The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-01-23
GOOD WORK OF THE SOCIETY
Changed Conditions Of. Past Century
-Fiftieth Anniversary Of
Organization.

VI NnN
fiftieth anniversary of the Washing
ton Young Mems Christian associa-
ton and the International committee
of North America. Over 300 guests
were invited.
Among them were Justices Harlan
and Brewer, Secretary Root, Senators
Depew and Perkins, George Foster
Peabody, Secretary Shaw, Admiral
Dewey, Generals Corbin and Young,
Secretary C%ortelyou, Assistant Secre-
tary Darling, General o. o. Howard,
Bishop Satterlee and Representative
Cannon. Helen Gould and Mrs. Nc
Alpin, president of the woman's auxil-
iary of the Y. M. G. A., were conspicu-
GUS among those in the balcony.
President Roosevelt was greeted
with loud applause as he rose to ad.
dress those at the banquet. He said:
'Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen-It
is no accident that we should meet
here to celebrate a record of so years.
That period covers the half century
which has seen the gigantic industrial
change of the world, a revolution, So
cially and industrially, such as was
hardly seen within any preceding five
centuries. Life during that half cen
fury has been carried on at a higher
pressure than yer before. That
means, of course, that all the forces
have been raised to a higher degree of
power, the forces Of evil and also the
forces of good. If it had not been for
work Of such organizations as this,
the immense material progress of the
world during the past half century
would have been a progress that
would have told of Ill to the nations
not for good.
And we can say with truth, that
we are better off and not worse Off
that we were. We see all around us
people who say:
"'Oh. things will come out all
right
$50 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 be-
cause there are a sufficient number OF
earnest men with the root of %righteos-
ness in them who are bound to see
that they come out all right. A hun
bred years ago there was no such
need for the Young Mems Christian
association and other movements of
the kind. Life vas simple. The
temptation would come surely to ev-
cry man, but it would not come so
frequently and in so intense a form.
AS the forces of evil manifested them
selves in stronger and stronger forms
they had to be met, if they were to be
successfully grappled with, by organ
lied 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 association. 1t had
to take the shape of combining de-
cency and efficiency.
81 have been acquainted especially
with three types of your work, the
work in the army and navy, among
railroad men and among college stu
dents. Now, these three classes are
not going to be effectively reached
as classes by any effort which fails
to take account of the fact that they
demand manliness, as we'll as virtue
and you can make them straight on
condition that you keep in mind that
it is necessary for them to be strong
you get among a body of men like
that and you can make them accept
morality if you make them under
stand that it is not only compatible
with, but is demanded by and essen
tial to manliness.
THE work of the Y. NJ c. A. has
grown SO among the college students
because it has tried not to dwarf any
of the impulses of the young, vigor
GUS a but to guide him Alright
It has sought not to make his de
velopment one sided, not to prevent
his being a man, but to see that he
is in the fullest sense a man., and 8
good man. Among all these that are
here tonight l know that the res
among you will join with me in say
ing that we greet with particular
pleasure the men who served in the
great war. Those lei won the day
of trial because they and their fel
lows had 1t in them in the first place,
the power of devotion to an ideal,