Builders

Builders" HON. WILLIAM SPRY, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF UTAH "The world is made up of two classes of people — those who build and those who tear down." The builders are called progressive, successful ; those who tear down are styled retrogressive, failures. The scheme of creation makes no provision for a neutral ground between these two types on which one may stand. One must succeed or one must fail. When we arrive at the time for analyzing life's stewardships we are judged by the record of our activities, and the Great Ruler of the universe never intended the ledger of any man's life to be blank. When a man acts, he acts under an unchangeable law and makes either for success or for failure. Under that same law, when a man refuses to act his very inactivity tends to tear down, makes toward failure and spells retrogression. This is an unfailing law of the universe. And it is this law in the uniformity of its application that constitutes the corner-stone of the structure of human equality. When I speak of building, I have reference not alone to the building accomplished through manual labor, but to that broader meaning of the word which compasses the building forces that go to rear homes, communities, states, nations. I use the word to include character-building, the improvement of business, social and civic conditions, and, above all, moral conditions as existing between the individual and that higher power to which the individual is alone responsible. It is a blessed thing to build, and richly blessed is he who is equipped for life's work, not only with the physical inclination and ability to labor, but with an eager, trained, orderly, masterful mind, to guide and direct aright his physical and mental undertakings. You will find it a glorious thing to respond to the God-inspired desire to build ; to reach after, gather together, control, direct and put to useful and noble purposes the material things of earth. *A talk to the graduating class of the State Agricultural College, 1912.

BUILDERS 1079 You will find it a soul-satisfying labor to ply the tools which you have acquired within this temple of learning, with the power that comes of self-confidence, in the accomplishment of this purpose. As the years come and go, you will be led to rejoice in that deeper insight education has given you into moral and ethical questions of life ; and every step you are enabled to take on the ladder of moral uplift, by reason of your intellectual refinement and culture, will afford you increasing satisfaction and a peace of mind and contentment sweeter than anything else life has to offer you. Yours is the period of fascinating uncertainty of a distant goal, the gaining of which involves sacrifices and effort, this day undreamed of. It is but the span of a few brief years when each shall have reached his goal. Perhaps not the goal of youthful ideal, but the goal life's work — life's individual building — shall have merited. Then for the retrospective. Our building for this life is completed, and the structures of intelligent, earnest labor, or the ruins of shiftless, idle waste are behind us. Life's highest aim, therefore, is the building of monuments that will endure, as well as bring satisfaction and honor. "Year after year, behold the silent toil That spreads his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through, Built up its idle door. Stretched in his last found home, and knew the old no more. "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul As the swift seasons roll; Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free; Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea. It has been my experience that one can best attain those highest ideals of human yearning when the commonplace, routine duties are daily performed; when every opportunity, great and small, is seized and worked into the structure we have set about to build. Before and beyond the material things of existence that engage our attention, there is a great purpose of life, hidden, yet constantly hinted at in all nature, and in man's inward consciousness. Toward or away from this purpose, our daily acts lead us. And we are builders, rearing not alone the structures of Individ-

1080 IMPROVEMENT ERA uality, but influencing with subtle certainty the work of building being carried on by our neighbors. The theory of our common law of civilization is that so long as our acts do not interfere with the person, rights or property of another, we are good citizens ; but there is a higher, unwritten law of inward consciousness that teaches us the sacredness of moral rectitude; that fills the heart with divine regard for the influence our moral acts may have upon another. And the structures of our rearing, to be perfect, must be built in accordance with the higher law. To build, we must labor. Carlyle said : "Labor is life ; from the inmost heart of the worker rises his God-given force, the sacred celestial life-essence, breathed into him by Almighty God, and from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness, to all knowledge, self-knowledge, and much else, so soon as work fitly begins. Knowledge, the knowledge that will hold good in working, cleave thou to that, for nature herself accredits that, says yea to that." I am convinced that the knowledge which you have been acquiring, during the time of your connection with this institution, is the "knowledge that will hold good in working," as I likewise am convinced that all of you are leaving these doors with a firm determination to cleave to that knowledge and apply it to the tasks of life, whatever they may be. The faithful use of our entrusted powers is but a just return for the privilege of possessing them. Capacity for improvement and opportunity for usefulness involve acountability and demand diligence. When we think how much labor is required to make us what we wish to be, and to do for others what we should ; when we remember that consequences which eternity alone can measure are involved, we know that there must be ceaseless activity. Sir Joshua Reynolds said : "If you have great talents, industry will improve them ; if only moderate abilities, industry will supply the deficiency. Nothing is denied to well directed labor ; nothing is to be obtained without it." In a spirit of deep solicitude for your individual welfare, allow me to suggest that on leaving this college to engage in the affairs of life, you will doubtless plant your feet in this section, founded and built by men and women who braved hardships, who fought well, and who conquered — men and women whose deeds are epochal in the winning of the West, and whose lives are worthy

