Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-22
7WO-FOLD PROBLEM.
President Alderman on Diff
Guilty Confronting Leaders.
DANGERS OF new PATHS
Head of the Virginia University
Speaks at Washington Birth
day Celebration.

PHILADELPHIA, February 22-EdwIn
A. Alderman, president of the University
Of Virginia, was the orator at the "Uni-
versity day celebration today by the
University of Pennsylvania. His subject
was 1.-THE Problem of Democracy
President Alderman opened his address
| by referring to the anniversary of Wash
| ington's birth, and speaking Of the
contributions to the country's. progress
| made by Washington, Lincoln and Rob
ert E. Lee He said Pennsylvania and
Virginia were tied together by many UNI
breakable bonds of common ancestry,
common glory and common tragedy.
valley Forge and Germantown loom
back of Gettysburg
Washington and Democracy.
Washington, he said, was the richest
man of his day and the most public
spirited. Il believe said the speaker.
ut was a belief in his heart that de-
mocracy is the final and triumphant form
of human society; that power rests in
fitness to rule; that you can trust men |
1t you will train them; that the sole OBJ |
ject of power is the public good, and
that service to the republic is a glory
quite sufficient in itself
Have you ever thought how much
less partisanship there Is now than there
used to be even when we were boys?
Think of that spectacle in Washington.
party working together for reciprocity
and the peace treaties Think of Presi-
| dent Taft appointing Edward Douglass
White, a Confederate soldier and dem
| to the chief justiceship of the United
States! Was there ever greater blow
| in the face of combined partisanship and
| sectarianism than that?
Dangers in New Paths.
"Al about us are heard the voices of
those who think they see the way and
| who are reckoning men to follow. but
new dangers face us even as we leave
the ancient highway and attempt to cut
| new paths. for in endeavoring to make
| 1t possible for democracy. as we under
stand it. and vast industrfalism. as we
have developed it, to live together justly
under the same political roof, we have
plainly come to a point where there Is
danger of our government developing into
a system of state socialism. The lead
ership of the future. therefore, will have
double problem-to protect the people
against privilege and to preserve for the
people the ancient guarantees and inesti-
mable advantages of representative gov
eminent. There never has been an hour
since the birth Of democracy when it
| sought man so passionately and was
Wiling TO trust a man Win SOCn conf
dence and hope. This demand for per-
sonal leadership is marked by the passing
of the vogue of sentimentalism and emo
tionalism. Men are getting too sophisti-
| Gated for blind trust in names and
| symbols.
| Patriotic Leaders Needed.
| The supremest need of a nations life
| in this coming moral struggle is the
leadership of patriotic national minded
men, whose eyes are clear to see the
whole blessed truth about things as they
appear. who have courage for any fight,
| who will not falter before any difficulty.
nor swerve backward nor be made afraid
Such men must have place in their
hearts for plain men who bear heavy
burdens in the shadow of the world, but
they must so love justice as to be able
to use il to the rich as well as to the
poor. Are there any such super men?
Can our democracy breed such political
giants? L hold the simple and ancient
| faith that such men come when occasion
| needs them. Emerson, In his noble last
word of warning to his CONTINGENCIES
claimed with patriotic fervor: I not
only see a career at home for more genius
than we have. but for more than there
| is in the world.