University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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THE REDWOOD. 17 COLLEGE IDEALS AND PUBLIC LIFE. Response to the toast College Ideals and Public Life at the Alumni banquet, May 28, 1903. Mr. President, Gentlemen, and I may now say, in view of the honor which the Faculty has conferred on me to-day, and for which I am duly appreciative and grateful, Fellow Collegians: I have just returned from a visit to the Yosemite Valley, the great wonderland of California, impressed by its beauty and magnificence. There, perpendicular walls of granite rise 4,000 feet above the floor of the valley, which is itself 4,000 feet above the sea. Great cateracts leap from these dizzy heights and great trees display their variegated verdure and the rivers course through the meadow-lands, taking their source from the eternal snows. And yet, side by side with all this beauty and magnifi- cence, there grew up a race, the Digger Indian of California, of which many still survive, of inferior human beings so low in the scale of humanity that Sir John Lubbock said, I am informed, (but as yet I have not confirmed his statement), that they are among the most degraded of all aboriginal people and are the only race that had no conception of God. But some wag, who was present at a discussion between ecclesiastics on the subject of original sin, ob- served, What is the use of quarreling about original sin when there is so much copy? So, we may say, what is the use of dis- cussing the savages of the woods when there are so many barbar- ians of the cities ? It is hopeless to deal with aborigines, but their un progressive character may point our moral. We are con- cerned in the education of metropolitan barbarians. The condi- tion of the Digger Indian would lead us to conclude that environ- ment, of which so much is expected, can not accomplish anything without the initiative of education; that man must be taught the principles of art and science to enjoy and profit by the wonderful works of Nature, and that wh en such knowledge is acquired, then the mountain and the valley, the river and the forest unfold their story to the inquisitive mind. It has been wisely said, therefore,

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i6 THE REDWOOD. Rest on, ye hallowed dead ! t hough tears few fall Today, recalling self-forgetting toil. Still History proudly holds your deeds to all, And keeps your memory rooted in our soil. Ye came from far, from loved ones, native land. Saint Francis ' heroes reared in cot and hall — Not Argonantic questing; golden sands Did not seduce your weary feet. From thrall Of Satandom to free the West ye marched. Urged by the dauntless Serra. The Greek youth Did not more crave for worlds, than ye the parched Domains of hell-endangered souls; forsooth Columbus not more ardent sought to find The Undiscovered. Unus sufficit Non orbis, was your cry, and like the fearless wind Ye bore upon Satanic hosts. Clouds lit With nothing carnal fired; no cannon roared. Nor streams were crimsoned by the tide of blood. Ye used not Death: the demons ' hydra hood Was conquered by the axe of Right and Good. The Gordian knot of sin was severed; ye won A twofold victory for Soul and State; But torn were ye from work so well begun. And scattered through the world superb, ingrate. Surviving comrades none alas, are there To vigil keep, save Cypress, drear and green; As wailing winds disturb the stilly air. In sorrow bow their tops, and wide careen, Answering back Pacific as it sings A dirge in deep-voiced, thundrous waves. Resounding from its age-worn cliffs, and rings The De Profundis o ' er the silent graves. John Riordan ' 05.

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i8 THE REDWOOD. that he who has no inward beauty, none perceives, though all- around be beautiful. When by the discovery of America, this great, unbroken con- tinent was given to the world, little benefit would have accrued were it not for the enterprise and intelligence of the men who pioneered the land; and, were it not for the great good fortune, which assembled on the Eastern seaboard the statesmen of the Revolution, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Morris and Jay, this Republican form of government, which has done so much for the uplifting of mankind, would have been perhaps lost to history. Great and resourceful is the American continent, but it required a guiding intelligence and the work of educated minds to lead it in the path of political success. The construction of a government, to shelter and protect the people living under it, guard them in their rights, life and prop- erty, is, indeed, a noble work worthy of illustrious men. The great French astronomer, when called to the discharge of some im- portant office, was importuned by his friends to refuse the trust, lest his scientific investigations should suffer, but he replied, If I can confer upon my people a single benefit, that will be worth more to me than a hundred astronomical observations; and, the distin- giiished churchman and statesman. Cardinal Richelieu, said with a sincere and unaffected devotion to his country, The State is my bride. Still there is a prejudice against politicians, because those of the lower order of politicians are self-seekers. But what may we say of those who seek the truth, who seek good government, who seek the opportunity to confer benefits upon others ? They are what Burke has described as philosophers in action. The philosophy of the schools is of advantage only to the student him- self, unless he gives it practical expression as in the science and administration of government; and that is no mean undertaking, I suggest, because history is the politics of the past, just as politics is the history of the present. In these college halls 3 ou study the iscience of government. You study the history of states. You study the principles of ethics and morality, and all these things must be part of the equipment of a public man and that fact es- tablishes the relation between College Ideals and Public Life.