The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-14
This the Fifth Lecture Of the Series by William Jennings Bryan
Secretary Of State Whose Plan Return the Platform
During His Vacation Has Been Interfered With by
Pressing State Duties Arising from the I'm
settled Condition Of Mexico.

cational advantages. In innumerable
cases an uneducated person, inspired by
love for a great cause and filled with
zeal. has surpassed those far better
equipped. but lacking a compelling pur
pose.
And what an opportunity for service
this age presents. II 1 had my choice OF
all the ages In which To live | would
choose the present above all others. The
ocean steamer and the railway train
bring all the corners of the earth close
together, while the telegraph-wire aud
wireless-g gives wings to the news and
makes the events of each day known in
every land during the following night.
The printing press has popularized
knowledge and made it possible for each
one who desires It to possess a key to
the libraries of the world. Invention has
multiplied the strength of the human
arm ana brought within the reach of the
masses comforts which, until recently.
even wealth could not buy. The word
'neighborhood" no longer describes a
community; that "all We are brethren
can be more readily comprehended than
ever before. 1t is easier for one to dis
tribute blessings to the world today than
it was a few centuries ago to be helpful
to the residents of a single valley. A
good example set anywhere can be seen
everywhere, so intimate has become the
relations between man and man.
And yet with the wonderful spread OF
knowledge end the marvellous range of
achievement there is vast work to be
l..
commerce, nor has moral growth in
creased with the growth of wealth. The
extremes of society have been driven
farther and farther apart and the chord
of sympathy between rich and poor is
greatly strained. Destitution ANA squalor
lurk in the shadow of palaces, and great
law-breakers vie with petty thieves in
ignoring the statutes of the state. The
instrumentallties of government are being
used for public plunder. and those who
make fortunes through legislation employ
a 1.-THE of their winnings for the corrup-
tion of the sources of public opinon. Not
only is bribe dangled before the eyes of
the INDECENT voter, but those who profit
through the control of the government
do not hesitate to snbsidize newspapers
and to scatter their hush money wherever
protest can be silenced.
The opportunity is here and the
field inviting. A great orator cont
planned generation ago that the schol-
air in the republic was not doing the
work for which his education fitted him
He declared that the great truths relat-
ing to society We're not the result of
scholarly meditation, but had been first
heard in the solemn protest of mar
tyred patriotism and the loud cries of
crushed and starving labor-that the
scholars, instead of making history.
were content to write 1t zone half truly
and the other half as their nrejudiecs
might blur and distort It,"
Let not this reproach be truthfully
uttered against the scholars of America
today. With a soil capable OF support
ing vast population; with 4 climate
that gives infinite variety and furnishes
healing for every Ill., with a people
comminglng the best blood OF all the
races. sand a government which fur
nishes the greatest stimulus to nigh en-
deavor-here the scholar ought to finl
the most powerful incentive and he in
spired to the most heroic effort. Wheth-