Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-07-07
Delivers Address Before the Ma
tional Educational Conven-
tion This Afternoon
RECEIVES A ROYAL WELCOME
Great Audience at the Convention Hall
Gives chautauqua Salute as Presi-
dent Appears In sisht-Praises the
Work of the Observation-Disclosures
Wheel Of the Nation.

Asbury Park, July president
Roosevelt arrived here at o'clock
this afternoon. He was greeted at the
station by large crowd. When he ar
rived at the convention of the Nation
al Educational Association the audi
ence arose and greeted him with the
Chautauqua salute. The president at
once began the deliyey of his address.
He said:
II am glad to have the chance of
greeting the National Educational AS
sociation; for in all this democratic
land there is no more genuinely DEM
ocratic association than this. 1t is
truly democratic, because here each
member meets every other member as
his peer without regard to whether he
is the president of one of the great uni
versities or the newest recruit to that
high and honorable profession which
has in its charge The upbringing and
training Of those boys and girls who in
a few short years will themselves be
settling the destinies of this nation. It
is not too much to say that the most
characteristic work Of the republic Is
that done by the edluators, for what
ever our shortcomings as a nation may
be, we have at least firmly grasped the
fact that we can not do our part in
the difficult and all important work of
self government, Nlat he cannot rule
and govern ourselves, unless we ap-
proach the task with developed minds
and trained characters. You teachers
make the whole world your debtor. If
you did not do your work well this
republic would not endure beyond the
span of the generation. Moreover, as
an incident to your avowed work, you
render some well-nigh unbelievable
services to the country. For instance,
you render to the republic the prime,
the vital service of amalgamating into
one homogeneous body the children
alike of those who are born here and
of those who come here from so many
different lands abroad. Your furnish
common training and common ideals
for the children of all the mixed peo
pies who are here being fused into one
nationality. 1t is in no small degree
ASS W SolA aAo yoaA OAAOh 20 ShsAS We
are one people instead of group of
jarring peoples.
Moreover, wnere altogether too much
prominence is given to the mere pos
session of wealth. the country is under
heavy obligations to such body as
this which substitutes for the ideal
of accumulating money the infinitely
loftier, nonnaterialistic ideal of devo-
ton to work worth doing simply for
that works sake. I do not in the least
underestimate the need of having ma
terial prosperity as the basis of our
civilization, but most earnestly insist
that if our civilization does not build
lofty superstructure on this basis,
we can never rank among the really
great peoples.
ITO furnish in your lives such real
ized high ideal is to do service to
the country. The chief harm done by
the men of swollen fortune to the COM
munity is not the harm that the dem
agogue is apt to depict as springing
from their actions, but the fact that
their success sets up false standard,
and so serves as bad example for
the rest of US. If we did not ouelves
attach an exaggerated importance to
the rich man who is distinguished only
by his riches, this rich man would have
a most insignificant influence over us.
1t is generally our own fault If he does
damage to us, for he damages us chief
ly by arousing our envy or by render
ing us sour and discontented. In his
actual business relations he is much
more apt to benefit than harm the rest
of us. and though it is eminently right
to take whatever steps are necessary III
order to prevent the exceptional
members of his class from doing
harm, it is wicked folly to let ourselves
he drawn into any attack upon the
man of wealth merely as sucn
This failure must be remedied in
large part by the actions of you and
your fellow teachers, your fellow edu-
Gators thruout this land. BY your
lives, no less than by your teachings
YOU show that while you regard wealth
as a good thing, you regard other
things as still better. 1t is absolutely
necessary to earn certain amount OF
money; it is mans first duty to those
dependent upon him to earn enough
for their support: but after a GER
tain point has been reached money
making can never stand on the same
plane with other and nobler forms of
effort. The roll of American worthles
numbers men like Washington and
Lincoln. Grant and Farragut, Haw-
thorne and Poe Fulton and Morse. St
Gaudens and MacMonnies; 1t numbers
statesmen and soldiers. men of letters,
artists, sculptors, men of science, m
yentors. explorers. roadmakers. bridge
builders. philanthropists, moral lead
ers in great reforms; it numbers men
who have deserved well in any one OF
the countless fields of activity: but OF
rich men it numbers only those VINO
have used their riches Alright, who
have treated wealth not as an end, but
as a means, who have shown good
conduct in acquiring it and not merely
lavish generosity in disposing of it.
Thrice fortunate are you to whom it
is given to lead lives of resoiute en-