An Appeal to Students

An Appeal to Students By DR. ELMER G. PETERSON President of the Utah Agricultural College EACH year throughout the country we observe what is called Constitution Week, during which we attempt to ana- lyze and appraise anew our great basic governmental document. There has been special fervor in the appeals to support the Constitution during recent years because of the development of a state of lawless- ness which many observers believe seriously jeopardizes the very lib- erties our Constitution was or- dained to establish. We must as- sume that it is among the first duties of intelligent citizens to up- hold the law of the land. If they do not they invite anarchy and des- truction of all the benefits of orderly government. It has become smart to drink liquor in America. This nation-wide viola- tion of our Con- stitution may re- turn to plague us; indeed it has al- ready done so. It must be a matter of grave concern to all Americans to have the Presi- dent of the Unit- ed States announce, as he did a few months ago, that life and property are less safe in America than any- where else in the civilized world. "We are suffer- ing," he said, "not from a crime wave, but from a sub- sidence of our foundations." A more severe ar- raignment of America has never been made in its history than this. In the midst of our prosperity and power, we laugh heartily at this statement; as the drunken despots of old laughed and leered when prophets told them they were headed for ruin. T ET me make it clear that I am not a pessimist, preaching doom. I believe heartily that ours is the most capable and in some ways the finest generation of his- tory, but I do believe that the wastage now as always in wrecked lives and diseased bodies and souls is tragically great as we go forward to whatever our destiny may be. And I want to say that if a college becomes merely a reflection of cheap American life, its doors had better be closed. If our stu- dent groups and our social assem- blies are not markedly different from the comparatively low club and social life and the cheap public dance halls which infest our com- munities our colleges had better be demobilized and the students go down among those who have never had the vision which should come from institutions of learning. I T is probably unnecessary to say that there are many citizens in every community who arouse only our great admira- tion. There is probably a grow- ing number of such carrying heavy burdens un- complainingly and generously sup- porting every good movement. In fact the evil I am here mentioning seems to be more in movements and in formulas and ways of thinking which fasten themselves upon the world than in people themselves, al- though there are always enough people of low as- piration and con- duct in every com- munity to express any evil we may have in mind. TN considering the A Constitution we should think not only of the Con- stitution but in ad- dition of all law, not only that great body of decisions of our legislative assemblies but also those even greater

110 The Improvement Era for December, 1929 dicta which may be classed as nat- ural law, whose operations per- vade the entire universe. I have in mind also not only recognized and demonstrable natural law but that even more important group which we call spiritual law, as yet only vaguely denned and un- derstood, yet which exercises a determining influence upon the future of each one of us and which determines the development of na- tions. Taken as a whole the ob- servance or the violation of law has the effect either of raising an individual, a group and a nation to great levels of achievement or in an apparently ruthless way crushing them. Everything in our universe from the movement of a dust particle to the operation of a great intellect is under the rule of law. We cannot escape it. To know the law and to obey it in my judgment is the first ne- cessity if we are to achieve per- sonal integrity or social and na- tional worthiness. The Declaration of Independence says among other things that "we hold these truths to be self evident ; that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." nr HESE are rights, so says the ■■ Declaration, to which every man is entitled; as he is entitled to the benefits of gravity as he runs water over his field to irrigate his crops or as he drops water on a wheel to generate electricity or as he suffers disaster as he falls from a high building. It would be un- thinkable to have water run down the rows on one man's farm and refuse to do so on another. - The overwhelming portion of the leaders of the civilized world did not grant in 1776 that men had such things as inalienable rights. The world had been nur- tured for centuries on the doctrine of the divine rights of kings or popes and priests. They were un- accustomed to this new doctrine of the divine right of ordinary people. p-VEN after the adoption of the Constitution as the basis of our commonwealth through its accept- ance by the original states, many accepted this statement as a theory only, but the founders of our gov- ernment believed it sincerely. It was an expression of faith in a D 'R. ELMER G. PETERSON, president of the Utah Agricultural College since 1916, is a Utah pro- duct, having been born in Plain City, Weber county. His state has reason to be proud of him. He graduated from the school over which he now presides, and later studied at the University of Chi- cago and at Cornell, teaching for a time in the latter institution. He