Valparaiso University - Beacon / Record Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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18 Viowtute, mm, verbis F. L. HADE Classic Vestigia nulla Tezirorswn. JAMES C. SOMMER Classic

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CLASS ORATION. IMPERIAL FEDERATION. C. C. SHERROD. EN have always loved freedom and abhorred oppression, nurtured liberty and abominated tyranny. Animated with such a spirit, the human race, through its course of evolution, must free itself from ignorance7 eradicate war and establish justice and tran- quility amongst its people. When we study the pages of history and trace the development of our people from their earliest forms, both as recorded and conjectured, and see- the rise and fall of states and nations, and observe the slow and upward trend of their on-marehing civilization, we must conclude that, somewhere in the distant future, lying out yonder as the goal to which the ever-restless soul has striven to approach as a limit, there is a conclusion as great and lasting as the Infinite Himself. We study the plot and classify the idealized characters of Hamlet and King Lear and others, and are stricken with wonder when we- try to conceive of a mind so magnificent. But this conclusion to which I refer, , to be reached only after ages of sacrifice, has a moral and an ideal incompar- able with the present attainments 0f the human mind. Hero-worship has been characteristic of every age, and a great factor in moulding the opinions and establishing the standard of morals of each particu- lar race. From the most ancient times men have honored those who stepped from the ranks and asserted themselves in such a way as to propound princi- ples, the following out of which would lead to happier and more comfortable homes, and at least give a colorable assurance of a greater and more beautiful soul. Such men were Confucius, and Socrates, and Plato, and Sir Isaac New- ton, and others. But formerly those who admired a great man and extolled his teachings were limited to his followers. Not until recently would the poet meet out justice to the man of medicine or the student of law; nor would the theologian even recognize the scientist. If we read the facts of history and their relations to each other in both our past and present, we can behold a great and inspiring destiny reserved for humanity. The tendency of historic evolution has ever been towards Imperial Federation; that is, towards a great federal union7 embracing all the states and nations of the world, organized under one central government, and mod- eled after that of the United States; this central power to be vested in a con- gress composed of men, elected by 'the people, representing respectively these iederal states and nations of the world. Disregarding the artificial govern-

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19 ments which were created and maintained only by force, our nation7 states and federal unions are and have ever been the results of this political evolu- tion. When we find the human family even in its, what we call7 semibarbarous state,e-untaught7 uncultured, unrestrained. they are settling all disputes by duel, if they are Personal; and by the sword, if national. Not an opinion is allowed by one of a lower rank over that of a higher, and permitted only in the same rank when the propounder of the argument can overpower his adver- sary. While today, though we are yet but half-eivilized, we respect the opinions of others, and submit our national and international differences to an umpire or an arbitrary board. Formerly, political divisions, separated from each other only by small natural boundaries, knew nothing of each other, save when one trespassed upon the territory of another, and he had the results of an encounter to suffer. Today, because of interstate and international coni- nieree, all the most advanced nations of the world have adopted the same standard units of time, of weights, and other denominations; our modern trans- portation lines and modes of communication have put us within the same walls; our systems of education make it possible to have a iieongress of nations, here in this institution; the strong brotherhood of man which con- served the past, is preserving the present, and insures a progressive future, was never nurtured as it is now; and not until man has faith in himself, in his fellow-being, and in an overruling power, will he recognize his fellowman as his brother, and realize that they have a common interest and a common destiny. The manifestation of this Virtue is the greatest proof of our advancement If we will place ourselves out yonder in space, and View the world as a whole, there is not a tendency in universal history so manifest as the tendency toward world unity. At first we View the race collected into small groups, called clans; then by the union of a few of these clans, we have the tribe; and, likewise, the eityestate; the nai'on state; and lastly, and by far the most advanced yet, the federal state. of which our own Union, consisting of forty-siX states, is the model. Our government was not an accident, but a result. America is libertyis native home. You readers of history remember that, since the beginning of the recording of, events, the great masses of the common people have striven to be freed from the tyranny of despotic rulers. At first the people rightly called their leader the king; but in later years, because of his exorbitant demands for taxes, his lavish expenditures of the peoples money, and his unjust and tyrannical rulings, he was called the tyrant. Then to free themselves from that oppressive ruler, there was established throughout Europe the institution of feudaiism. While in itself a poor form of government, feudalism was as necessary for the devel- opment of the people as was the king in earlier times. Under this form of government, the barons, who had primarily forced the Great Charter from King John, and who had kept him and his successors from reigning like