Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1915-09-30
COLLEGE OPENING ADDRESS
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submerged foundations, as Thomas
Starr King in one of his brilliant
essays reminds us, they sustain the
weight of the whole superstructure
hope, therefore, that those prepare
tory hours that you have left behind
you may have been so full and gener-
Gus in improvement that you can now
confidently step from them into high
er things.
At any rate, you have left the lower
levels of education. You have taken
one upward step that sets you in the
heights. At this moment you are
setting your feel on that sacred plane
of moral and mental discipline of the
worlds trained workers and leaders,
the plane of collegiate education.
/. You have reached a rare at
mosphere.
To the outward sense this may
seem but fanciful and fine-spun bit
of sentiment You are still tied to
the old drudgeries and duties, to the
old commonplaces and conditions.
That is the sight of the outward
sense. Yet to the finer appreciation
you have reached rare atmosphere.
So rare indeed is IT that very few
can live it through. Not over two per
cent. of Americas great population,
it is reckoned, reach graduation from
our colleges.
And yet so rare and fine and high
is the atmosphere of this high plane
of discipline and development that
from this meagre two per cent of col
lege alumni, who have breathed it,
70 per cent. of the holders of high
Offices and places of trust since the
foundation of our national govern
ment have been taken. An expert
enced educator and close observer has
told US that "A mans chance of high
preferment in public life is fifty times
better if he has back of him college
degree and "A college training" And
the same authority tells us that the
same high rating for the college
trained man is seen in law, medicine
and other Intellectual occupations.
And in banking and business, men are
learning TO seek and use these college
graduates because they show stronger
powers and reader faculties for
grasping the real meaning Of the
problems that present themselves.
1t is into this rare atmosphere.
charged with such potencies Of prepar-
alton for life that you have come.
.. The height of this plane to
which you are come in college life is
not merely a matter of higher stud
les, though this is a not inconsider-
able element in the case. But the
heights is in the exercises and dis
ciplines and aspirations awakened and
afforded. A keener sense of response
bility-that tremendous word before
which Webster trembled and was
silent; fuller realization of your
function of self decision and self de-
termination; a growing feeling of APP
probation of the vast content of
knowledge that rises to meet you; a
sentiment that glows with gratitude
at having the keys to Unreasonable
mysteries placed in your hands;-all
these and many other exercises and
emotions of heart and mind and soul
and will, are the things that carry
YOU up into the heights. You may
wrestle alone, as it seems to you, on
some Of these high mountain tops
But like the lone pine that struggles
with the storms OF untold winters,
you viii come out with the fibre for a
mast that will rot break or bend be-
fore the storms of the seas
Not merely to make translations of
the classic languages; not merely to
get the answer to mathematical prob
lens; not merely to stumble through
syllogisms in logic or to memorize
symbols in chemistry or facts in his
tory or principals in government are
you come hither These you are to do
OF course. But beyond these you are
IN quest Of powers to deal with prac-
,ical problems that shall front you ia
the after years. 1t is so to clothe
Yourself with these powers that at
aagth You may, in the presence Of
lies opening opportunities rejoice
us q strong man to run race"
3. 1t is implied, in all that has
been said so far, that this high place
80 which you are come today is not a
i-zed place in space or education. 1t is
ct q inaiity. Ii will not be final /
~ when you have spent one, two or
three, or four years here, and received
yoar diploma Whose crosses the |
threshold Of college, comes, not into
room with four square retaining
walls that bound life. Rather. he 1
.eps out into the area of Elysian ,
fields of vast prospects, beyond |
which lie the Detachable Mountains,
with somewhere away, there, the walls
of the Celestial City all jubilant with
song.
Or, in more prosaic terms, the one
who enters college eager for its adj
vartages, who does its duties. who
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