is a member of a number of scientific societies and is the author of many articles on bacteriology and entomology. The West is for- tunate in having at the head of one of its colleges a man who exercises so wholesome an influence over young people as does Dr. Peterson. purely spiritual conception which has marked our government and determined our progress for the past hundred and fifty years. It is this that I now have in mind, this faith in a purely spiritual concep- tion. '"TODAY this issue separates the ■■ world into two groups. The first group consists of the believers in animalism, the atheists and the mechanists on one hand and every- body else on the other. Each group is entitled to respect and a hear- ing. A surprising portion of the civilized world, particularly a large portion of the so-called intellec- tuals, admittedly now has faith only in the demonstrable things of life. They have abandoned the old spiritual concepts. No one would deny the primitive necessity of proof in all scientific matters. Tested thought is the very foun- dation of modern civilization. Where we err is in trying to sub- ject to proof those things which do not admit of proof or measure- ment, or analysis in any material way. The important thing to re- member is that these intangible and unmeasurable forces or values are even more important than those things we can measure and analyze. The love of a mother for her child, the devotion of men to a principle driving them even to death, honor that is above price, the friendship of strong men for each other,, courage which en- ables men to face any suffering, self denial for others or in a just cause, the love of justice, — -these are spiritual forces the power of which cannot be denied. Incomparably the greatest event in the history of the world is that which relates to the life, the cruci- fixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. rFHOSE who may for purposes ■*■ of this discussion be called unbelievers (I use the word re- luctantly because many so classified advocate and practice the most advanced morality) would make Christ essentially a sociologist and philosopher. They do not believe in the intangible or the unprovable assumptions which are considered by many to be the very heart of Christianity. They espouse Chris- tianity in its ethical aspects only. This they would say is Christi- anity. These honest doubters are agnostics in the sense that Huxley, who invented the word, was. He deliberately used this term to dis- tinguish himself and others of similar belief from those whom the church histories of the times called gnostics, meaning those who pro- fessed, sometimes undoubtedly un- worthily, knowledge which they did not possess. As opposed to the oppressive priestcraft of former times which sought to coerce men into assumptions and pretentions of faith for which they were not prepared and of which they in many cases were unworthy, agnos- ticism was a wholesome reaction which undoubtedly has done its great part in freeing the world from vicious practices in the name of religion. TT should be remembered that the world is full of philoso- phies, theories and ethical state- ments as admirable as any phil- osophy Jesus taught, but our civ- ilization, the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic particularly, is, in my judgment, based upon Christ not as a philosopher, a sociologist, or economist, but as the Son of God who came, as Paul said he himself came, not to teach the attractive things which made up the think- ing of the Greeks or any other representatives of a purely intellec- tual civilization but to teach Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Luke in the beginning of the great record known as the Gospel according to St. Luke says: "For as much as many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered them un- to us, who from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order, most

The Improvement Era for December, 1929 111 excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed." TT is these matters "which have been fulfilled among us" which merit the careful attention of all of us. I venture the assertion that every one who reads these lines, as every one in America, is a bene- ficiary of the blessings which have followed faith in Christ crucified and resurrected from the dead. The civilization of which we are a part, centering in the home and empha- sizing the importance, even the sanctity, of the individual is a product of New Testament teach- ing. North Europe and American development is largely the result of faith in Christ as the Savior of the world. I would consider myself gravely derelict in my duty if I did not charge the students everywhere and particularly of the College with which I am associated with the solemn responsibility of in- quiring diligently into those things "which have been fulfilled among us. I believe that faith in God is the first necessity of this or any other generation. I believe that the ab- sence of such faith has been the corrupting influence in the life of every nation that has decayed and equally that such atheism has been the essential and beginning evil which has wrecked the life of every individual who has degenerated to a low level. If this is true then how important it is that we attempt to understand the record contained in the New Testament. It is more important than all our other learn- ing. 