CHANGE AND STABILITY Dr. Kitchin Administers a Parting Tonic to the Graduating Class Though feeling that President Kitchin of Wake Forest College seemingly fails to realize fully the handicaps to the development, by multi tudes, of the strong individualism which he com mends to the 1935 graduating class under the economic and social regime he so vigorously champions, yet his baccalaureate address is so charmingly eloquent and of such tonic potency that we are here publishing it as an offset to the many pages of former argument in these col umns for a “change” which, in my opinion, should serve to make possible the burgeoning of many individualities that. will be dwarfed or utterly withered under the kind of “regimenta tion’' which has so generally characterized the old regime. The writer dots not see in an equitable dis tribution of .opportunities and an effective eco nomic co-operativw scheme the danger to indi viduality, or to initiative and enterprise, that even Dr. Kitchin evidently conceives as lurking in the shadows of “change.” Even the individual ants of the communistic ant hill seem to preserve all the initiative and enterprise possible to ants under any circumstances. Each man does his level best and shot vs a persistence and an inven tiveness in overcoming the obstacles in the path of the conveyance of his booty homeward that few. of our race show. Nor do passing com rades interfere with him in the performance of his strenuous tasks unless they see that he has a burden too great for the lone comrade’s puny strength, when they have a regular old-fashion “log rolling.” Put Dr. Kitchin’s tonic is fine for the indi vidual under any kind of regime and its com position shows that he has the Kitchin genius in rhetorical fields as well as his own special genius in that of Aesculapius. Dr. Kitchin’s Address As I come to say farewell I cannot help think ing with something like dismay of the world which is about to receive you. You are entering life's activities at a time when thought is sur charged with desirr, for change. When,Gn 1929, the high fever of imaginary progress vanished, the hysteria of collapse appeared and extreme measures were employed to control an abnormal patient. The warp and woof of the world’s eco nomic life had become so entangled that millions of distressed and desperate souls were ready to follow a Moses who would lead them out of the wilderness. Then, in view of walled cities and giant nroblems, self-reliance failed and mannai and quail were desired. The proponents of change are preaching a re ligion of Modernity: “Behold,” they cry, “’ve make all things new.” As a result we have pro duced new international treaties and new weap on- of warfare, new nationalism and a new at titude of the individual, new education which cloak- but does not destroy ignorance; new con ceptions of religion, even—many of them so wild and radical that the Creator of worlds is left out. This cult of modernity has indeed become so popular that change is considered identical with progress. Give us something new, is the clamor, anything new and different! Unfortunately, this attitude has opened wiaetne aoor 10 of all falsehoods, the half-truth, ^rid a legion of his cohorts. So many things are labeled new that we are endangered by a myopic view of values and a loss of our sense of veneration. You are entering a' world so charmed by illusion and deception that you may be influenced to reduce truth to. opinion and replace hope with- futility hi ay I therefore remind you, that the presen hour has no monopoly on wisdom, and that the wealth of the world has not been produced by this generation.' May I caution you that-some things are immune to change, and charge y®u that the superstructure of . your lives, as well as that of society, must rest upon eternal bed-roc May we notice a few illustrations of those t in8s which are permanent. Individualism . , The first is individualism. A distmgtns gentleman recently died. A friend wrote of * "“He had less dust on his windows than on of any other man I know. His was the un standing’ that is more than wisdom an ,m. Hdualism that springs from the wisdom oi1 aRes, the wisdom which-‘reveals that life can dure and man develop only in an atmosphere, freedom.’ He had the ability ‘to adjust his ppi ions to hi^ knowledge.' ” ; . ■ AH individualism m^y-be said to sPnn^, * the wisdom of the ages”: for it/ is < concerned, with fly-by-night changes but with development —and it has been well said that. it is only the cultivation of individualism that produces,' or ca^^.ro^ce* well developed human beings. Me who lets the world, or his own portion of i , choose his plan .of life for him, has no need of any other faculty’than the ape-like one of imita tion. He who chooses his plan for himself, em ploys all his faculties. . . . Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.” (Milt.) Individualism does not imply the libertinism embodied in claims qf equality or ability and pos sessions, Genuine individuality is as old and in herent and unique as man’s first finger: prints. Every human Jbeing is, in body and mind and spirit, a peculiar creation. There is no group mind or spirit as such Effort to. efface; indi viduality presumes to v'olate the order of crea tion itself. Unity through diversity is as wide spread as tfie human family and as far flung as the stars. , ,, Individualism guarantees and honors person-, ality. Personality is, as it should be, one of the most persistent things in life. It can be dwarfed and perverted, but not effaced. Nor can it be eliminated by time, eradicated by climate, de stroyed by death. Moreover, designs to reduce all men to a common denominator, in thought or in wealth, are ultimately as impossible as they are dangerous. . . - It is difficult to predict the effects upon per sonality of those tendencies designated as plan ned economy, couect'vism, limitation, and divi sion, and share the wealth. One can say, how ever, that the utmost caution should be exercised against current isms—Facism, Nazirism, Bolshe vism, Socialism, Paternalism—for such central ization of power may so militate against person ality as to restrict and stifle it.' Unwarranted, and perhaps, unsuspected, delegation of author ity, as excess of liberty, could easily lead to the worst form of servitude, for it can. subtly trans form independence into depend'aice and initia tive into conscienceless beggary. Personal Rights The sacredhess of individualism presumes.in alienable personal rights and obligations. * There is the right, to work. The law of labor is as old as crearion, and it can neither be abridged nor repealed. Disuse means atrophy of moral fibre, as certainly