Date: June 28, 1920
Location: Burlington, VT
Context: Coolidge speaks about peace and equality. The university conferred him an honorary LL. D. on this occasion.
Vermont was fashioned by men with an overmastering desire to be free. They had their hardships and their problems but these differed from those of the original colonists, whose chief effort in their formative period had been for existence. Here it was for independence. There was never any doubt about their ability to survive in their contest with nature. What was to be the outcome of their contest with men was not so sure. They could exist but could they be free and independent? The answer was found in the deep determination of a hardy people to deserve freedom by a readiness to die for it and to preserve freedom by establishing a government of laws supported by institutions for public enlightenment. Ungoverned they founded a State, unlettered they established a university. With the directness of men inspired they drew freedom from the source that exists throughout all generations, a knowledge of the truth.
The University of Vermont is the direct product of the American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence was little more than a year old when the constitution of this State was adopted. It established a Commonwealth founded on equality, freedom, the protection of property, education and piety. The men of that day did not believe in monarchy. They believed in democracy. They did not believe in despotism. They believed in liberty under the law. They did not believe in ignorance. They believed in intelligence. They recognized that the people were coming into a new estate. Thereafter, they were to rule. There was to be a democracy but their ideal was to create of democracy an aristocracy. They believed the people should rule because they believed the best should rule. It was their purpose to secure this result by education and enlightenment. To this end schools were provided by town, by county, by State, the common school, the academy, the university. The people were to be educated at public expense. So it happened that this University first conceived amid the terrors of a revolutionary war was to be chartered in 1791, not as the function of church but as an instrument of the State, a religious institution but not denominational, to minister to the intellectual requirements of the people, a royal university to educate the King.
There are two methods of education. One is the laboratory or experiment station method. When problems arise they are sent there where the methods of exact science are applied and the answer returned. The process is of no consequence, the answer alone is desired. This is the method of authority. Those who drink at that well thirst again.
Life is not an exact science. In ethics, civics, economics, and politics all the facts are not known. For dealing with these questions we need colleges of the liberal arts to which men go to learn the process for discovering truth. These institutions are established to teach men to think, to create within them a wall of water everlasting. This is the justification of that democracy which is the foundation of our Republic.
The paramount duty of those who are college bred is to apply the process for determining the truth to problems of the present time. They ought to understand and comprehend the meaning of current events and recent history and so understanding help to interpret it wisely for the public benefit. There never was greater need than at the present time.
The world has just experienced the six most eventful years in human history. Whole continents have broken with the past. Dynasties have ended. Empires have fallen. This has come not from the preconceived plan of man. That plan was for the aggrandisement of power, for earthy glory, for a place in the sun, for military supremacy. It came as the irresistible shock of war in which the artificial in human relationship was cast aside and the real prevailed. If despotism has not yet been banished from its rule over people at least it no longer wears a crown, it is no longer glorified anywhere but denied everywhere, and wherever practiced now masquerades under popular sovereignty. The ideal of the founders of this University is beginning to grip the earth in its entirety.
In this change that has marked all peoples America has not remained unchanged. Politically we appear to be the same. Our political institutions, resting on the firm foundation of the people, have not been shaken. They have been assailed, with be assailed both by the unthinking and the vicious. Against all such assaults this University stands as a firm defence. It was established that the inhabitants of this State might be free. But how be free, how come into the greatest liberty? Not by casting aside of all restraint, but by the observance of all law, not by lack of self-control but by an intense discipline, and finally never by ignorance but ever by a larger knowledge of the truth. There may be an involuntary servitude but never an involuntary liberty. It is ever purchased with a great price. It is not given or bestowed, it is acquired. The American people in their sovereignty must forever remember that to set free a King requires the ransom of a King.
The experience which the founders of this institution had lived out, the educated people of the present must think out. They were the product of a revolutionary but not a lawless period. They were the countrymen of James Otis who had appealed to the law against the exactions and impositions of an unwarranted and unconstitutional parliamentary authority. They were the countrymen of Ethan Allen who had appealed to the law at Albany against the illegal grants of an usurping landed aristocracy. When the courts failed to administer justice they defended their chartered rights and legal titles with the might of their swords. That which they had lost at the hands of others they proceeded to provide for themselves. In the midst of the Revolutionary conflict the colonists were everywhere setting up constitutions declaratory of human rights but always secured by imposing civic duties. Among the foremost was Vermont, resolute of mind, correct of action, conquering freedom by making the sacrifice of the free. Indeed the foremost achievement of the period was something more than independence. It was the establishment of a Nation under the American Constitution. This was the acknowledgment and declaration of the great principle that a larger liberty is to be found in the remission of a lesser freedom. The former colonies gave up their independence, merged their small estate in the greater estate of the Nation, relinquished the smaller privilege to be colonists and gained the greater power to be Americans. They had learned the lesson that to submit is to govern, to serve is to rule.
