Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1918-02-22
SCHOOL TEACHER
! AND The W AR
of Washington and Lee
uses Large Gathering in
Ehool Chapel on Timely
%Smith's address before the
Tty Teachers Association last Fri
evening was pronounced by CON

yfty Teachers Association last Fri
evening was pronounced by COM
tent judges ga great address.
~ A large audience was present to
n hear the distinguished speaker and
from beginning to end the speaker
held ''the breathless attention." as we
says, of the entire audience.
Prof. w. w. Arrowood, acting prin-
cipal of the school after several
pleasing musical selections were rem
dered, introduced DR.. Smith, President
of Washington and Lee University
4 An attempt is made here to give the
. gist of his fine address, but those
who had the pleasure to hear the
speech delivered, will see how far the
reporter fails to do the address JUS
tice.
DR.. Smith is of pleasing appearance
and about 80 years of age, but looks
younger. His manner is simple, ear
nest, direct. He grips the hearer
from the start and holds him to the
lyst.
DR.. Smith is native of North
q Carolina, a Presbyterian minister,
!, President for the last five years of
! Washington and Lee University.
"The time will come" said DIR.
Smith, in the beginning of his ad-
dress, "when the teacher will be re-
garded as the most important, most
influential citizen of the country. town
or city" He announced as his subject
FOR the evening: "The American
:. Teacher and the War" He said in
part:
"The question which / wish to an
swer before this great body of pa
tfiotic teachers is this: How can we
all, men and women, with hearts
burning to serve our country, yet held
to the monotony of our daily routine,
best dedicate our talents, our servic-
es and our special training to the
cause of Freedom?
s HOur special call for service lies, it
p seems to me, in four different direc-
Atins. You ask, "How Can serve 2"
! ami this is my rendering of the an
swp, "First. by gaining for yourself
cear, vivid, accurate, definite, men,
tai picture of the present crisis and
its tremendous issues" The teach
er'slspecial realm of activity is the
mini; his special business is to investi-
gait and discover truth; his long in
tellsctual training fits him for the
gRat task. To make more vivid and
dfinite this fundamental prepara-
tiIn for all patriotic service, let all
oz US whose business it is to teach
Pthers learn for ourselves the origin,
he significance, and the issues of the
tigantic struggle upon which our ma
ION has entered.
Let US trace anew, with an intensi-
Y of interest never felt before, the
fst, worldwide, irresistible growth
+ democracy, which for 400 years
been reconstructing human civili-
lition. See human liberty rising like
q star out of the narrowness and the
duelty and tyranny of the middle ag-
9, beginning, as all such upward
Movements should, in the realm of the
SPIRIT, and making its first strug-
dle for the democratization of relig-
ibn In its twin principles, the first,
that every human being has the in
herent right of access to God and
is justified by its own faith, and the
second, the basis of all modern dem
ocracy, that in the judgment of inf
mite and impartial wisdom the souls
of prince and peasant are of equal
(: value and have equal inalienablc
rights, human civilization found a
new basis, the human spirit of new
z freedom, and every human heart a
new hope.
"From the realm Of religion the
democratic movement invaded the
sphere of government and for four
centuries, amid incessant conflict, the
peoples of the earth have been tear
ing despotic power from the hands- of
kings and mobiles and all privileged
classes and diffusing it more and
more widely among the masses.
Following hard on the struggle for
political liberty began the effort to
democratize wealth. For over a CEN
tury this overwhelming conflict for
the more equitable distribution of the
worlds wealth has kept our vast and
complex industrial system in seeth-
ing ferment. And now, added to these
three concurrent revolutions, the goth
century sees fourth movement gain
ing rapid headway. We are coming
to believe not only in the universal
diffusion of religious privilege, po-
litical power, and material wealth,
but in the inherent right of every
human being to his share of happi-
ness, which includes health, comfort,
recreation and knowledge.
$50, through these four troubled
centuries, the democratic movement
has grown in scope, complexity, and
force, till all can now see that it's
triumph means the reorganization of
human society on the basis of indi-
vidual rights and voluntary co-opera-
tion.
"It's 'one gigantic failure has been
in Central Europe. Here the move
ment toward democracy was not only