The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-17

ss hol constitute either Isaac Newton
an lgnoramus or the elevator boy a wild
tteorist The elevator was devised since
NeWtons day and something had to be
invented TO restrain its too fmpetuous
response to Newton's own law of grayi-
tation.
woodrow Wilson's principle of the ref
eiehdum was simply an application OF
Jehersons fundamental principle that
the people nave a right to a voice In
their own government That voice had
been all but lost in the changing of the
machinery of the political machine in
New Jersey. At the bases OF the activi
ties of both men was an AFFECTED faith
in the people. not a fanciful idea that
the people are all wise, but 4 rooted CON
viction that the people will know how to
follow wise and honest leader ship, know
how TO choose between what is false and
what is true when they are given a fair
| chance to choose.
But new methods of Woodrow Wilson
was striving 10 restore the old principle
of popular government. He and his CO.
workers who are called 'unconstitutional,
by their enemies are simply trying to
restore the constitution to its original
purpose, a purpose almost lost in an
overgrowth of usage which had turned
misusage 1t Is characteristic of woodrow,
Wilson that one of the occurrent word 8
In his vocabulary is processes 1t is by
| processes, SOncIlneS SLOW, sometimes
rapid, but always based upon PRINCIPLES
that government adapts itself to new con
dition.
1T was rather characteristic of Wood
row Wilson that he did not go up and
down New Jersey talking about the con-
stitution in terms of fanatic allegiance.
He was living the purpose OF the consti-
tuition, he was trying to get New Jersey
| to live them. | am a little suspicious
| nj ta,a
constitution, for | find good many men
to whom the constitution is a dead wall
behind which they can do things for
which they would be put in Jail If, they
came out into the open and did them
without constitutional excuse The real
danger the constitution of the United
States is in Is from those who are al
ways proclaiming it as their reason for
doing things which all the instincts of
popular justice declare are wrong.
am suspicious of men who are perpet-
ually quoting the Bible, but 1 honor the
man whose daily acts never permit me
to forget the spirit of the Bible.
Watched Wilson's Reforms
"I have watched with intense interest
the Woodrow Wilson reforms in politics
and education and 1 have noted that
they are always in the way of simplifi-
cation, and attempt to get through a.
|
pose of education and politics. His as
founding radicalism consists in the fact
that he believes that the main purpose
of education Is to educate and the main
purpose of a democracy is to give the
PEOPLE a reasonable opportunity for self
government.
This large simplicity of approach is
a mark of the superior mind. Little minds
get tangled up in confusion of de-
tails; great minds see through the de-
tails to the large underlying and gov
erning principle. Trained minds as wedl
as great minds are necessary for this
ana woodrow Wilson's is the trained
mind of a student, thinker, teacher
a philosopher.
And this brings me to that other
window, commemorating the great uni
versity in which woodrow Wilson re-
ceived his college education, which he
loves devotedly as all her sons love her,
and which | have the honor to serve,
though l have not the distinction of being
one of her graduates.
"Au Princeton men love their unver-
sity with a peculiar passion and rever-
ence. If you ask them why they love
| Princeton so, | suppose many of them
would try to. give a reason, and there
would be different reasons. But after
ALL great love is without reason, is above
reason Men love their parents because
they are their parents and not because
their parents possess certain qualities
and distinctions. They may admire their
parents because of certain moral quail
ties which their parents possess, but they
love them with their hearts and for the
sake of the parents themselves. That is
the only abiding love- 1t is dangerous
to love for certain reasons because some
day other reasons may be discovered for
not loving. But when we love without
Sf,e emit
| of all reason. So Princeton men love
Princeton instinctively, and therefore un-
alterably. They admire her, are proud
| of her for reasons, and for different
| reasons. Because she is a very old uni
| versity as age goes in America, 163 years
old, the fourth oldest university in Amer
| lea. Because she is very beautiful; l
| really think the most beautiful college in
| America architectually, due to the eX
| auisite taste with which the English
| Gothic style of architecture has been
adapted to local conditions. Because she
| is doughty in athletics, capable and quite
out of proportion to the number of her
students.
"Alf these are reasons for admiring
! Princeton, but hope that the great ma
| iority of her alumni are chiefly proud of
her because she is faithful to the great
trust of preparing the young men of
| today for the work of tomorrow; because
she refuses to compromise with those
who would cheaper education in America;
because she refuses to make it easy to
| get into Princeton and easy to stay there:
| because she declines to receive the un-
! fit or retain the lazy; because in short
| she is faithful to an ideal of education.
| Putting this idea of what a college
! is really for in the foreground and CEN
ter of the picture all the rest falls into
| place Then we admire Princeton be-
cause she is today worthy of her vener
| able past Then we admire her beautiful
halls but even more do we admire the
spirit of education within those halls.
| Then we admire her athletic strength,
| but admire even more the intellectual
vgor that accompanies 1t.
| "Princeton's ideal is to develop and
| train men for the nations service. In
| that Princeton is true to her history.
| Her early history is interviewer with the
| history of the young republic. Her early
presidents were men of great learning,
| but they were also patriots, and one of
them, John Wtherspoon, was a power
| in forming the new nation In her colon
ia days she trained and educated men
who were to play a great part In shaping
| the new nation, including conspicuously
James Madison, chief maker of the con-
| stitution and President of the United
States. In the environs and in the very
streets of Princeton was fought the bat
| tie which was practically the turning
point of the revolutionary war. When
Congress was driven out of Philadelphia,
| Nassau hall, Princeton's Oldest and one
of her most beautiful buildings, was
I to