The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-07
WORLD A DEBTOR.
Republics Existence Dependent
Upon the School Teachers.
Roosevelt Addresses National
Educational Association.
AMERICAN WORTHLESS.
The List He Says Includes Few
Men of Wealth
And Only Those Who Have Used
Their Riches Alright.
AMERICAN WORTHLESS.

Asbury Park. July President
Roosevelt arrived at Asbury Park at
2 p. m.
The president was greeted at the rail-
way station by large crowd. When
he arrived at the auditorium in which
the convention of the National Educa-
tional association was being held the
audience arose and greeted him with
the Chautauqua salute. The president
at once hogan the delivery of an ad-
dress He said:
81 am glad to have the chance of
greeting the National Educational as
ISOLATION; for in all this democratic
land there is no more genuinely demo-
cratic association than this. 1t is truly
democratic, because here each MEM
Der meets every other member as his
peer without regard to whether he is
the president of one of the great uni
Versiues 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 few short years will themselves be
settling the destfnies of this nation. It
is not too Tnuch to say that the most
characteristic work of the republic is
that done by the educators, 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 Qif1cult ana aIl-1m pOr-
tant work of self-government, that we
can not rule and govern ourselves, I'M
less we approach the task with de-
veloped minds and trained characters.
You teachers make the whole world
your debtor. If you did not do your
work wen this republic would not en-
dure beyond the span of the genera
ton. Moreover. as an incident to your
avowed work. you render some we'll
nigh unbelievable services to the cOun-
tTV. For instance render. n 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. You furnish a common train
ing and common ideals for the chill
dren of all the mixed peoples who. are
here being fused into one nationality
and your efforts that we are one peo-
pie instead of a group of Earring peo-
pies.
The Country's Obligations
Moreover, where altogether too much
prominence is given to the mere possess
sion of wealth, the country is under
heavy obligations to such a body as
this, which substitutes for the ideal of
accommodating money the infinitely
loftier, nonmateriaIiStic ideal of devotion
to work worth doing simply for that
work sake. I do not in the least I'M
derestimate the need of having material
prosperity as the basis of our civiliza-
ton, but most earnestly insist that if
our civilization does not build a lofty
SuperStructure on this basis, we can
never rank among the really great peo-
pies. A certain amount of money is of
course a necessary thing, as much for
the nation as for the individual; and
there are few movements in which 1
more thoroughly believe than in the
movement to secure better remunera-
ton for cur teachers. But, after all, the
service you render is incalculable, be-
cause of the very fact that by your lives
you show that you believe ideals to be
worth sacrifice, and that you are Splen-
didly eager to do commemorative work,
if this work is of good to your fellow
men.
ITO furnish in your lives such a real
lied high ideal is to do a great service
to the country. The chief harm done
by the men of swollen fortune to the
community is not the harm that the
demagogue is apt to depict as springing
from their actions, but the fact that
their success sets up a false standard.
and so serves as a bad example for the
rest of US. If we did not ourselves at
taeh 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 chiefly
by arousing our envy or by rendering
1
business relations he is much more apt
to benefit than harm the rest of US; and
though it is eTninently right to take
whatever steps are necessary in order
to prevent the exceptional members of
his class from doing harm, it is wicked
folly to let ourselves be drawn into any
attack upon the man of wealth merely
as such. Moreover, such an attack is in
itself an exceptionally crooked and ugly
| tribute to wealth, and therefore the
proof of an exceptionally ugly and
crooked state of mind in the man MAX
| ing the attack
Envy of Wealth.
"Venomous envy of wealth is simply
another form of the spirit, which in one
of its manifestations takes the shape of
bringing servility toward wealth, and in
another, the shape of brutal arrogance
! on the part of certain men of wealth
| Each one of these safes of mind, wheth-
| er it be hatred, sevility, or arrogance.
is in reality closely AKIN to the other
| two: for each of them springs from a
| idea of the Importance of wealth as
| compared to other things. The clamor
| of the demagogue against wealth, the
! snobbery of the social columns of the
newspapers which deal with the doings
! of the wealthy, and the misconduct of
| those men OF wealth who act with bru-
| tai disregard of the rights of others,
seem specifically to have no funda-
/ spring from shortcomings which are
! fundamentally the same; and one of
| these shortcomings is the failure to have
| proper ideals.
This failure must be remedied in
large part by the actions of you and
your fellow teachers; your fellow edH-
Gators throughout this land. By your
lives, no less than by your teachings,
you show that while you regard wealth
as good thing, you regard other
things as still better. It is absolutely