“The good citizen must, above all, have such a lofty conception of the state and of statesmanship as shall lift it forever above the moral plane where it has been allowed to rest by the average conscience dulled to all the finer moral perceptions by the force of custom and conventionality.
“There are such citizens. I see many of them before me as I speak, but that there shall be a thousand where there is now but one, am I here to-night to speak to you.
“And now, after this lengthy prelude, permit me to ask your attention to the scheme which I suggest for helping to bring about in this city a higher standard of good citizenship. Pardon a bit of personal experience.
“Scarcely a day goes by in which I am not importuned by various worthy beggars to give thousands and even millions to endow this and that college, hospital, and asylum.
“The last project which was proposed to me was to put a million dollars into a college to be devoted to fitting poor boys for the ministry free of expense. And my importunate beggar was greatly offended when I said that I should consider this one of the best means for promoting hypocrisy and dependence, and that I thought a few scholarships wisely distributed in colleges of repute would help the ministry more than a million dollars expended chiefly on brick and mortar.
“‘But what are you going to do with your money? Don’t you think you ought to give it to the
LORD’S POOR?’
I was asked with that delightful assumption of authority which certain people who have the assurance of infallibly knowing the mind of the Lord always adopt.
“‘Certainly,’ I answered; ‘but the Lord has commissioned me to spend what is intrusted to me where it will effect the best results, and I prefer to put the next money that I spend into brains rather than into bricks.’
“Now I propose to devote one hundred and fifty thousand dollars during the next ten years to stimulating thought in this city in the direction of Good Citizenship. [Applause.]