The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-11
A STRENUOUS LIFE
Roosevelt breaches
Gospel Of Action
and Activity.
CHICAGO BANQUET.
New York Governor Guest
Of the Hamilton
Club.

Chicago, April 1O-Seldom, If ever in
Chicago has a more enthusiastic body
of men met around the banquet table
than the one which assembled tonight
under the auspices of the Hamilton
Club, to celebrate Appomatox day and
to greet Gov. Theodore Roosevelt of
New York, who had come from Albany
as the guest of honor of the club. The
enthusiasm was extended in generous
measure to the other speakers of the
evening, but the greater part of it was
given to the governor when he rose to
make his address on the 1.-THE strenu-
Gus life"
The hall was a mass of waving
handkerchief and napkins, and the
cheers that greeted him as he arose
prevented the speaker for many min
utes from beginning his speech. 1t
was a greeting such as one man does
not receive more than once or twice in
a lifetime The boxes of the Auditors
UNI, in which the banquet was held, as
well as the seats in the hall back of the
banquet floor were filed with a large
throng, who had come to look on, and
to listen to the speeches, and these as
we'll as the members of the Hamilton
Club and their invited guests, Joined
in the welcome that for a few minutes
seemed to overpower the governor.
Fully 600 were around the banquet
tables when President Cody of the
club, who presided, raped for order,
and in a short but felicitous address
introduced the guest of the evening. AS
soon as Gov. Roosevelt was given a
chance to talk he spoke as follows:
Before Governor Roosevelt delivered
his address, Gen. John C. Black, of
Chicago, spoke of Grant and eulogiZed
the great commander in a warm and
happy manner. Congressman Evan
Settle of Kentucky followed with an
address upon Lee" The applause
which had greeted the remarks of
Gen. Black found it's counterpart in the
cheers that met the Kentuckian's
praise of the great southern leader.
Charles Emory Smith of Philadelphia
closed the address relating to the civil
war by an address on 1.-THE Union"
Gov. Roosevelt said in part:
In speaking to you, men of the great
est city of the west, men of the state
which gave to the country Lincoln and
Grant, men who pre-eminently and dis
tinctly embody all that is most Ameri-
can in the American character, I wish
to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble
ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous
life; the life of toll and effort, of labor
and strife; to preach that highest form
of success which comes not to the man
who desires more easy peace, but to
the man who does not shirk from dam
ger, from hardship or from bitter toll,
and who out of these wins the splendid
ultimate triumph.
A life of ignoble ease, a life of that
peace which springs merely from lack
either of desire or Of power to strive
after great things, is as little worthy
of nation as of an individual. l ask
only that what every self-respecting
American demands from himself and
from his sons shall be demanded of the
American nation as a whole. Who
among you would teach your boys that
ease, that peace is to be the first con-
sideration in their eyes-to be the ul
innate goal after which they strive?
AS it is with the individual, SO it is
with the nation. It is a base untruth
to say that happy is the nation that
has no history. Thrice happy is the
nation that has a glorious history. Far
better it is to dare mighty things, to
win glorious triumphs, even though
checkered by failure, than to take rank
with those poor spirits who neither en-
joy much nor suffer much, because
they live in the gray twilight that
knows neither victory nor defeat. If
in 1861 the men who loved the Union
had believed that peace was the end of
all things, and war and strife a worst
of all things, and had acted up to their
belief, we would have saved hundreds
of thousands of lives; we would have
saved hundreds of millions of dollars.
We of this generation do not have to
face a task such as that our fathers
faced but we have our tasks, and woe
to us if we fail to perform themi We
cannot, if we could, play the part of
China and be content to rot by inches
in &SnOble ease within our borders, TAX
ing no interest in what goes on beyond
them: sunk in a scrambling CONNER
cialism, needless of the higher life, the
life of aspiration, Of toll and risk;
busying ourselves only with the wants
of our bodies for the day, until sud
denly. we find, beyond a shadow of
question, what China has already found
that in this world the nation that has
trained itself to a career of unwarlike
and isolated ease, is bound in the end
to go down before other nations which
have not lost the manly and adventure
Gus qualities. If we are to be a really
great people, we must strive in good
faith to play a great part in the world.
We cannot avoid meeting great issues.
All that we can determine for our
selves is, whether we shall meet them
well or ill., Last year we could not help
being brought face to face with the
problem of war with Spain. All we
could decide was whether we should
shrink like towards from the contest,
or enter into it as beseemed a brave
and high-spirited people; and, once in,
whether failure or success should crown
our banners. So it is now.
We cannot avoid the responsibilities
that confront us in Hawaii, Cuba,
Porto Rico and the Philippines. All we
can decide is whether we shall meet
them in a way that will rebound to the
national credit, or whether we shall
make our dealings with these new prob
lens a dark and shameful page in our
history. To refuse to deal with them
at all merely amounts to dealing with
them badly. We have given problem
to solve.
Our army needs completer organiza-
tion-not merely enlargis,s-- The re-
organization can only come as the re-
suit Of legislation. A proper general
staff should be established and the pO-
sitions Of ordnance, commissary and
duartermaster officers should be filled
by detail from the line. Above all. the
army must be given the chance to ex-
eTcise in large bodies. Never again