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UNIVERSITY COURIER.
UNIVERSITY COURIER A Monthly Publication Devoted to the Interests of the
KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY.
CONDUCTED BY AN ORGANIZATION OF STUDENTS.
Price of Subscription, Fifty Cents per School Year.
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CARRIE M. WATSON, 77,
W. E. STEVENS, '79,
SCOTT HOPKINS, '81,
R. W. E. TWITCHELLE, '81} Asst. Editors.
H. C, BURNETT, Editor.
C. V. KING, Business Manager.
Address UNIVERSITY COURIER.
TWO DANGERS THAT THREATEN SOCIETY.
The agitations of socialism are becoming more general and intense, both in this country and Europe. It seems that there is a plan among the socialists in Europe to vacate the continental thrones by assassination, though the plan, if one there is, has thus far been carried out in a bungling manner. Of course, all these attempts to remedy, by brute force, evils in the present social organization, are as futile as they are dangerous. No one believes it possible to force radical and sweeping changes in society, without a disastrous result. If any class is bettered, it must be by legitimate means and moderate methods. A resort to physical force awakes the tiger in men, and sends them flying backward along the path of civilization into an age when physical force was supreme and moral right almost unknown. Force must be met by force, and the side that has brains, money, and arms, to back it is sure to be victorious—and that side is the side of law and order. When the fight is over, the condition of the conquered is ten times worse than before. Men must learn to reach the causes of the evils that afflict them, in a legitimate way, and it is comparatively easy to do this in a country ruled by the ballot. When reason is master, rather than ignorance, the ballot will take the place of guns, and win what force cannot.
But while upheavals of brute force are to be guarded against as destructive of all social order, it must not be forgotten that society has an enemy even more dangerous, because it works in an insidious way under the authority of law. This evil is the control and shaping of legislation in the interests of a minority of the people, and to the detriment of a majority. It is the history of nations that a small class sets itself up to work for its own interests, and to the injury of the entire people. This effort assumes various shapes, but the favorite is under the guise of legislation. The average American citizen has great regard for law, and sometimes forgets to inquire into its justice. He submits to its authority, even though that authority may not be based upon right. In this he is right, because bad laws are not to be broken, but remedied. Every nation has been troubled by a class of men that lived by levying tribute upon their fellow men. Once that tribute was fixed by a king and collected by his agents, and around him there grew and flourished a favored class that drew support from this tribute. Manners, men, and even forms of government, change, but these gentlemen who desire to live off the industry of others, we have with us always; and they propose to accomplish their ends in a purely legal way. They are shocked at the mere suggestion of a division of property, and
agitated at the mention of communism, for their keen sense of honesty makes them abhor these things; but if, through the maze windings of legal intricacies, or even by a direct form of legislation, they can fill their own pockets, all is well. Law is the measure of some men's morality. It bounds their action. If it permits wrong, well and good; it is law, and they are justified. Some of the veriest rascals unhung are the most particular observers of the law. Professional lobbyists set traps to catch unwary but honest people. To spring these traps a stroke of legislation is wanted. They secure it, and in justification say, "Is not this the law?" While communism works in the sub-strata of society, attempting to undermine, weaken and finally overthrow it by force, unjust legislation saps the energy and prosperity of the people and works sure ruin. Our Republic is founded upon principles of right and justice to all men, and a violation of those principles is a dangerous attack—it matters not whether the violation comes from a red-handed communist, who would hesitate at nothing to get that which is not his, or whether it comes from the elegant, able, but wily gentleman, who, with his colleagues, puts through some legislative measure for his and their benefit and to the injury of others. Both are equally at war with society, while between them there is mutual hatred. And it is usual for one to cry out against the other while he perpetrates his own villainies.
The safe-guard against each of these enemies is just law, wisely executed. In our country the power to have this abides in a majority of the people, but, to be able to exercise that power, they must have a knowledge of the science and ethics of law. It appears as though such a knowledge will be necessary to the perpetuity of our form of government. "Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your Republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth,"—is the prophecy of Macaulay.
But the diffusion of a knowledge of the science of law, and with it an integrity that loves justice, will furnish even our political and social fabric with a protection against some Caesar or Napoleon, and as well against plundering barbarians.
The College of the Sisters of Bethany, at Topeka, has an attendance of about eighty students. The object of the institution is the education of young ladies. The name does not refer to any Order of Sisters, but is in honor of that home in Bethany which Jesus visited, and suggests a model and example. Rt. Rev. Thomas H. Vail, D. D., L. L. D., is President. There are preparatory and collegiate courses. The latter includes a junior, middle and senior year. The institution was started when Kansas was a Territory, under a charter giving it the rights of a college, granted by the last Territorial legislature. In 1870 the old charter was abandoned and a new one adopted under the general statute.
Col. G. P. Smith, father of the late Prof. Byron C. Smith has collected the writings of his son, and, we understand, will publish them. This will be welcome news to the friends of Prof. Smith. While in the Greek Chair at the Kansas State University, he formed a wide circle of friends and admirers, and not only there but wherever he was known. He was a man of unusual talent and culture, and his writings, though few in number, will be read and treasured.