160 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



My brethren, the rye in the wheat field typifies your position 

 among the masses, in the political field. If this republic is to be 

 perpetuated, and it will be, it will be accomplished by your zeal 

 and splendid patriotism, as well as by that of your brothers of 

 kindred institutions, who, whenever a great crisis arises in human 

 affairs, will bring to it disciplined minds, a high standard of 

 moral honor, a broad altruistic spirit, and a calm, dispassionate 

 outlook upon the whole problem, that will enable you to decide 

 it in the interests of the greatest good to the greatest number. 

 And having so decided it you will be able to influence the masses 

 for their own, and their country's good; for from the skyline of 

 history, to the present day, the minority has always beaten the 

 majority in the end, when the issue was a moral problem. 



There are undisciplined minds in every community, who 

 assert, with a good deal of gusto, that the spirit of this age is that 

 of the classes against the masses, and that there is one law for 

 the capitalist and another for the laborer. Now, while this is 

 the marshmallow age of fiction, yet exactly the opposite of that 

 is true in the administration of governmental law and order. 



It is a long way from Mount Sinai to America, but the thun- 

 dering voice of thou shalt not, speaks in louder tones today 

 than when uttered on Mount Sinai, just as our civilization is 

 higher than the age in which it was first uttered. 



My brethren, into your hands is given the keeping of the Ark 

 of Liberty, and for its sacred care and protection, you shall 

 answer to posterity. 



The greatest debt of my alumnus citizen is the one he owes 

 to himself. 



If there is any message more than another that I would bring 

 to you, it is to live your life. Do not expiate it, do not creep, or 

 crawl, or apologize for living; but stand up, proud in your 

 conscious manhood, facing the world courageously, and bearing 

 the imprint of the Godlike spirit within you. Make your life its 

 own excuse for being ! 



