The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1916-01-20
MASTERLY ADDRESS
By Frank 3. Kellogg at St. Marks
Church in Minneapolis
Last Evening.
He Favors Policy that Will Afford
Protection to Americans on
Land and Sea.

telligent audience at the annual dinner
of st. Marks church in Minneapolis,
Mr.. Frank B. Kellogg delivered the
following eloquent and scholarly adj
dress:
Great movements in the advance
ment of civilization go in cycles. There
are periods Of stagnation of thought
and Of moral and material develop
ment. There are apparent retrogres-
sions, when peoples seem to be sinking
into obscurity, followed by great tides
of advancement. 1t is strange phe-
nomenon, this rise and fall of nations,
this growth and decay of civilizations.
We who live in one of those periods
find it difficult to understand the re-
sistless current of human events which
has drawn the nations into this great
conflict, darkening the world with a
pail of war. One thing, however, is
plain to the student of government:
This movement is not one of material
ism alone; it is to some extent born of
national idealism. Sentiment sways,
with it's mighty force, nations, peo-
pies, individuals. Men stake their for
tunes, their happiness and their lives
for their ideals. If we will look over
the great expanse Of history we will
often see these evolutionary move
ments resulting in wars, succeeded by
more liberal governments, by develop
ment of democracy, higher moral
standards and general advancement of
the people.
The close of the eighteenth century
and the beginning Of the nineteenth
was period Of unrest, social and po-
itical disturbance and tremendous
world conflict. With the exception of
England, democracy was unknown up
to the end of the eighteenth century,
The, democracies of Greece and Rome
had disappeared, and had been follow
ed by the middle ages. The decline
and fall of Rome was the most spectac-
>alar and far-reaching calamity since
history has recorded the doings of
men. 1t seemed as though democracy,
with any degree of self-government,
had persisted from the earth; that
learning, oratory and science had been
swallowed up in an avalanche of bar
barism. But such did not prove to be
the case. Rome was fated either to
be overrun and swallowed up by an eff
Terminate Oriental corruption, or by the
waves Of Gothic barbarism. It is to
the latter that we owe the founda-
tons of the sturdy, mixed, progressive
western race, which laid the founda-
tions of modern world civilization and
<girdled the earth with it's achieve
ments. The Roman civilization, let
tiers, culture and Christianity were
preserved through the dark ages which
followed by the church, so that when
again liberal government succeeded
barbarism and arbitrary power, this
rich store Of knowledge and light of
Christianity became the peoples in
heritance. During these dark ages,
when governments were arbitrary,
cruel and tyrannical, there was never
theless a constant education of the
people and constant struggle to
higher and better ideals. Then came
one of the most critical periods Of
history,-the close of the eighteenth
century and the beginning Of the nine
q teenth. New ideals Of governments
were fomenting, the individual was in
creasing in Importance and his sphere
Of activity charging. A western
hemisphere had been discovered, whose
untold riches had not yet been de-
veloped. A new republic Gifted it's
dome of light into the western sky"
In the old world, these bursting and
generating ideas, these demands for
individual activity, too eager to be
held within the bounds of constitu-
tional government, burst into flame
of revolutionary war which devastated
Europe. The Nappleonic wars were
fought for ideals of government and
-, human liberty, and whatever we may
say of the marvellous genius who in the
end gave undying fame to France, the
result Of those wars was the establish
ment in Europe of the sure founda-
tons of democratic government. Stand
ing upon the vantage ground of the
Twentieth century, it is easy to trace
the cause and effect of the principal
great world conflicts, but in the midst
of one it is more difficult to discern its
causes, and almost impossible to pre-
dict it's effect. In the midst Of the
:, French Revolution the great states
men Of that age misconceived the