The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-05
KEEP ALIVE
 OLD SPIRIT Theme of Roosevelt on
 July 4th. SPEAKS TO HIS NEIGHBoRs Thanks Men of Grand Army
 for the Nation. Says Civil War Was Only One Fought in Recent Times Where
 Both Sides Emerged
 With Honor.
SPEAKS TO HIS NEIGHB0RS

Oyster Bay. N F.. July %-President Roosevelt participated today in the cele- bration of the 25oth anniversary of the founding of Huntington. the pretty little Long Island city. about seven miles from oystec Bay. The town was in gala att tire. President Roosevelt, in his speech. said:
 MT. Chairman. and you. my fellow Americans, my oid-time friends and neighbors, men and women of Hunting ton:
 T thank you for having given me the chance of saying few words to you this afternoon. In greeting all of you. wish to say a word of special greeting to those whom no others win object to my greet ing first, to the men because of whom we have today a country and Presi- dent. to the men of the Grand Army, and thank the men of the National Guard wearing the uniform l have worn myself, for having turned out to serve as my es- coft today.
 Men and women. in speaking to you today, l want not only to join with you
 
 nations mighty past. but in expressing the resolution that we of today will strive in our deeds to rise level to those deeds which in the past made up the nations greatness.
 Pride in Forefathers Work.
 ''It Is a good Shing on the Fourth of July and on all other occasions of na- tiona1 thanksgiving for us to come to- gether and as we have the right to ex- press our pride in what our forefathers did and our joy in the abundant great nosa of these people. We have the right to express. those feelings, but if we treat greatness achieved in the past as on ex- cuse for our failing to do decent work in tilss fssSsnt. instead of a spur e make us strive in our turn to do the work that lies ready ak hand, Nee show our selves unworthy to come here ana cele- brate the historic past of the nation.
 When Lincoln called to arms you, the men of the great war. how did you show your loyalty to the spirit of 76? You showed 1t by the way your spirit ieaped to the performance of the task. If we come together here on the Fourth of July merely to say how well the generations that are dead did their duty; if we failed to realize that there is on us the obli gation of leaving unimpaired to our chill dren the heritage of honor we have re- ceived from our fathers, then the truth is not in us
 should Show Some Spirit.
 We can pay to the great men of the past the only homage really worth pay ing. if we show by our deeds that their spirit still lives in our souls Only by so doing can we show that we have a right to celebrate this day that marks the birth of the nation.
 You, the men of '61, the men of the great war. left us more than a reunited nation, for you left us the undying mem- ory of the deeds by which it was kept unted. and you left us examples for peace; and we can continue to keep this nation as 1t was and Is only if we handle our selves in meeting the lesser tasks of to- day as you handled yourselves in the face of the great crisis of the past. Not another war of recent times left what those terrible four years of war left this nation-the right to feel pride in each American who did his duty as 1t was given him to see his duty, whether he followed Grant or Lee.
 Having said that and paying the full est heed to the valor, the self-devotlon and steadfast eess of the brother in gray, it yet remains true that the man in blue fought in the one contest which our his- merely greatness for this nation, but the welfare of all mankind in the future. To you 1t was given to fight in the one con- test wherein failure would have meant that all our past history was meaning less. If, when Lincoln called if when Grant strode into the field. the people of this country had not rallied to uphold the statesmanship of one and the general ship of the other, the declaration lof in- dependence would have rung as an empty platitude. because 1t would have been an- other example of failure of free govern ment."
 After paying tribute to the bravery and devotion of the men In blue, the President continued:
 Decency is Needed.
 "No matter how patriotic a man was in 1861, If he did not have the fighting edge to him his patriotism did not count. It was absolutely necessary to have pat riotism, but patriotism was of no use if the man ran away. So 1t is in ordinary workaday tasks of citizenship at the pres ent day. If the man is not decent in the first place. then he is not merely useless to the community. but a menace to 1t. The time of the civil war, if the man did not have in him the power of loyalty loyalty to the flag. loyalty to the nation, loyalt to the regiment and to his com rade. If he did not have that quality in him. then the abler he was the worse he was, the more dangerous he was. He had to have that quality first and first of all in civil life We need decency, hones- ty, the spirit that makes a I0an a good father. a good neighbor. a good man to work alongside of. and to deal with, that makes a man act squarely by the State and the worst crime against the nation that can be committed by any man Is the crime of dishonesty. whether in public life or in private life and we are not to be excused as a people. if we ever con done such dishonesty, no matter what other qualities 1t may be associated with.
 The cloistered virtue is not the virtue that counts in our American life. The virtue that counts Is the virtue that is able to hold It's own In the hurly burly of actual life. We need ip civil life just as much as ever the robust power which wars against wrongs instead of enduring it.
 We come together now to commemor- ate the nations birthday before this na- tion has done so much in the past that each of us holds his head higher because he is an American citizen. The other day