The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-11-25

Washington, November 22.-PreSident
Roosevelt introduced the Rev. Charles
Wagner, the author, to a large audience
at the Lafayette opera house this af-
ternoon where under the auspices of
the Young Mems Christian Association
he delivered a lecture on ''The Simple
| Life Given under the patronage of
a number of well known official and So
ciety people the audience which gath
cred to hear the author was a thor
oughly representative one Of the ma
tional capital. The President, who is
| a great admirer of Mr.. Wagner, was
given a cordial reception. In present
ing the lecturer, the President COM
mended Mr.. Wagner's book, The Sim
PIE Life" as containing much that
Americans should take to heart. Mr..
Roosevelt said:
Mr.. Wagner has well brought out
the great fundamental truth that the
brutal arrogance of a rich man who
looks down upon a poor man because
he is poor, and the brutal envy and
hatred, felt by poor man towards a
rich man, merely because he is rich.
are at bottom twin manifestations of
the same vice. They are simply differ
ent sides of the same shield. The arro-
gance that looks down in the one case,
the envy that hates in the other. are
really exhibitions of the same mean,
base and unlovely spirit which happens
in one case to be in different surround
ings from what it is in the other case.
The kind of man who would be arro-
CANT in one case IS precisely the kind
of man who would be enviOus and
filled with hatred in the other. The
ideal should be the just, the generous,
the predetermined man, who is as in
capable of arrogance if rich as he is
of malignant envy and hatred if poor
(Applause.)
The President spoke a few words
commencing the work of the Y. NJ. c..
| A. as trying to bring about what is ex-
pressed in the phrase, 1.-The fatherhood
of God and the brotherhood of man.
He then proceeded to illustrate by ex-
amples what he means by a man act
| in association with his fellows. The
president referred to the work of the
civil club in New York under the lead
| ership of Norton Goddard, saying that
! The entire club membership of three
! or four thousand men practically form
| committee of betterment in social
and civic life; each member keeping a
| sharp lookout over the fortunes of all
| his Immediate neighbors, of all of those
! of his neghborhood who do not come
: within the ken of some ether members
| Of the club. Therefore any case of great
desutution, of great suffering, in the
! district, almost inevitably comes to
| the attention of some member of the
/ club who then reports 1t at headquart-
| ers, so that steps can be taken to alle-
| viate the misery; and / have reason
| to believe that there has been in con-
! sequence a very sensible general up
! lifting. n general increase of happiness
| throughout the district. If We had a
| sufficient number of clubs of this kind
| throughout our great cities, While we
would not by any means have solved
all of the terrible problems that press
upon Us for solution in connection with
4
| the overcrowding misery, vice. disease
and poverty of great cities. yet we
would have taken a long stride forward
| in the right direction toward their So
| luton. So much for the example that
| I use to illustrate what 1 mean by
work in common.
''-as an example of what can be done
| and should be done. by the individual
! citizen, shall mention something that
recently occurred in this city of WASH
ington. II appears that last spring Mr..
| Downey started to build a new livery
| stable: his stable is next door TO a COL
| ored Baptist church Mr.. Downey is
! : white man and a Catholic, and these
| neighbors of his are co,ored men and
| Baptists. and their kinship OF that
| broad humanity that should underlie
| all our feelings toward one another.
| (Applause.) Mr.. Downey started to
build his stable and naturally wanted
| to have it as big a stable as possible