The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-23
THE SIMPLE LIFE.
Subject OF President RooseVelt's
Address to Y. M. C. A.
Introduces the Author of That
Little Book.
HE URGES TO ACTION.
Tells His Audience to Be Doors
and Not Hearers.
Only Time He Will Introduce a
Speaker.
HE URGES TO ACTION.


the author, to a large audience at the
Lafayette opera house Tuesday even
ing, where before the Young Mems
Christian association be delivered a
lecture on Simple Life under the pat
. ronage of a number of well known Off
Gals and society people. The audience
was one Of the largest ever gathered
in the hall The president was intro
duced by District Commissioner Henry
B. F. Mcfarland and in turn presented
Mr.. Wagner On the audience in the fol-
lowing words:
Mr.. Mcfarland, Mr.. Wagner, men
and women of Washington: This is the
drst, and will be the only time during
my presidency that shall ever intro
duce a speaker to an audience; and
am more than glad to do it. in this in
stance, because if there is one book
which I should like to have read as
tract, and also, what is not invariably
true of tracts, as an interesting tract
by all other people, it is The Simple
Life written by Mr.. Wagner
There are other books which he has
written from which we can gain great
good, but know of no other book writ
ten of recent years, whether here or
abroad, which contains so much that
we of America ought to take to our
heart as The Simple Life 1 like the
book because it does not merely preach
to the rich, and does not merely preach
TO the poor. 1t is a very easy thing to
reprobation of the forms of vice to
which it is not prone. What we need
to have impressed upon US is that it is
not usually heroot principle of the vice
that varies with variation in social con-
ditfons. but that it is the manifestation
of the vice that varies
DepIOres Class Prejudice.
Mr. Wagner has we'll 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 the
bottom manifestations of the same vice.
The arrogance 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 the one case to be in dit
ferent surroundings from what 1t is In
the other case. The kind OF man who
would be arrogant in one case is pre-
cisely the kind of man who would be
envious and filled with hatred in the
other The ideal should be the just,
generous, broad-minded man who is as
incapable of arrogance as he is of ma
ignant envy and hatred If poor. Cap
plause.)
mo republic can commandments
when it 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 an
tiquity republics failed as they did be-
cause they tended to became 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 never in
doubt.
1--WE can keep this republic true to
the principles of those who founded.
and of those who afterwards preserved
it only by remembering that we must
live up to the theory of its founders,
of treating each man on his worth as
a man. neither holding it for or
against him that he occupies any par
tic llar station in life, SO long as he
does his duty fairly and well by his
fellows and by the nation as a whole.
1Applause.)
Doors of the World.
$50 much for the general philos-
ophy taught SO admirably in Mr.. Wag-
ner's book might say books, but
am thinking especially of The Simple
Life because that has been the book
that has appealed to me Now a word
with special reference to his address
to this audience. The profound re-
gard which I have always felt for
those responsible for the work of the
Young Mems Christian associations
and the Young Women's Christian as
gociations is largely because they have
practically realized, or at least have
striven practically to realize, the ideal
of adherence to the text: BE We doors
of the Word and not hearers only 1t
is not the slightest use to hear the
Word If you don't try to put it into
effect afterwards. The Young Mems
Christian associations have accom-
plished so much because those who
have managed them have tried to do
their part in bringing about what is
expressed in the phrase: The Father
hood of God and brotherhood of men,
I'VE can act individually or by as
sociations. 1 intend to illustrate by
couple of examples what mean by a
man acting individually, and what 1
mean by man acting in associations
with his fellows. I hesitated to use
them, as l shall use the names of the
people whom I mean, but 1 came to
the conclusion that 1 would do so, be-
cause the worth of an example con-
sists very largely in the understand
ing that the example is a real one.
Work of the Civic Club.
Il have been interested for a number
of years in the working of the Civic
club in New York, which has been
started and superintendent by Mrs Nor
ton Goddard. 1t is a club on the East
side of New York city, extending from
Lexington avenue to the East river. Mr..
Goddard realized that such work can
be done to the best advantage only
upon condition of there being hearty
sympathy among those doing it. There
are great many people so made in
this world q think most of us come
resent being patronized about as much
as being wronged Great good can
never be done if it is attempted in a
patronizing spirit Mr.. Goddard re-
allied that the work could be done eff
GENTLY only on condition of getting into
close and hearty touch with the people
through whom and with whom he was
to work. In consequence this civic club
was founded, and it has gradually ex-
tended its operations until now the en-
tire club membership of 5000 or 1000
men practically forms a committee of
betterment in social and civic life; a
committee spread throughout that dis
trict, each member keeping a sharp
lookout over the fortunes of all his i'm
mediate neighbors. Therefore any case