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

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THE REDWOOD 17 to the theory — all too plain from fa- miliar experience — that it is the natur- al tendency of power, in every phase in which it is developed and in every de- partment in which it is employed, to run to the limit of excesses; that it fails to provide spontaneously its cor- responding virtue of restraint ; and that it is imperative therefore to satur- ate the process of education throughout with those great moral principles that give vitality to that essential quality. All these considerations have pecu- liar application to a democracy, where every man is a sovereign and the col- lective individuals rule. For, as Tocqueville says: The weakness of a democracy is that, unless guarded, it merges in despotism. And Wendell Phillips: Despotism looks down into the poor man ' s cradle, and knows it can crush resistance and curb ill-will. Democracy sees the ballot in that baby- hand; and selfishness bids her put in- tegrity on one side of those baby foot- steps and intelligence on the other, lest her own hearth be in peril. That is the message with which this convention answers this questioning hour. That is the patriotic service with which it shows cause to its fellow-citi- zens on this dark and anxious day. Is it genuine service? Or could it easily be dispensed with? James Bryce on the American Commonwealth. The best study that has been made of our institutions, their origin, their op- erations, and the influences that have affected them for good or evil, is The American Commonwealth by James Bryce. Let me read, without com- ment, a few observations from that standard authority along this line : No one is so thoughtless as not to sometimes ask himself what would be- fall mankind if the solid fabric of be- lief on which their morality has hith- erto rested, or at least been deemed by them to rest, were suddenly to break up. . . Morality with religion for its sanction has hitherto been the basis of social polity, except under military despotism; would morality be so far weakened as to make social polity un- stable? and if so, would a reign of vio- lence return? In Europe this question does not seem urgent, because in Eu- rope the physical force of armed men which maintains order is usually con- spicuous, and because obedience to au- thority is everywhere in Europe matter of ancient habit. . . . But in Am- erica the whole system of government seems to rest not on armed force, but on the will of the numerical majority, a majority most of whom might well think that its overthrow would be for them a gain . . . Suppose that all these men ceased to believe that there was any power above them, any future before them, anything in heaven or earth but what their senses told them of . . . would the moral code stand unshaken, and with it the rever- ence for law, the sense of duty towards the community, and even towards the generations yet to come, . . . His-

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16 THE REDWOOD principles of a higher law, inherent right and wrong, and essential good and evil. It is a fundamental theory of your educational system that men must he forever taught that just as there is a law of gravitation that holds the earth to its orbit, as really is there a higher law that holds mankind to its orbit also ; that there are principles of eternal truth from which spring prin- ciples of eternal justice ; that out of that higher law and from those eternal principles issue human rights and du- ties superior to the State and which no government may violate whatever its necessities; that among the most pre- cious of the principles that spring im- perious and inviolable from that higher law are these: Man was not made for the state, the state was made for man; there are principles of civilization that carry a divine sanction ; there are man- dates of international law that say, Thou shalt not, to a government even when they leave it no other alter- native; the end does not justify the means, with a state any more than with an individual. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar ' s, and unto God the things that are God ' s. Teachings of Christian Education the Very Axioms of Civilization. These are not novel doctrines that you teach and that are the heart of your teaching. These are not principles alien or antagonistic to the spirit or institutions of your country. These are not theorems out of touch with modern civilization. These are the very axioms of civilization for the tri- umph of which this nation has cast its far-flung battle-line in this momentous struggle. These are the very cells of the soul of the civilization for which this country is rushing her flag and her sons to the forefront of this mighty conflict. These are the very truths — sublime and stirring — with which Desire Cardinal Mercier, writing with the pen of an arch-angel, has roused and rallied the civilized world. Nor are these principles ethereal, too abstract or too intangible to take firm hold of the minds and hearts of men. Why, these very principles are that same spiritual force, mightier than the mightiest that material agencies can create, that takes its stand today in the great highway of time, of destiny, of civilization, of the world, and says with serenity, with confidence, with as- surance, to the most stupendous array of physical power that was ever mar- shaled in the history of men: You shall not pass ! ' ' And it shall not. Democracy Without Spirit of Individ- ual Restraint Merges Into Despotism. It is also a cardinal principle of your central teaching theory that these sov- ereign truths, inborn though they are in human nature and responsive to ap- peal, should find a place in education; and that out of them will come, with many other fruits, the all-saving vir- tue of restraint; indeed, that there is no firm foundation for that virtue but that higher law and those principles that issue from it. You hold fast, too,

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18 THE REDWOOD tory, if she cannot give a complete an- swer to this question, tells us that hith- erto civilized society has rested on reli- gion, and that free government has prospered best among religious peoples. . . . Yet America seems as unlike- ly to drift from her ancient moorings as any country of the Old World. . . Religion and conscience have been a constantly active force in the American commonwealth. . . . not indeed strong enough to avert many moral and political evils, yet at the worst times inspiring a minority with a courage and ardor by which moral and politi- cal evils have been held at bay, and in the long run generally overcome. Republics Live by Virtue. It is an old saying that monarchies live by honor and republics by virtue. The more democratic republics become, the more the masses grow conscious of their own power not only by patriot- ism, but by reverence and self-control, and the more essential to their well- being are those sources whence rever- ence and self-control flow. Just one concluding thought. Are those high things we have been talking of realities, or are they shadows? Are those conceptions of a higher law, sov- ereign right, eternal justice, and human destiny beyond the state — are all these hollow superstition or are they solid truth? Are those great principles which are the soul of your educational system and, by such a fine coincidence, at the same time the very gospel for which this nation and its allies are en- during their bitter passion today, — are all these but hallucinations of a world distraught with grief and looking for comfort from some external source be- cause there is no comfort here? Are all these but ethereal echoes, from the cold and silent stars, of humanity ' s un- ceasing wail against the pain and sor- row, the disappointment and despair of this abandoned sphere? World ' s Faith in Law a Spiritual Force In its slow but sure course this war is moving on to a decision of this tre- mendous three-fold proposition, which will thenceforth and forever stand as a settled and accepted truth of the hu- man race and of human affairs, and stamped with a finality that nothing less than such a conflict could fasten on it : first, that the race at large has an inborn faith in a law that is higher than man can make or the state repeal ; second, that this faith in that higher law has such native vitality and inher- ent vigor that a preponderance of the race will rise and rally against any gross and fundamental violation of its principles, and will make the sacrifice of every earthly treasure and of life itself to vindicate its sanctity; and third, and chiefly, that this faith, in- born and vigorous, is a spiritual force mightier than all the material forces that can be combined against it; that the powers of light are stronger than the powers of darkness. That is the compensating end to which our firm and steadfast defense against this war of conquest is leading