Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-05-25
LAW SCHOOL
GRADUATES
CLASS OF 23
COL. G. E. S. WOOD DELIVERS AN
ELOQUENT AND POWERFUL AP.
PEAL ALONG LINES OF HIGHER
SOCIAL EVOLUTION.

Last evening, in the First Methodist
church, took place the graduation ex-
ercises of the Willamette College of
Law. Promptly at o'clock Profess
sor T. S. Roberts started the march,
and the procession, headed by Rev.
Avison, filed in from the back of the
church. Following Rev. Avison came
Justice Thomas A. Mcbride and then
Col. G. E. S. Wood, of Portland, fol-
lowed by the graduating class. After
short invocation the audience was
treated with vocal solo, "Hark,
Hark the Lark" by Mrs. W. Carlton
Smith, who was enthusiastically en-
cored. Mr.. c. E. S. Wood addressed
the graduating class following the
vocal silo. Mr.. Wood told the gradu-
ates that they were now facing the
world and were going to be sized up.
He told them that 1t would be the
young men Of today that would move
the world. The universe is constantly
in motion and is changing. Life means
change and all progress up till the
present time has come by change and
by change only. The young mems
mission, said Col. Wood, was to make
change. He very forcibly impressed
upon their minds to be agitators, say
ing no farm was ever farmed, no mine
ever dug, no improvement ever made,
without agitation. He gave them two
things as law students to remember,
that, first, absolute freedom of
thought, and, second, absolute free
dom Of speech, was their privilege,
regardless Of the ideas of any individ-
ual, or even the government, as long
as 1t was done in a peaceful way, as
their own thought and ideas. In old
Europe their was no freedom of
thought or speech, and II was by the
brave endeavors and the martyrdom
OF many men In their time that we
have the present day advancement. So
he urged the coming generation to ex-
ercise their privileges and peacefully
speak whatever they think He told
the graduates that, as the banner
bearers Of the future, there was only
one profession to follow, and that was
to seek the truth. The progress Of
mankind since the beginning has been
one blind, pathetic struggle for truth.
Truth has always been forced upon
us; the masses have never been ready
to receive the truth nor are they now,
because civilization has never reached
perfection, and never will, as long as
there is poverty crime and ignorance.
He told them that whether or not they
practlced the law they could not es-
cape the profession Of seeking the
truth. He said that the practice of
the law should not be exaggerated,
but be looked at from all sides. The
law is human institution as all in
stitutions are, and has its defencts as
well as its good Sides. The young
lawyers, he said, would find that the
law was an institution OF property, as
all institutions are, meaning that 1t
was a conservative institution con-
cerning the keeping the rights of
rather than the rights of
man. The rich are becoming richer,
and the poor in the slums becoming
poorer said Mr. Wood, and, although
as yet the country in general has not
felt It, It is increasing and only will
be stopped by the oncome of youth
The human race has never been still,
and we must not hesitate to make
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