'T'HE story of the World War has -■ not yet been told in full, par- ticularly the origins. It is of less importance to know that Germany or France or England was the ex- citing cause than to know what kind of thinking it was that led men and nations up to such a ter- rible cataclysm. I think that the cause of such monstrous action is complex and cannot be stated fully in a single statement. At the same time I think that the primary cause of every war is the thinking of peo- ple and particularly .their unbelief in the reality of God or in the actu- ality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The world has been over- run by the doctrine of evolution, which of course no intelligent and informed man denies. Evolution is a fact or rather a tremendous concourse of facts. That man is a beast is not a fact. One of the curses of our times is that this great doctrine of progression has been prostituted into unbelief in the spiritual nature of man. Conse- quently any nation, England, Ger- many or France, conceiving of man as essentially an animal naturally proceeded to apply to man the laws of the animal which are the laws of violence. If any animal desires food which is possessed by another animal weaker than he, he takes it by force. So a nation seeking coal fields or oil or harbors sends its soldiers or its ships out to capture what is needed. This is over- whelmingly the tragic story of the world from its earliest history and it is the present international point of view which inevitably produced the World War and will continue to produce wars as long as men so believe. Pre-war Europe was un- der the influence of the theory of evolution applied not only to ani- mals and plants but also to man, particularly that portion of it which related to the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest. The philosophers of Ger- many were unqualified in their opinions. Such opinions pervad- ing the thinking of whole nations, particularly the advanced think- ing, human relationships naturally tended to settle to the low level of bestiality. The tendency was to put not only inter-national rela- tions on this level but also for the individual to think of himself as an animal and therefore to think it unnecessary to aspire to those great J. HE disposition and habit of re- fraining from "sins of commission", is, of course, an essential but sub- ordinate aspect of character- — a nega- tive morality. When the positive element is assured, negative morality will, in large measure, take care of itself. This point of view makes evi- dent the fact that character educa- tion is not apart from the processes of education as a whole, but is, or should be, a phase of all these processes. Any power whatsoever of the individual, physical or mental, may become an asset or a liability from the standpoint of character. Development of character calls for development in the highest degree of all the powers of the individual as assets of character, figuratively speaking. These powers in the service of oral ends are in reality constituent elements of character. — Milton Bennion in "School and So- ciety," Aug. 6, 1927. spiritual heights which are the ob- jective of Christianity. These naturally he thought of as interest- ing hypotheses but, as the power of the opposite doctrine increased, he thought of such spiritual concepts decreasingly as practical proposals for conduct. 'T'HERE are always a great many -- who look upon life essentially this way. What can I get for my- self; how much learning can I acquire for my own satisfaction; what advantages can my superior knowledge give me over others; how much work can I get out of by securing an education; how lit- tle can I give and how much can I get in return? I owe allegiance, such people say, to no code of morals which does not minister to my personal satisfaction or ad- vantage. I shall believe only what admits of proof. WANT to say to our students that such doctrine in my judg- ment is entirely wrong. No rea- sonable person would deny the virtue of individual initiative nor would any one deny to one who strives for it the reward of his labor. In no other way in fact can he achieve it. But, after all, it is in sacrifice of ourselves, in de- votion to our work, in great self denial that the secret of achieve- ment lies. Younger students will understand this more fully as later they try and try in vain to find en- during satisfaction in any indul- gence or in any accumulation of wealth or power, or in the mere piling up of learning itself. Dis- couraging as it sometimes appears, the great values are attainable only by devotion to spiritual truths which sometimes appear so abstract as to be untenable but which are as actual and real in their existence and their influence as any material object or force can be. Life often appears a most contradictory enter- prise as we find that mere pleasure becomes bitter in the end ; that suf- fering often leads to happiness; that toil is better than rest; that life is begot only through pain; that often poverty is a blessing and riches a curse; that hardship is something we should pray God to give us in abundance, granting only that we have strength to over- come it; that beauty and strength often thrive in the very muck of life; that the beginning of wisdom is knowledge of our ignorance; that the greatest strength is in humility;

