372 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



ary in Asia from whom I have heard in recent months has thanlced 

 God that the American flag- has entered the Far East. Better govern- 

 ment will come to the Philippines, toleration will for the first time be 

 established, education and spiritual Christianity will do their uplifting 

 work, and America, standing in the gates of the Far East, will more and 

 more be a factor in the regeneration of Asia. Our position will bring us 

 into closer alliance, as the years go by, with Great Britain. We shall 

 have our part in the great work of the twentieth century, the civilizing 

 of Eastern nationalities; America, forced out of her isolation, will be 

 compelled also to counteract the inferior forms of European life which 

 threaten to become dominant. America and Great Britain will see to it 

 that China is not Eussianized. I expect confidently that American 

 wealth will find some of the largest and noblest fields of philanthropy 

 in the Asiatic world. 



But furthermore, America must become in a higher degree self-re- 

 specting. We must achieve better government. We must show that 

 the character and efliciency displayed by our navy are not con- 

 fined to the navy. The spoils system in all its infernal ramifica- 

 tions must be made odious. The civil service must be ele- 

 vated. That consular and diplomatic service must be vastly im- 

 proved. National expansion must be accompanied b}- national purifiac- 

 tion. The people are learning the meaning of our new position and its 

 obligations. It is significant that the most vigorous practical reformer of 

 recent years has just been chosen governor of New York. England's 

 expansion abroad has been contemporaneous with improved govern- 

 ment at home. So let it be with us. Our colonies must not be handed 

 over to politicians and our cities must not be ruled by bosses. The best 

 campaigning begins when elections are over. Now is the time to strike 

 the chords of a true j^atriotism. God has given us a new opportunity, 

 a new leverage, a new outlook. Those who find God in our past are 

 generally inclined to believe that he is in our present, and that not 

 politicians and newspapers, but God himself, has brought us to the 

 position we are now in. With the dawn of the twentieth century we 

 should feel that a true Americanism is gaining ground everywhere. 

 An ai>propriate watchword for that century is this: Let the Greater be 

 also the Better America I 



THE LAW OF EQUIPOISE. 



com:mencemknt address by president a. s. draper of the uni- 

 versity OF ILLINOIS. 



From College halls vou turn vour faces to a busv world, a world 

 throbbing with energy and s])irit, in which the pleasures are innumer- 

 able and the contentions hard, and in which the balanced men and 

 women gather the largest fruits. You wonder what it contains for 

 you. 



The world sets up different standards of success, but by no one of 

 them will you succeed in equal measure. We may safely say, from the 

 world's experience, that some of you will' exert a greater infiuence and 

 gain a richer share of the world's esteem than others. We know that 

 by every standard of right living some of you will make more of 



