The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-05-22

shaft was unveiled amid tIlS cuSS4S "
the thousands who had SURROUNDED me
stand. As the shaft was unveiled the
artillery fred the national salute, aIter
which President Roosevelt delivered the
following address:
Society, and you, my comrades, ana
finally officers and men OF the reg uiaI
army, whom We took as our modes III
the war four years ago.
1T is a pleasure to me this afternoon
to accept in the name of the nation the
monument put up by your society to the
memory of those who fell in the war
with Spain, a short war, a war that
called for the exertion of only the
Inerest fraction OF the giant strength
of this nation, but a war the efrectS o.
which will be felt through the cen
turtles to come. It is eminently appro-
pirate that the monument should be I'M
yelled today, the day succeeding that or
which the free republic Of Cuba took It's
place among the nations of the world
as a sequel TO what was done by those
men who fell and by their comrades III
'9S.
we went to war for a specific pur-
pose We made for Cuba a specific
pledge, and we redeemed that pledge
to the letter And I think. my com
rades, that we have peculiar reasons TO
be proud of one of our fellows who
served with US in that war, under whose
administration Cuba has taken those
strides forward which have fitted it to
stand alone-I speak of Gen. Leonard
Wood. And great though the services
were that General Wood rendered dur
ing the war they have been surpassed
by the inestimable service he has rem
dered in peace to Cuba and therefore
to our nation, for our interest was
bound up in the success and welfare OF
Cuba.
And a word here. where we meet to
honor the memory of those who drew
the great prize of death in battle, a
word in reference to the survivors. L
thing that one lesson every one who was
capable Of learning anything learned
from his experience in that war was the
old, old lesson that we need to apply in
peace quite as much-the lesson that the
man who does not care to do any act
until the time for heroic action comes
does not do the heroic act when the
time does come. You all remember,
comrades it is barely possible some of
you remember the man who. when you
enlisted had a theory that there was
nothing but splendor and fighting and
blOodshed in the war and then had the
experience at once of learning that tire
first thing you had to do was to per
form commonplace duties and perform
them we'll I remem Der one time in my
regiment a young fellow who had come
down to fight for his country COMPLAIN
ing that he had been doing nothing but
digging Kitchen sinks, to which the an
sWer was obvious that he was to go on
digging kitchen sinks and the work of
any man in the campaign deDended
upon the resolution and intelligence
with which he started about doing each
duty as it rose not waiting until he
could choose the duty that he thought
sufficiently spectacular to do; doing the
duty that came to hand. That is exact
" the lesson that all of US need to
learn in times Of peace It is not merely
a great thing, but an indispensab Bile
thing that the nations citizens should
be ready and willing to do for it at the
time of need. and no preference for
that other quality could atone for the
lack for such readiness to lay down
life If the nation calls. But in addition
to dying for the nation you have got to
be willing and anxious to live for the
nation, or the nation will be badly off.
If ycu want to do your duty when the
tima comes for you to die the nation
viii be deprived of valuable services
during your lives.
And now. gentlemen, am speaking
in all seriousness, I never see a gather
ing Of this kind; I never see a gather
ing under the auspices of any of the
societies which are organized to COM
memOrate the Valor and patriotism of
the founders Of this nation; I never see
a gathering composed of the men ready
to have volunteered in time of war or
who fought in the great civil war or in
any of the lesser contests in which this
country has been engaged without feel
ing the anxiety to make such a gather
ing realize, feel, each in his or her heart
the all Importance Of doing the ordinary
humdruIn. commonplace duties of each
day as those duties arise. Some of the
effect on the day of battle is to be
found in the aggregate of the individual
performance of duties during the long
n onths that have preceded the day Of
battle, and the way in which a nation
will arise to a great crisis is condition
ed upon the way in which its citizens
have habituated themselves to act in
the ordinary affairs of the national life
You can not expect that much will be
done in the supreme hour of peril by
soldiers who have not fitted themselves
to meet the need when need comes,
and you can not expect the highest
type of citizenship to be shown in the
periods when 1t is needed ffthat citizen
ship has not been trained by the faith
full performance of ordinary duty.
What we need most in this republic is
not special genius, is not unusual bril-
liancy, but the honest and upright ad-
herence on the part of the mass of
the citizens and their representatives to
! the fundamental laws of private and
public morality. which are now what
| they have been during recorded history,
and we shall succeed or fail in making
this republic what it should be made
I will go a little further than that
what it shall and must be made-ac-
! cOrding to the manner in which we ser
| iOusly and resolutely set ourselves to
do the task of citizenship, which con-
sists of doing the duties, private and
public which in the aggregate make it
| mn