The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1904-11-26
1.-THE SIMPLE LIFE
President Pays Glowing Tribute to
Rev. Wagner, the Author.
ADVISES ALL TO READ BOOK

Terms Il a Tract, and Says ThaS II
breaches to Rich and Poor Alike
and Shows the Arrogance and Ha'
tired of Both.
Washington. Nov. 90. - President
Roosevelt introduced Rev Charles
Wagner. the author, to large au-
liencc at the Lafayette Opera house
where under the auspices Of the Young
Mems Christian Association, he de-
livered n lecture on THE Simple
Life" The president who is great
admirer of Mr.. Wagner. was given
cordial reception. He was introduced
hv District Commissioner Henry IS.
mcfarland. and in turn presented MI
Wagner TO the audience in the follow
ing words:
"This Is the first and will be the
only time during my presidency that l
shall ever introduce speaker to an
audience: and | am more than glad to
do II in this instance. because # there
Is one book which | should like TO
have read as tract. and also. what is
not invariably true of tracts. as an in
teresting tract. by all our people; it Is
The Simple Life written by Mr.. Wag-
ner. | like the book because IL does
not merely preach to the rich, and
does not merely preach to the poor. 1t
is a very easy thing to address a Sec
ton OF the community in repro baton
of the forms of vice to which IL is not
prone. What we need to have inn
pressed upon us is that II is not usually
the root principle of the vice tina;
varies with variations In social condi-
lions. but that il is the manifestation
of the vice that varies; and Mr.. Wag-
ner has we'll brought out the great
fundamental truth that the brutal ar
rOgance OF a rich man who looks down
llpon a poor man because he Is poor,
and the brutal envy and hatred felt by
a poor man towards rich man merely
because he is rich. are at bottom twin
manifestations of the same vice. They
are simply different sides of the same
shield The arrogance that looks down
in the one case. the envy that hates
in the other. are really exhibitions o.
the same mean, base and unlovely
spirit which happens in one case to De
in different surroundings from what it
is in the other case. The kind of man
who would be arrogant 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
lust the generous. the broad-minded
man who is as incapable Of arrogance
if rich as he is Of malignant envy and
hatred if poor. (Apptause)
NO republic can permanently exist
when II becomes a republic of classes,
where the man feels not the interest
of the whole people, but the interest
of the particular class to which he be-
longs. or fancies that he belongs, as
being Of prime Importance. In anti
1uity republic failed as they did be-
cause they tended to become either a
republic of the few who exploited the
many. or a republic Of the many who
plundered the few. and in either case
the end of the republic was inevitable;
Just as much so in one case as In the
other and no more so in one case than
in the other. We can keep this repub-
lie true to the principles of those who
founded. and of those who afterwards
preserved it: we can keep 1t a republic
at all only by remembering that we
must live up to the theory of its
founders. to the theory of treating
each man on his worth as a man;
neither holding it for or against him
that he occupies any particular station
in life so long as he does his duty
fairly and we'll by his fellows and by
the nation as a whole" (Applause)