as a biological organism tends to eliminate a member which is cannot use. Labor creates the virtues of thrift, self-reliance, independence, self-respect, honor, stability. The Master Workman recognized, honored, and dig nified manual toil, and the work of mind and spirit. He placed primary emphasis on the crea tion of those ultimate riches which rust does not corrode nor thieves purloin—the “durable goods that endow the ages , " , • 1 Also, the abundanl life is a moral and social birthright. For man the abundant life cannot be had through bread alone. Man is essentially mind and spirit. He must have bread to exist, things of the mind and spirit to live. Our fathers Ipft ns a leeacv. created by their ideals and estab lished with their labors with compass ana pen and sword. The legacy is a Jeffersonian prin ciple, superior to any party, springing from the essence of democracy, and nurtured by those consecrated to faith in the divine nature of man. It is the Palladium of our liberties—the right to think and to teach our children to think; the right to religious liberty for ourselves and our children; the right to practice thrift foy our selves and our families and attain a degree of competence and independence; the .right to de velop individuality in the line of aptitude, unh dered by false dogmas or unjust ahd_ fettermgTe ' strictions; the right to gain character and truth and beauty through development of that measure of the Kingdom of Heaven Within one. This sacred trust must be kept invidate. It anted^es the Constitution, the English Bill of Eights, Ro man Law; it is as old as Noahs rainbow and God’s covenant with Abraham. - ,. • So when western civilization follows c^1FieJ?*’ cal fkncy and fatuous opinion; it is inevitable that sacred treaties become scraps of paper and £ *e social structure collapscsw.th^such force as to shake the foundations of-the world. Nor jean ultimate recovery be had merely through fuchTte premises. . In government, In educ. tion and in organized nehgionj the essential na ture d? man must be recognized.. and personal rights must be safeguarded and devel^«d^or_we suffer such a dedensioir-of Ta^h t* ™*' bring unparalleled! moral -upheav^ and Srophe Basic/ fights; and obbgafcons-ne«r actual^onfHtt. - Genuine’ progress may, Xfhrou^x free4°m*. -Ohly the free W ^ | - .A... < filter!. V . . . -!f_ come really strong and constructive, ,, fitness Spartan regimentation and jnomentary ’power; witness the freedom of Greece, and marvel at her priceless, and imperishable trwsures of art and literature and philosophy.. ..Through keeping inviolate the sacred rights, .of njftO.thore may he had a dynamic and gravitational force, stronger than the influences of the Pleiades and the bands Of Orion. " The Greatest Permanency ^ But we, know, in-thinking over those things which abide, that religion is* of greatOst^permai nency. It is as. old. thf? £oul of man, and has helped to make it. Eternity is in the heart. Re ligion at its best, that is, as Jesus taught and practiced it, has given to the world a great philosophy, a great ethic, and ’a great source of power. It creates enduring Values. ‘It' has been said, “It is1 not the happyjleath; but the happy life, that makes man happy/V The way to find happiness1—and let trie remind-you that it is the only Way—is ,fo * turn 'back tO' these’fefidtMng values, these- fundamentals of life and religion. Christianity -is adaptable in practice but un changeable in its principles. > ■A hundred years ago Thomas Carlyle wrote, “Religion becomes more , and more mechanical. Considered as a. whole, the Christian Religion.of late ages has been gradually dissipating itself into Metaphysics; and-threatens now to disap pear, as some rivers do, in deserts of barren sand.” But we have Divine assurance, that it is here to stay. Its Founder “ia the same yester day, today, and forever/* His words are more imperishable-than Heaven ajwd earth, and’ His words are more imperisnaDie.*tnaiL rieaven ana earth, and Has organized truth: is built upon a; rock. Even if every word Jesus spoke were de stroyed, His religion ■ would recreate itself, for it lives in the deeps of the heart and will fcon . tinue to live .through all the generations, through all the ages.. I have mentioned three permanent realities— individualism, personal rights and obligations, and religion. ' The: way out of the chaos of uncer tainty cannot be discovered! through mere human expediency and opportunism; it can be found in the fundamentals of life and religion. And so, Members of the Class of 1935, 1 beg you to enter this turbulent world with high cour age, believing that the changes we see and fear are on the surface, like restless waves. The un ^soiindable depths are not disturbed, because— • I » “The Deep-Down Things are strong and great, Firm fixed, unchangeable as fate, Inevitable, inviolate, The Deep-Down Things. “The Deep-Down Things! AH winds that blow, All seething tides that roam and flow May smite but cannot overflow The Deep-Down Things. \ “The surge of years engulf the land And crumble mountains into sand, But yet the Deep-Down Things withstand The surge of years. f ^‘Behind the years that waste and smite, And topple empires into night, God dwells unchanged in changeless light Behind the years.” A Plea for the Salvage of “Should” (Continued from-Page Four) ture from the time of the threat; “was” either indicates that the paying was before the threat, or that information as to whether it had been paid or not was lacking. - r Long usage has seemed-to establish the em ployment of simple “shall” of “should” forms instead of the perfect tense forms, “shall have” or “should have,”- as correct* English, the equiva lent of which the Latins, in their exactness of terise relations, invariably* use 'when" the con ditioned act must be completed, before the pro posed or “threatened” act occurs. But to aban don all suggestions of tie future relation seems to be going too far and introducing an element of exceeding slovehness into^ the cohstfuction of that exceedirijgly important grammatical clause, the conditional, for which; as; wigge8ted above, such concern, on the other hand, is felt foh ex actness in it that the double connective, if und when, a stranger to the language for ^thousand years, is now being too generally used. * - - - Suppose we fry to preserve, at least, the par* , tial decree of . tense' exactness pf classic English . before; we Cry fo increase "another kind of ©xacfc •ness by; a» means that so fretpiently- results un monstronsities of grammaticaL structute.' 1" in ,sist -that “shall” .and “should“ -ought?to -yetaia their fortnar

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