new way mentally, to travel. 1t
must be admitted that in some de-
gree, we are, many of us, prone to
obstinate conservatism. We have the
prejudces of our environment, ma
tional, local, political, religious; we
are tolerant Of our own faults, but
severely condemn the same faults in
others. A man angry at defeat in ar
gument, declared he would not be-
lieve the proof even if it were shown
to him. He had not the open mind.
People on different sides are to get
together, and a satisfactory settle
ment of their differences can be made,
only when prejudice is laid aside. The
successful commentator is he who can
look through the eyes Of the charac-
ters in the events he would explain,
and for our age we need men who can
Continued on page y
An auU0UuCrlppr