Historically considered this conflict has never ceased. The right of a smaller freedom was the theme of nullification. It was the principle of secession. It is the foundation of all appeals to resist authority, to overthrow government and destroy property. It is not service, it is not duty, it is not progress. It is the essence of selfishness, the substance of reaction. Against all these forces America has set her face for three centuries, the conflicts of the past six years, have strengthened the determination of all her people now as in the past to resist all aggression and support and defend her political institutions with whatever power may be necessary for their preservation and the maintenance of the larger liberties they bestow upon all her citizens.
This unalterable determination of the individual to preserve his heritage of larger liberty while tending to stabilize civic conditions has tended to change economic conditions. There has been creation of new wealth and a vast redistribution of wealth as yet not fully realized and the effect of which has not yet been fully assessed. This readjustment has not been accomplished without strain, inconvenience, and some suffering, the end of which is not yet. A great amount of money came into the country from war supplies furnished Europe. The supplies of all kinds of materials were exhausted by the war. Our own population was withdrawn from ordinary production and the great increment from abroad ceased. The inevitable result of more money and less production is an increase of prices. This has been aggravated by the great requirements of taxation. Ultimately very much of taxation, however levied, falls on the consumer. It ought to be perfectly plain that if government requires of the public a larger share of the rewards of the public effort there cannot be left for the public so large a share as before the war. It is absolutely impossible for the public to evade or shift the burden of meeting the cost of the war and paying the public debt. This is our part of the price of victory. Until this is met a higher range of costs will be the price of prosperity.
There has been and still is in some cases a range of artificially high prices which has not been caused by, but has resulted in profiteering. There is but one sure remedy for this and that is an increase of production. This is always the result of a long process and its application requires patience and forbearance. It can only be secured by the investment of new capital in enlarging our industries, or improving their methods, now a most difficult operation, by a wiser management, or by a more proficient application of employees. Having in mind solely the public welfare there is need of a larger realization of the benefit conferred by the collection and investment of capital, not to the owner of capital but to the user of its products. The normal return to the owner of invested capital is small, somewhere between five and ten per cent, but under the principle of the division of labor the return to the user of its products, whether it be cloth of steel, or shoes or transportation, comparing the cost of service received with the cost of performing the same services for himself is often a thousand per cent. The accumulation and investment of capital is the means of advance and comfort in modern civilization and whatever arrests, discourages or prevents it turns towards distress and barbarism. Whoever the owners by the nature of things no power can prevent the capital invested in business enterprises from inuring to the public benefit. Unless it serves it fails. Capital and brains, investment and enterprise are not the enemies and masters of the wage earner but his friends and servants.
But there is a deeper reason than the high prices which have prevailed in the immediate past for increased production. Surplus is the source of economic progress. Public service is the end of economic achievement. A limited output at a high price means service to a favored few. Large production at a low price means service to all. Whether engaged in or connived at by an employer or employee the one is an attempt to levy tribute, the other to respond to duty. The one will lead to disaster, the other to success. This universe is not so constituted that it is profitable for men to be anything but his best. The encouragement of accumulation, investment and the increase of production are to bring within the means of all the people the best that the land affords as the protection of property is for the purpose not of protecting the powerful in its enjoyment but of protecting the weak in its acquirement. These are the sole methods of a permanent diffusion and distribution of wealth to be pursued for the purpose of limiting individual selfishness and promoting disinterested public service.
There is another and even more compelling factor that has wrought a change in our economic relationship. We have been preaching and engaging in a great crusade. Its purpose has been to destroy despotism and preserve freedom. There has been a new birth of freedom. There has been a new expression to the rights of the individual, a new realization of the worth of man. All this has set a new standard of value on human service because it has given a new value to men. There has been here a vast forward movement the extent of which has not yet been fully appreciated.
To some it has been disappointing, giving them unrest and dissatisfaction. If any expected to find satisfaction merely in an enlarged income they were foredoomed to disappointment. Satisfaction does not come from satiety or indulgence, it comes from achievement. Greater liberty does not mean less responsibility, it means more responsibility. That responsibility cannot be borne vicariously. It must be borne by the individual. If economically our citizens are to be no longer cheap, they must be no longer without responsibilities. As new liberties come by submission so new prosperity must come by submission. There is no advance which is not bought with a price. Americans believe in a larger liberty, a higher civilization, a greater progress and prosperity. When the method of securing these is laid before them they have not and will not scruple to pay the price.
