e years pass and the education of the people
progresses. That's the kind of man we already have in some of our
leading pulpits, and they are exerting a tremendous influence in all
departments of life. But the supply is limited. There's not enough to go
around. Many more are needed. Our universities must furnish them. Will
this institution do its share? Will some of you young men, with your
well-trained bodies, with your finely-disciplined minds, with your
highly-cultured natures, with that fine balance of powers that means so
much and that can accomplish so much for the world if thus used--will
you turn aside from the beaten path that would be sure to lead to fame
and power and worldly success and enter the more difficult but more
useful field of the Christian ministry for the simple purpose of serving
mankind? You are the kind of men we want, and I am sure that you will
not disappoint us.

And so I might go on, did time permit, and point out attractive and
responsible openings in many different activities--the fields of
engineering and journalism, the professions of medicine and law, the
great world of business, even politics (should I not say, rather, and
_especially_ politics?). It is not necessary to go farther into detail.
You catch my thought. In one and all of these, positions of leadership
are calling loudly for men and women of large knowledge, of trained
minds, of broad outlook, and of splendid visions; and these
characteristics are the fruitage of nothing less than the broad and
comprehensive foundations laid in the college and the university. And
you who have them are, by the very fact of possession, under obligation
to use them for the public weal. How is it, young man, young woman? Are
you going to mesure up to the twentieth century standard? Will you carry
with you from this hall when you leave to-day, and from this institution
when she honors you with her diploma, and out into the great activities
of life,--will you carry with you, I ask, and make the basis of your
actions in life, the thought of these two little words that have been
engaging our attention this morning--_Noblesse Oblige_?

VII

IMPROVEMENTS IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

_A Paper read before the Commercial Club of Grand Forks, North Dakota,
January 24, 1911, and printed in the Grand Forks "Daily Herald," January
29, 1911_

In accepting an invitation to speak upon the topic assigned,
"Improvements in Our Public Schools," I come not