The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-08
WOULD DETHRONE
THE GOLDEN CALF
The President Addresses
the Educators.
BETTER FAR THAN GOLD
Tne Striving fer High Ideals Cannot
be Placed on the Same Plane With
the Striid Struggle for
Wealth, He De-
ClareS.
(By the Associated Press.)

ocean GTONe, N. j., July An llil-
mense and enthusiastic audience
greeted President Roosevelt here to-
day and listened with flattering at
tention to his address before the men,
bers of the National Educational AS
sociation He spoke as follows:
1 am glad to have the chance of
greeting the National Education AS
socatiOn; 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
universities or the newest recruit to
that high and honorable profession
which has in its charge the upbr1ng-
ing and training of those boys and
girls who in a few short years VIII
themselves be settling the deStinleS
of this nation. 1t is not too much
to say that the most characteristic
work of the republic is that done by
the educators for whatever our short
comings 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-goV-
eminent, that We can not rule ana
govern ourselves. unless we approach
the task with developed minds and
trained characters. You teachers make
the whole world your debtor. If you
did not do your work we'll this re-
public would not endure beyond the
span of q generation. Moreover, as
an incident of your avowed work, you
render some well-nigh unbelievable
services to the country. For instance
you render to the republic the prime,
loan mo N a
one homogeneous body the children
alike of those who are born here ana
of those who come here from so many
different lands abroad. You furnish
a common training and common ideals
for the children of all the mixed peo-
pies who are here being fused into
enc nationality. 1t is in no small de-
gree due to you and your efforts that
we are one people instead OIL group
of jarring people.
Moreover where altogether too
much prominence is given to the mere
possession of wealth, the country is
under helvy obligations to such a
body as this, which substitutes for the
ideal of accommodating money the mn
nitely loftier, non -materlallstlc ldeai q
devotion to work worth doing SIM
ply for that works sake. [ do not
i'm the least underestimate the need
of having material prosperity as the
basis of our civilization, but L most
earnestly insist that if our civilization
does not build a lofty super-Structurc
on this basis, we can never rank
among the great peoples. a certain
amount of money is of course neces,
sary thing. as much for the nation as
for the Individual; and there are lew
movements in which / more thorough
lv believe than in the movement to
secure hetter remuneration for our
teachers. But after all, the service
YOU render is incalculable, because of
the very fact that by your lives you
show that you believe ideals TO De
worth sacrifice. and that you are splen-
didly eager to do on-remuneratlVe
work if this work is of good to youl
iellow-man.
To furnish in your lives such
realized high ideal is to do a great
service to the country. The chiet
harm done bv the men of swollen for
tune to the community is not the harm
that the demagogue is apt TO deplct
as springing from the actions. but the
fact that their success sets up a raise
standard, and so serves as q bad eX-
ample for the rest of us. If we did
not ourselves attach an exaggerated
importance to the rich man who Is
distinguished only by his riches, this
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 chiefly by arous-
mig our envy or by rendering us sour
and discontented. In his actual buSi-
Eess relations he is much more apt t.
benefit than harm the rest of us; and
though it is eminently right to take
whatever steps are necessary in order
to prevent the exceptional members
of his class from doing harm, it is
wicked folly 70 let ourselves be drawn
into any attack upon the man of
wealth merely as such. Moreover,
such an attack is in itself an excep-
tionally crooked and ugly tribute to
wealth. and therefore the proof of
an exceptionally ugly and crooked
state of mind in the man making the
attack VenomouS envy of wealth is
simply another form of the spirit,
which in one of its manifestations
takes the shape of cringing servihty
toward wealth, and in another the
shane of brutal arrogance on the part
of certain men of wealth. Each one
of these states of mind. whether it
be hatred. servility AZ arrogance, is
i'm reality close akin to the other two;
for each of them springs from fam
tasticaIly twisted and exaggerated
idea of the importance of wealth.
compared to other things. The clam
or of the demagogue against wealth
the snobbery of the social columns
of the newspapers which deal with the
Goings of the wealthy. and the mis-
conduct of those men of wealth who
act with brutal disregard of the rights