The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-05-04

they have in evidence before them the
organization Of the men to whom we
owe il that We have a country Great
though the deeds were that YOU did in
the past, great though their erect was,
hDthlllS can ne greater than the ex-
ample you thus gave to those who are
coming uD, who are to be the Americans
OF tomorrow. I want to thank the band.
ana say ! recognized in the tune the
war tune of the Twentieth Kansas, and
L heard It in the trenches myself
II has been a great pleasure to come
thiough Kansas / know Kansas well.
II IS the first time 1 have been here as
president, but I have been here often
before, and you are partly responsible
Ior having me here as president CAP
plause)- 1 am glad to have the chance
OF meeting You, the men and women OF
this great state. I congratulate you
upon the material products of the state.
upon your corps. upon your industries
or every kind 1 have been through
your cities that are railroad centers and
that are growing to be centers of manu-
factures, but after all the prime prod
uct Of any state must be its men and
women That is what counts; and
those men and women have got to have
TWO sets of qualities if they are 10
make their state and their nation
source of pride for the ages. Two sets,
the strength and the sweetness that
nave been held essential from the days
when the son Of Jesse became King CT
Israel. Strength There is no place in
this world for those who are afraid, fer
those who Shirk lfe's difficulties, for
those who have not daring. hardihood,
resolution. You who came here and
made this state great, you could have
done nothing if it had not been that
you had cool heads, stout hands, strong
hearts, We must have the virile. manly
virtues if we are to make of this nation
the success which we shall make of It,
and with those qualities must go others;
must go self mastery and self restraint
the spirit that makes man deal fair
and square with his neighbors. We need
qualities, virtue. decency honesty, the
spirit of fair dealing. the spirit of obedi-
ence to law, the spirit that makes q
good husband, a good father, and a
good neishbOr. a decent man in his rela-
tions- with the rest OF the world We
must have them, and then we must
have something more. The virtue that
stays at home in it's own Darlor and
regrets that the world is not better,
does not count. The good man who is
afraid is of no use. With virtue, With
decency. must go hand in hand the
quality of manliness. the quality that
makes a man able to hold his own in
the hurly burly of life
You, my comrades. in the great war
demanded and had to demand in sol
dier first that he should have the power
of devotion to the flag, the power OF
patriotic. Patriotism. that was the
first quality, but you did not care how
patriotic a man was if he ran away ne
was no good. In addition to being pat
riotc he had to possess the fighting
edge. He had to be the kind of man
that when the order came to move,
would move in the right direction. II
is so in citizenship. We must have pae-
riotism and decency and honesty. II a
man has not the root of decent conduct
in him then the abler he is and the
braver he is the more dangerous he is
to the community at large. He IS pure
ly kind of civic wild beast and you
need to hunt him down and hunt him
out of the community
There Is not in all America a more
dangerous trait than the deification Of
mere smartness unaccompanfed by any
sense of moral responsibility All OF US
know of some man OF whom our foolish
neighobrs for we all of us have Occa-
sionally foolish neighbors, will say,
Well maybe he is not quite straight,
but he is drefful smart. The man or
whom that can be said and the man
who saws it are both poor citizens, ana
we shall not make of this great republic
and commonwealth what it must be
made until we join to hunt down the
successful rascal just as eagerly as we
hunt down the unsuccessful rascal
we have got to have first, the spirit
of decency. and Joined with that the
spirit of manliness, the spirit that
makes man able TO hold his own in
military strife or in the hard. rough
work Of the world Our soldiers in 81
had not only to possess good intentions
but the power to put them into effect to
make themselves felt. and the men who
came out here to carve this great and
beautiful state out Of the prairie land
had to possess not merely the desire to
do well, but the power, the rugged
strength to do well. Kansas is great
today. and our country is great today
because hitherto we have been able to
combine the two qualities in our citizen
shfp-the quality of striving after de-
cency and the quality of striving so as
to make our force efficiently felt In
citizenship we need strong bodies. and
even more than strength of body we
need strength of mind. and most of all
we need what counts for more than
body and than mind-character. Char
acter into which many elements enter,
but three especially-the elements OF
honesty, of courage and the saving
grace Of common sence." (Cheers and
applause.)
AT SALINA
Two incidents occurred at Salina
which show the presidents thoughtfui-
ness. One was his mentioning the vari-