I do not ordinarily open my office at
Washington on Saturday. Being a schoolmaster, I am accustomed to a
Saturday holiday, and I thought I could not better spend a holiday than
by showing at least something of the true direction of my affections;
for by long association with the men who have worked for this
organization I can say that it has enlisted my deep affection.
I am interested in it for various reasons. First of all, because it is
an association of young men. I have had a good deal to do with young men
in my time, and I have formed an impression of them which I believe to
be contrary to the general impression. They are generally thought to be
arch radicals. As a matter of fact, they are the most conservative
people I have ever dealt with. Go to a college community and try to
change the least custom of that little world and find how the
conservatives will rush at you. Moreover, young men are embarrassed by
having inherited their fathers' opinions. I have often said that the use
of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as
possible. I do not say that with the least disrespect for the fathers;
but every man who is old enough to have a son in college is old enough
to have become very seriously immersed in some particular business and
is almost certain to have caught the point of view of that particular
business.
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