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THE WAY OF SALVATION.
thing. As to which one of these hundred isms has in it that which the world needs at this stage of its progress, I do not pretend to say. I only say this: That any system of civilization that grinds down to slaving toil, to poverty and ignorance, one-half its people for the benefit of the other half is wrong from centre to circumference; and that, because that toil and poverty and ignorance are inevitable results, there is something wrong, poisonously wrong, with our system of commerce, deep down to the very roots, something wrong with our system of society, deep down to the very roots; and that therefore we should give ear, justly, generously, tolerantly, to every new idea, every new theory, that bears any promise of benefit.
And now may I step aside for a moment and make special plea for a special tolerance? A plea, which, remembering as gratefully as I do the years I spent within these halls, it would be well-nigh impossible to refrain from making. There has been much criticism of this university from those who support it, and therefore have the right to criticise, because it is believed to be too tolerant, too liberal, is thought to teach some things which many of the people of Kansas do not believe, to foster disbeliefs and doubts and heresies and dangerous isms of many kinds. Now, I do not know for a certainty, but I believe that I voice the loving gratitude of every graduate who has gone out of these doors when I say that not one of us all was taught to believe, induced to believe, one thing in any branch of study that any citizen of the State would think wrong or harmful. O, citizens of Kansas, you greatly mistake the spirit of this gentle goddess of wisdom that you have set high upon this hill if you think that she attempts to lead her pupils in any direction! She says to them' "Investigate all sides of every question and choose that which seems right and reasonable." You could not find in any educational institution a body of men and women more ready to sink their own beliefs and encourage the freest and fullest investigation, whether it leads toward their own
convictions or in the opposite direction, than those who compose the faculty of this university. If your sons and daughters come home with strange, new ideas about society, morals, government, the college is not to blame. They have discussed those things here, as they must discuss them if they know what is going on in the world, but they have been directed neither way. They have been told to study, investigate, prove all things, and hold fast that which seems to them good. These things are all in the winds, and the college that pretends to be a college of to-day, the college that is of any use to the rising generation, that hopes to teach them anything they want to know, must keep its doors and windows open. If you want your university to be a college of to-day, and not a crumbling monument to the things which were of moment years ago, don't shut its doors and windows.
The most grateful tribute which the returning graduate can lay at the foot of this well-beloved Alma Mater is a tribute to this large and beautiful tolerance, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the University of Kansas. Put no obstacle in its way, citizens of Kansas, for it is the very soul of the college, as it must be of any college which would retain its connection with the movements of the world. Its present usefulness, its future existence depend upon the vigor and the vitality which come from that tolerant spirit.
And so I would supplement the plea I have made for universal tolerance by another plea for faith in and tolerance of the tolerant spirit of your university. Kansas, dedicated by the blood of so many martyrs to the cause of liberty and progress, cannot afford to hamper and harass her highest educational institution simply because it is moving in the only possible path of progress, the path of life for it and of salvation for us all, the path of large and generous tolerance.
Tolerance is the light which makes possible intelligent onward progress. The spirit of liberty moves on so rapidly in these latter days that unless we let that