112 The Improvement Era for December, 1929 that the ignorant often confound the wise; that a handicap can more than overcome itself; that time and space have no beginning or end, and yet we cannot conceive of a thing without beginning or end and yet our reason tells us that a beginning or an end is impossible; that he who would have his life will lose it and he who gives his life freely will have life eternal. A ND so the great and terrible "**• universe of which we are a part may either stupefy us by its magnitude or we may somehow put ourselves in harmony with it and then, according to those who have got closest to its secrets, it becomes not terrible but beautiful beyond description; and life be- comes a great, never ending ro- mance. I appreciate that this is the age of indulgence. But there have been similar ages in the history of hu- manity, Sodom, Gomorrah, Baby- lon, Ancient Rome, — all these died through indulgence. The world has now reached an alarming stage of debauchery, of surrender to the degenerating ; influence of mere materialism. I do not believe that youth is going bad. I believe the youth of today compare favorably with any previous generation. If there is any difference it is probably only slightly better or I T is much more important foe youth to know the ethical principles that justify laws restricting the use of private property than it is to know merely that these restrictions exist. It surely is better that youth should stand firmly for world peace with justice to all than that they be scared into an attitude of conciliation by description of the horrors of modern warfare. If it be said in reply that development of the moral judgment is incidental to all experience and, therefore, unnecessary as the primary objective of any course, the answer is that this phase of the social inheritance like other phases does not pass automatically from one generation to the next. Transmission of the most fun- damental aspects of the social inheritance is one of the primary purposes of courses of study. There is even less reason for omitting to teach the highest ethical concepts and to train in exercise of the moral judgment than there would be to omit teaching the vernacular. That will certainly be acquired in some degree and in some fashion; indeed, often a bad fashion, but not worse than the types of moral and immoral judgment only too commonly acquired by our haphazard methods of moral education. — Milton Bennion in The "Historical Outlook" for March, 1926. worse. I believe they are better. But I do believe that the world which they face is under the dead- ening influence of doctrines so evil that the very existence of civiliza- tion is threatened. I believe that it is a sign of intelligence to detest cordially much that makes up mod- ern life. At the same time one cannot go far in any halls of real learning without realizing that riches of mind and spirit, beyond our power to comprehend their magnitude, are within our reach. It is the purpose of any good col- lege to lead all of its students up to these high levels where the riches are, and equally to arouse in them a deep and abiding hatred of the evil which is so abundant every- where. Gratitude a Measure of Intelligence By DR. GEORGE H. BRIMHALL President-Emeritus of Brigham Young University YWHILE out hunting I came ^ upon a lame horse, which had not been able to keep up with the band. I walked up to the ani- mal and saw that it was young and without marks of saddle or har- ness, the evidence of having been handled. Laying down my gun and taking out my knife I ven- tured to attempt to find cause of its lameness. The grown-up colt permitted me to open an incision on one side of the hoof and remove a large sliver, which was followed by a gush of pus. I let down the foot and stroked the head of my patient who rubbed its nose on my shoulder, and as I walked away looked its gratitude, and I said, high grade of thorough-bred." a Y\7HILE riding after stock I came upon a young horse en- tangled in a wire fence; with much difficulty I extracted the creature, which rewarded me by kicking my hat off from my head and scamp- ering away to join its comrades, then I said, "cayusel" J" KNEW two boys bred and reared by the same parents in the same environment; each in his teens left home, one ran away, and the other went to work, "to help the folks." The first wrote like most prodigals when he wanted something, the other sent frequent messages of in- quiry and appreciation. The in- grate was relatively unknown among men, the other became emi- nent. I stood on a side-walk in Salt Lake City some years ago studying the passing stream of humanity. The first outstanding feature of the come-and-go procession was that of a family group made up of a man, a woman and a child. The head of the family, straight as an arrow strode in front with a gun on his shoulder; he was followed by a yellow dog, then came the wife and mother. She carried in her hand a sack of food and on her back was lashed the Indian cradle in which was the child. I said, "ignorance and ingratitude on the march." A LITTLE later came another 1 ** outstanding feature of the sidewalk stream of life, another family. The man as father pushed a baby carriage with one hand and as husband held with the other hand an umbrella over the woman, while behind trotted a tiny dog. It was a pageant of full grown gratitude. From these observations and many more I feel safe in saying that while gratitude may not always be an index to superior mentality, the absence of it advertizes either in- tellectual inferiority or lamentable ignorance. So long as we love, we serve. So long as we are loved by others I would almost say we are indis- pensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend. — Robert Louis Stevenson.