BUILDERS 1081 your emulation. If it be your purpose to continue the work of your fathers, keep in mind the fact that you are following the paths that were trodden by noble predecessors, who laid the foundation for a great agricultural, mining, commercial and social center. With honest pride in the work of those who reared the superstructure of this western civilization, with the quickening inspiration that comes from nature's magnificent environment, with unbounded faith in the promise of ample returns on the investment of your talents and energies, with unshakable confidence in your ability to cope with the problems you will meet, plunge into the work of building! For God has given us a wonderful land — a heritage such as a wise father would leave to a son whom he truly loved — an estate that will yield only to the beneficiary according as he labors and honestly earns. It is a source of genuine pleasure to me to direct your attention to the careers that are being carved out by those who have preceded you in this college. Their labors are daily reflecting credit upon, and adding prestige to, this great state institution. Results are being attained by the women as well as the men who have partaken of the advantages here afforded ; I mention the women especially, at this time, for the reason that in view of the widespread inquiry to discover what effect the liberal education now afforded will have on women, particularly on their domestic lives, I have followed with deep interest the lives of many of the women-graduates of this institution. In my visits to the various sections of the state, I have frequently received entertainment in the homes of mothers who a few years since were graduated from this school ; I have marveled at their management of the home, and felt thankful that Utah is awake to the possibilities of the training afforded by the domestic science courses. The strength of the nation depends upon the homes, and here domestic science has been so incorporated as to add to the sensible assuming of the responsibility of home-making ; and it has had a positive influence in increasing the power of every young lady in superintending a family, and added greatly to her dignity as a wife and mother, enabling her to properly direct the little ones in the never-to-beforgotten beginnings of life. Permit me at this time to remind you of the obligations you. as recipients of its favors, are under to the state which has made

1082 IMPROVEMENT ERA it possible for you to avail yourselves of the splendid educational opportunities afforded in this institution, of the debt you are under to those who have contributed so faithfully and well to your advancement ; of the deep feeling of gratitude you should bear this institution, and, lastly, the deep regard in which you should ever hold, and the fidelity with which you should always maintain, the principles and ideals for which it stands. In summing up, let me impress upon you this fact : the very best habit of life is the habit of building, because it calls for the exercise of industry — that quality of action demanding earnest, steady and continued attention to any useful or productive work or task — manual or mental — in which you may be engaged. Build ever, therefore, with diligence, investing your best effort and strongest exertion, with a deep love of your labor, and an abiding interest in its accomplishment ; bend to the completion of your chosen life's work with application, concentrating all your powers upon it with utmost intensity. Add patience by working on, in spite of the annoyances which you will encounter ; and, by unswerving devotion of heart and principle, bring constancy to your purpose. Exercising these qualities, the trait of perseverance to triumph over hindrances and difficulties cannot be withheld from you. Honorable aspirations, steadfast, persevering toil for the realization of your ambitions will make of you upright, useful citizens, honorable and worthy fathers and mothers, and leaders among the builders in this mighty nation of builders. The accomplishment of this end discharges the obligations I have mentioned, and compasses the interest the State of Utah has in your welfare. IN THE SILENCES OF SAN JUAN, UTAH