The Duty of the Scholar in Politics. 



BY FRANK. HEVWOOD HODDER. 



[IMii Beta Kappa Address, delivered at the University of Kansas, .funo 8, IHOfi.l 



The duty of the scholar in politics has been the subject of so 

 many addresses upon occasions of this character that it is difficult 

 to say anything new respecting it. It is, however, suggested both 

 by the occasion and by the direction of my own studies. Mr. 

 Disraeli is reported to have once replied to an opponent in Par- 

 liament: "The honorable gentleman has said things both true 

 and new but the things true are not new and the things new are 

 not true." It is, after all, the things true which are not new that 

 are important. Especially is this the case with respect to duty, 

 whatever its direction. It rarely happens that we do not know our 

 duty but often that, knowing it, we fail in the doing. 



By the scholar, in this connection, I do not mean the specialist 

 but rather the man of education and independence, the man who 

 is well informed upon all important topics of current interest and 

 who does his own thinking respecting them. This definition does 

 not include all graduates of colleges and universities and it does 

 include many who never had the advantage of college training. 

 The duty in politics of the man of education and independence is 

 then the subject. The greater the education, the greater the 

 intiuence he may exert and the greater the obligation to exert it. 

 Especially great is the obligation in the case of the young men 

 and 3'oung women educated at the expense of the state. Upon 

 them rests the duty of using their influence for its welfare. 



But I do not intend to range at large over the whole subject. I 

 propose instead to emphasize one particular duty — namely the 

 duty of the scholar to use his influence for the maintenance of 

 international peace. The discussion of this particular duty is 

 especially appropriate to the occasion by reason of the fact that it 

 is totally disconnected from all questions of party politics. It is a 

 duty pre-eminently of the scholar as a man governed by reason, 



(•55l KAN. UNIV. QVAn . VOL. V. NO 1. .JULY. 1896. 



