Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-03-14
TALK TO MOTHERS.
President Gives National Con-
gress Advice in Regard to
Raising Children.
DISCUSSES RACE SUICIDE
Declares Rearing Large Families is
Duty and Insures Better
Offspring.

! " dSnlnSCOn, Mdrcn 14.-An address
by President Roosevelt was the feat
ure of last evenings session of the
National Congress of Mothers now
holding its trienniaI convention here.
| The president spoke in part as fol-
| lows:
Just as the happiest and most hon
Orable and most useful task that can
| be set any man is to earn enough for
| the support of his wife and family.
for the bringing up and starting in
life of his children, so the most i'm
portant, the most honorable and desir-
able task which can beset any woman
is TO be good and wise mother in
home marked by seIf-respect and mu-
tual forbearance, by willingness to
perform duty, and by refusal to sink
into self-indulgence or avoid that
which entails effort and self-sacrifice.
Has Much in Keeping.
Into the woman's keeping is COM
mitted the destiny of the generations
to come after US. In bringing up your
children you mothers must remember
that while it is essential to be loving
anu AGnlGI IL lS no less GSSenIldl TO
be wise and firm. Foolishness and af-
fection must not be treated as inter
changeable terms; and besides train
ing your sons and daughters in the
softer and milder virtues you must
seek to give them those stern and
hardy qualities which in after life they
will surely need.
Some children Will go wrong in
spite of the best training; and some
will go right even when their sur
roundings are most unfortunate; new
ertheless an immense amount de
pends upon the family training.
Some Are Unfortunate.
There are many good people who
are denied the supreme blessing of
children, and for these we have the
respect and sympathy always due to
those who, from no fault of their own.
are denied any of the other great
blessings of life. But the man or
woman who deliberately foregoes
these blessings, whether from vicious
ness, cOldness. shallow-heartedness,
selfindulgence. or mere failure to ap-
preciate Alright the difference between
the all-important and the unimpOrtant
why, such a creature merits con-
tempt as hearty as any visited upon
the soldier who runs away in battle,
or upon the man who refuses to work
for the support of those dependent
upon him, and who though ablebodied
is yet content to eat in idleness the
bread which others provide.
These unpleasant tendencies in our
American life are made evident by ar
ticles such as those which l actually
read not long ago in a certain paper,
where a clergyman was quoted, seem
ingIy with approval as expressing the
general American attitude when he
said that the ambition of any save a
very rich man shold be TO rear two
children only, so as to give his chill
dren an opportunity ito taste few
of the good things of life
set Wrong Ideal.
"This man, whose profession and
calling should have made him NOR
al teacher. actually set before others
the ideal. not of training children to
do their duty. not of sending them
forth with stout hearts and ready
minds to win triumphs for themselves
and their country. not of allowing them
the opportunity. and giving them the
privilege of making their own place
in the world. but, forsOoth. of keeping
he number of children so limited that
they might taste a few good things
The way to give a child a fair chance
in life is not to bring it up in lux
ury. but to see that it has the kind of
training that will give il strength OF
character.
Even apart from the vital question
Of national life, and regarding only the
individual interest of the children
themselves, happiness in the true
sense is a hundredfold more apt TO.
come to any given member of a
heaithy-minded children. well brOugh.
up. we'll educated. but taught that they
must shift for themselves, must win
their own way, and by their own exer-
| tions make their own positions of use
fulness. than il is apt TO come TO those
whose parents themselves have act
ed on and have trained their children
TO act on. the selfish and sOrdid
theory that the whole end of life is
ito taste a few good things
Not Intelligent Remark
THE intelligence of the remark isl
on a par with its morality. for the
most rudimentary mental process