The Meaning of Education. VII: Honor

The Meaning of Education By Dr. E. G. Peterson, President, Utah Agricultural College VII — Honor Honor never changes. It is the same in the hut of the commonest laborer and in the most gorgeous palace. It is the same today as it was a thousand years ago, and it will be the same for all time. Principles never change. When men were engaged in simpler activities than much of ihe activity which predominates today, when the main functions consisted of personal intercourse, of man to man, face to face, it was a comparatively simple task to know how to be honest. Dishonor likewise was readily detected. There was not, for long, masquerading under a false cloak, of those whose minds went in crooked ways. The thief, the perjurer, the hypocrite, and the liar were quickly found out. Today, man's dealings are not only with those whom he meets face to face, but, with a brotherhood which extends throughout the world. His dealings may affect thousands whom he never sees. The food he eats, the train upon which he rides, or which in part he owns, the newspaper he reads, the schools his children attend, the laws which his representatives formulate, the international practices which he condones or helps to put in practice, all these express an inter-relationship of endeavor which may involve all parts of the world. With excellent perusages sonal standards man may help to produce iniquitous when his acts are joined with the acts of others with whom he is conassociated in corporations, in city government, or boards of trol, and as an elector in state and national government. A new problem of gigantic proportions is the problem of projecting righteousness into our complex socialized state. Man and his motives are hidden in the intricacy of our social indirectly and being. He deals not entirely face to face but round-about. He may steal from the public purse over which may have stewardship and yet not, perhaps, sense the same he feeling as one who steals directly from his neighbor. Yet the crime is the same. He may combine with others to force from business a competitor by unfair means. He may be the recipient of favors by special legislation; he may manufacture products which are underweight or inferior in quality. He may abuse the privileges of free citizenship, and such abuse may in-

THE MEANING OF EDUCATION 11 jure others. He may advertise to cure disease which he knows is incurable. Through it all, he may escape detection and actually be regarded as upright. In fact our peculiar life has developed a peculiar human being who through mental alertness or adroitness defies detection, but who is nevertheless fundamentally immoral and dishonest. There is even a tendency to exalt such subtlety by calling it long-headedness or cleverness. Even deceit and hypocrisy are sometimes lauded as qualities of some virtue. All of which is perniciously wrong. Honor is the same yesterday, today and forever. No adroitness of mind will ever condone for the absence of it. And its violator will be found out, or what is of more significance he will find himself out. A double life was never lived successfully. Sooner or later Nature will appear and demand an accounting because an altruism and a justice and righteousness pervades the universe which in time separates the clean and the unclean. Let no man deny the motives which preside in his own soul and point the way unerringly. Let no man delude himself into believing that honor is a composite changeable thing. Honor is as simple as love or truth or virtue. It never changes. And every man knows when he departs from its presence. Logan, Utah I. Bunnell, age 83; Edward P. Cliff, Jr., and Ewin Booth, both E. six years of — age the oldest and the youngest of the many climbers who reached the summit of Mount Timpanogos, Utah, this year.