The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-20
Work of Young Mems Christian Assoc
Citations i'm Army, Navy and Else
where Warmly Commended.
ORGANIZED EFFORT NEEDED
TO COMBAT GROWING TEMPTATIONS
AND FORCES OF EVIL.
Decent Men Make the Best Citizens ms
Well as the Best Soldiers
and Sailors.
19.-President

at the banquet commemorative of the fif-
tieth anniversary of the Washington Young
Mems Christian Association and the in
ternational committee of North America.
Among those present were Justices Harlan
and Brewer. Secretary Root, Senators
Depew and Perkins, George Foster Pea
body, Baron Fersen, Secretary Shaw. Ad-
miral Dewey, Generals Corbin and Young,
Secretary Cortelyou, WI Shen Tung and
Representative Cannon. Helen Gould and
Mrs. McAlpin, president of the Womens
Auxiliary of the Y. NJ. c. A, were con-
spicuous among those in the balcony.
President Roosevelt was greeted with loud
applause as he rose to address those at the
banquet. He said:
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: It is no
accident that we should meet here to cele-
brate record of fifty years. That period
gigantic industrial change of the world,
a revolution, socially and industrially,
such as was hardly seen within any pre-
ceding five centuries. Life during that nalf
century has been carried on at higher
pressure than ever before. That means, of
course that all the forces have been raised
TO higher degree of power, the forces OF
evil and also the forces of good If il had
not been for the work of such organizations
as this the immense material progress of
the world during the past half century
would have been progress that would
have told for i'll to the nations, not for
good. tApplause.l And we can say with
truth that we are better off and not worse
off than we were.
I'VE see all around us people who say
| ON well, things will come out all right
So they will, but they will come out all
right not because there are those who are
content to say that they will come out all
right, but because there are a sufficient
righteousness in them who are bound TO
see that they come out all right.
| Applause
TEMPTATIONS INCREASED.
"a hundred years ago there was no such
need for the Young Mems Christian Asso-
citation and other movements of this kind
Life simpler. The temptation would
come surely to every man, but 1t would not
come so frequently and in so intense a
form. AS the forces OF evil manifested
themselves in stronger and stronger form
| they had to be met, if they were to be sue
cessfully grappled with, by organized effort,
and the successful effort to combat the
forces of evil had to take just such shape
as has been given to the growth of the
| Young Mems Christian Associations. 1t
had to take the shape of combining decency
| and efficiency. There have been philan-
| thropic movements led and supported by
most excellent people, which nevertheless
have produced results altogether incom-
| measurable with the efforts spent because
| they failed to combine as this movement
was combined, recognition Of the need of
human nature at the same time that the
resolute effort was made and make that
human nature better.
Il have been acquainted especially with
| three types of your work, the work in the
army and navy, among railroad men and
| among college students. Now those three
classes are Emo, not going to be effectively
| to take account of the fact that they de-
mand manlinesS as well virtue, and you
can make them straight on condition that
in mil fhnf i- FOR
| them TO be strong. An old and favorite
| quotation of mine has been Wesley's re-
mark when someone criticised him because
his hymn tunes were good. The an
| swer was that he was not going to leave
| all the good tunes to the devil. Laughter j
And We want to be exceedingly careful that
the impression shall not go out that good
men intend to leave strength to those who
serve the devil. Laughter and Applausel.
I'm the long run the man who is decent
! is apt to be the man who is the best soldier.
| The work among the railroad men always
| particularly appealed to me because of the
willingness of those men to take risks, to
| that pursuit have the power to obey and
| the power to act on individual initiative,
the power to take responsibility. You get
among a body of men like that and you
| can make them accept morality If you make
| them understand that it is not only COM
patible with but is demanded by essential
| manliness.
IN THE COLLEGES.
-. n.
so among the college students because it
has tried not to dwarf any of the impulses
of the young, vigorous man, but to guide
| him Alright. 1t has sought not to make his
development one-sided, not to prevent his
being a man. but to see that he is in the
fullest sense man and good man. Zap
plause.l
Among all those that are here tonight
1 know that the rest among you will Join
with me in saying that we greet with pc
| culiar pleasure the men who served in
the great war. [Applause.l Those men
| won the day of trial because they and their
| fellows had in them in the first place the
| power of devotion to an IDEAL and in the
next place the strength to realize that pow
good soldiers or sailors they had been if
! their ambitions had been personal If
Grant and Sherman and Thomas and Far
| ragut had not all felt that they were fight
ing for one end; that they were holding
| up the arms of mighty Lincoln as he toiled
and wrought and suffered for the people,
then no prowess would have prevailed
| This Nation would have gone down into
bloody anarchy, would have crumbled into
| dust as so many republics had crumbled
before. But they had 10 have more than
that. They had to have fervent devotion
to country, to the right and power to fight
do not care how patriotic the man was,
was not any good. ILaughter.I In addi-
ton to the lofty ideal, TO the power of de-
votion, the men had to have the fire of
heart, the fire of body TO make his devo-
ton take an effective shape for the Ma
tons welfare.
And it is now in civil life. We will
make this twentieth century better and
not worse than any century that has gone
before il because we will. like this society.
| approach the problems that face with a
firm resolution that We will strive TO make
the young men decent, God-fearing, law
abiding. honor-loving, justice-doing, and
will also make them fearless and strong
able to hold their own in the hurly-burly
of the worlds work; able to strive nightly
that the forces of right may be in the end
triumphant Loud applause.l