Must it not be that these years have been a prelude to a great advance in which America is to lead? Have we not seen her institutions justified, her faith vindicated? In the early months and years of the war what wonder man doubted? Did it not seem that despotism was victorious and freedom vanquished? Belgium was devastated, northern France overrun, Russia defeated, Servia crushed, Italy humbled, Roumania ruined. The suffering, the slaughter, the deportations , the unspeakable outrages perpetrated upon the inhabitants of conquered areas seemed to testify to the supremacy of evil. The first battle of the Marne was the one great obstacle to this conclusion. In the light of revealed facts we know now that evil did not triumph over right. It was not the supremacy of Prussian arms but treachery in the ranks of her foes that brought her victories. Honor did not lose, the good was not overcome. The might of despotism never won a real victory over the hosts of freedom. After the American army was moved into the line it never retreated and never failed to advance. The might of Kings could not stand before the might of democracy.
But if America is to lead her people must be true to her ancient ideals. The world has rejected a leadership sought to be imposed by force. It has broken it down and trampled it under foot. The day of Alexander, of Caesar, of Napoleon has passed. The day of Washington and of Lincoln has come. Leadership will henceforth not be by force, but by service. And what is true in world affairs is true in domestic affairs. The Nation will not long submit to any dictatorship nor long pay tribute by whomsoever levied. Here too service must be the standard, applied alike to all individuals and all stations. No selfish interest, whatever its source will long be allowed to interfere with progress. In our economic life, as in our political life, progress comes from variety. A division of labor has given to the individual a larger economic existence. But a division of labor presupposes that each division performs its part. By choosing to adopt it the individual imposes upon itself a new duty toward society and receives in return a new economic power and a vastly increased economic liberty. No one denies that he has the right to withdraw but it is equally clear that he cannot have a right to use his position to levy tribute. Progress and the public welfare do not lie in that direction. The individual is not obliged to make progress. Certainly no one will force it on him. But the American people desire progress and when they come as come they must to a comprehension that all kinds of selfishness and tyranny interfere with it, they will discard their advocates as they discarded the leadership of Toryism, nullification and secession. After the Almighty had created the first man He blessed him and laid on him the first command to replenish the earth and subdue it. From that time there has been, can be, no escape from the obligation to work. In the subduing of nature man has found character, progress, prosperity and civilization. To follow the truth, that is always success.
Faith in the people is an American ideal. Not faith in their ignorance or their prejudice. If men are only selfish the war was in vain. We might just as well accept the Prussian standard and each seize whatever he have the power to hold. But a faith that men act with knowledge rejecting the false, accepting the true, proud not of gain but of sacrifice.
An American ideal is equality. Not that all are equal in degree. There are differing glories, as of sun, and moon and star, but all are equal in kind, tolerating no class distinction, no privilege, save that which comes from service, no plutocrat, no proletariat, no authority save that which is derived from the consent of the people.
An American ideal is peace. Not that peace which is wrought by the force of the sword, not that peace which is bought by a cringing servitude, but that peace which abides with justice, which follows the mutual requirement of scrupulous observance and discharge of all obligations.
There are others, important, compelling, but these indicate the line of advance. They are not yet realities but they are ideals toward which progress is being made. To them we cannot yet read our title clear but we can spell out the beginnings. Whether we seize the opportunity to lead in a great advance depends solely on ourselves. We have the resources, the power, the material force. The only question concerns our moral force. What leadership shall we follow? We have come through adversity. Can we bear prosperity? Are we to turn back toward the cave man who was absolutely free to do as he chose but yet a slave in all things, or shall we go forward toward the majestic figure of modern civilization who by following duty have found a larger liberty in all things? The teachings of this University are plain. The hopes of its founders are clear. They are the source of all character, and character is the source of revelation. Go forward in the line of duty, small or great, under discipline, conscious that from doing comes the power to do more, firm in the faith of the fathers, seeking the enlightenment of education, surpassing the hopes of the past, ensuring liberty by accepting responsibility, that this whole nation made like-minded with Washington and Lincoln may continue to show forth to the World a revelation of “the way, the truth, and the light”.
Citation: Vermont Historical Society
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The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Mitch Rushing, who prepared this document for digital publication.