Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1917-09-27
NEW WORLD MAKING
SAYS PRES. THOMAS
Speaks of War Time College
Work at Opening of Mid
dlebury.

College we might lBnore tHe
our country, hurrying its energies INTO tne
great war, and counsel how we might
shut from our minds during the coming
months the distractions Of public events
and concentrate our attention on academic
pursuits. I might urge you to forget as
far as possible submarines and aeroplanes'
and trenches and dugouts, and advise that
since you are now in college. enlisted for
study, you drop all thought OF any per-
sonal citation to the great conflict or OF
any other topic connected with the war.
To ask you to remain Indifferent to
what is now occurring would be to pro-
pose to leave you q whole era behind the
world in which you must live. Let us not
try to forget the war, but rather let us
inquire what the work of a college should
be during the war.
Part Of that work Is direct-service
under the colors in army or navy. We are
already represented by over one hundred
alumni and former students and the list
is growing daily. Middlebury is bearing
her full part Of the great sacrifice which
the American colleges are making. When
the statistics of the war are compiled, it
will be found that a larger proportion of
college men entered the service than of
any other class. They are subject to the
same draft and they were the first to be
called upon for the officers training
camps. Their eager and noble response
has been an inspiration to the entire
country and their part in the conflict will
be a witness for years hence to the sound
and thorough patriotism of the American
colleges and their great value and i'm
p~ortance in the life of our nation.
1t may be we are by no means
through with the sacrifice we must
make. We have learned by this time
to be deliberate, to wait until we learn
where our service will count for most.
but we stand ready, l trust. to the last
man to place ourselves under the flag
when the path of duty is clear. We
are in the war to win.
l believe that a college can do its
best work during the war by being a
college and doing the normal work of
a college under the stimulus of tho
great endeavor of the nation in it's
fight for worldwide freedom. I do not
mean college as usual" college as If
the country were not involved in the
! greatest conflict of all time. but college
as the issues and struggles of the war
have revealed that a college ought to
be. 1 think it can be shown that this
great war has brought into the clear
a new ideal and purpose of college
training, or at least a purpose different
from that which many of us held for
merly.
The aim of college education as held
by those undertaking it has been for
many years increasingly unitarian.
One of 1.-THE favorite arguments for a
college course has been a comparison
of income of college graduates with
those of only a high or elementary
school education, and the argument
hos han~ ytonA fully a q franlentIX DIV
classical n liberal institutions as by
technical and professional schools.
The sacrifices of men on the battle-felds
and Of the thousands in training for the
service condemn this attitude. While our
brothers are giving their lives In the serv-
ice shall we pursue our selfish advantage
here? While they face hardship and DEATH
shall we plan and labor to increase the
comfort and luxury wherein we may
spend our life? l trust we are Of worthier
manhod than hat.
This war has led us very rapidly in the
direction of some form of socialism. In
dividual effort. competitive strife for the
largest possible share OF the good Things
of the world. is giving way rapidly to com
munity effort on a large scale and reach
ing dow into the intricacies OF life IT
order to protect and conserve the COM
I IlOH EOOul IL Ill1 IVA Wv
win and hold any good for himself.
1t is the great achievement of President
Wilson that he has brought into the
clear and imbedded in the common mind
through a phrase that will never be for
gotten another and far higher purpose
The democracy which he has set in the
heart of the world is no mere political
and governmental method. The German
statesmen who interpret 1t as an attempt
at dictation as to their form OF govern
ment miss the real meaning of 1t. We
are fighting for the maintenance In human
society of customs. laws and usages which
are proper to civilized humanity. and we
are fighting against the attempt to estab-
fish the laws of the jungle as recog-
nized and permanent usage in the rela-
tions of men and governments with each
other. Our enemy is baby-murder on the
high seas, and the bombardment OF the
cathedral at Rheims. and the rape OF
Belgian women. and the exile and en-
slavement Of civilian workmen. and
poison gas and defled wells and Tho
unsexing of Servian boys and the mas
sacre of 10000 Armenian women ant
children-the most dastardly and horrible
crime ever committed under the eye OF
Almighty God. 1t is these things tina
have overcome all the natural impulses
of the American people to abstain from
war, and reversed the deep-imbedded ma
tional policy, sanctioned by Washington
great name, to hold ourselves aloof from
European quarrels, and which hav'
brought us heart and soul together t.
win against Germany. 1t is not merel!
to make the world safe for nations o.
democratic political method: it is to maxi
the world safe for the Ten
ments and the Golden Rule. to put dow
savagery and clear the way for a human
society in accordance with the principles
of justice and charity.
A larger, nobler goal of manhood ha'
dawned upon our horizon. We have beei
!, content hitherto to let things in genera
drift. while we made each for ourselve:
the most cheerful and comfortable place
we could. Our manners and methods hav'
been for the most part tolerable, but on
purpose and goal have been wrong. Gu
philosophy has been indlvidualistic
whereas in the future it must be social
We have based our life on the principle
Of the struggle for existence. Tempered
with many amenities from our natural hu
name impulses as we'll as from the teach
ings of ethics and OF religion. we hav,
nevertheless held by the principle of tn
utmost possible for ourselves in the com
|, petitive struggle of the world as the main
spring of our life's endeavor. Blu
the old world OF competition an,
|, war, from which Darwin deduce,
the doctrine of the survival of the strong
est. doubtless with all truth and accuracy
has become impossible.
The problem Of youth, therefore, is MOI
How can l train myself for the positio