Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1914-10-01
MIDDLERURy OPENS
10th COLLEGE YEAR

I1O ~ u ~ l. l. - ~ H. LFt
Mddlebury Sept 2i-Thc 1lith opeping
exercises Of Middleburv College were OH
served at the First CongrogatiounI
Church yesterday morning President
John N Thomas delivered the opcoinp
address He dwelt upon the present
chaotic condition of affairs I'm Eurouo
ncccsstnting the closing Of tho nivcr-
stiles and colleges there. while the
American students are still privileged tn
pursue their cultural pursuits In poacn
lie emphasized the fact that while
dormant and torpid Europe needed tho
stimulus of warfare to arouse her from
! her moral and spiritual l"thargv, so in
Ike manner America needs mon and
women Of lofty ideals and purposes alive
TO modern needs of humanity II Il for
the college students to night these creator
moral battles of civilization and progress
and III themselves for the crisis In in
dustrialism and commerce destined soon
to face the United States
President Thomas said in part:
1T may be you will decide that no
substitute for the military incentive
can be found, that 1t is perfectly ma
tural for mon to 20 to sleep in easy
prosperity and that it requires some
great crisis ana awful tragedy TO
awaken them to their best perhaps
you have said that a nation needs n
great war now and then TO preserve
It's virlty and to prevent It's becoming
effete and effcminate. ] am too much
Of an noptmist for that conclusion. If
war is permanent institution of the
earth, then civilization is n rnockery
and Christianity is failure. We sim
ply must find, as men of Intelligence
and culture, some method, some ideal.
which will preserve the Fundamental
virtues OF fortitude and force, while
every effort is hent to tho service Of
humanity aud none to its destruction
To translate into the arts Of peace the
self sacrifice, the verve the intensity,
ana the courage OF the soldier Is the
problem of the coming civilization. and
1t is particularly the problem of Amer
can youth ut this present in the face
OF the terrible stimulus to great man
hood which now stirs the youth Of
Europe.
we may quickly admit that We shall
find nothing so dramatic, so ready to the
hand, so instantly compelling in its sum
mons to the heroic within us, as the drums
which beat to battle and the tuglcs which
summon to the charge, II is comparative
lN easy for the soldier to play the man
HIS work and his duty are liar. He has
only t" take his Place in 'ha line ana
ohey orders. His ever me- cement Is pre-
scribnd. He feels the tn 'i'l Of thousand
at his side. The bullets which, SIM about
him only madden him to utmost cffor.
The passions of a thousand generations
the sound of battle In such cir-um-
stances tho most ordinary mcn rise to
herosm and for the time at Ieas, are
brothers of the martyrs of the ages
But in the ways of lowly quiet there is
no flag, no bugle, no stirring drum; thole
are no clear. explicit orders. moment nv !
moment. often there is l., necessity Of
accounting for ones work. month after
month. perhaps year after wear In tine
dull workshops of peace man must often
plod along almost alone. scarcely ahl. to
discern whether h. is ACCOMPLISHING anv-
thing or not
but we were told long ago that 1,,.
who rulcth his spirit is better than, No
that tal<oth a CITY To suhdua fin. hr,,.
within us. to devotion a manhood ,,,-o In
heart. keen I'm mind. and strong i'm soi,l
is more than to stand b.hipd praa, o,,,,
To do a constructiva work for ,,,.,.
country is as robln &C +o d.fo,,d tb., ,I,.
The men who make tho countrv v.,r,h
saving. for the hooutv e IT, c,,,,,,,...,
life and the nobility ~ IFS ido1ls stand .
in equal honor with thns. ,yhn rally T.,
its Colors In It's hour of no.d II is i'm