Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-03-16
DUTIES OF
MOT HERS
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TALKS
TO MOMENTS CONGRESS AT
WASHINGTON.
POINTS TO JOYS OF LIFE
Roosevelt Declares that to Rear Hon
orable, Bright and Upright Children
is One Of the Greatest Privileges OF
Parents.

Washington, D. c., March IA. =
There are many good people who are
denied the supreme blessing of chill.
dren. 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 bless
ings of life. But the man or woman
who deliberately forgoes these bless
ings, whether from viciousness, cold.
neass, shallow heartedness, self-indulg-
ence or mere failure to appreciate
Alright the difference between the all.
important and the unimportant -
why such a creature merits contempt
as hearty as any visited upon the SOL
der who runs away in battle or upon
the man who refuses to work for the
support of those dependent upon him
and who, though able bodied, is yet
content to eat in idleness the bread
which others provide"
This was the heart of an address
President Roosevelt delivered before
the national congress of mothers last
evening.
Crowd Greets the President.
Mr.. Roosevelt was greeted by an
immense crowd of delegates and their
friends and they joined in hearty ap-
plause during the progress of the
speech. The Presidents remarks
were in part as follows
"In our modern Industrial civiliza.
ton there are many and grave dangers
to counterbalance the splendors and
the triumphs. 1t is not good thing to
see cities grow at disproportionate
speed relatively to the country; for the
small land owners, the men who own
their little homes, and therefore to a
very large extent the men who till the
farms, the men Of the soil, have hith-
erto made the foundation of lasting ma
tional life in every state; and, if the
foundation becomes either too weak or
too narrow, the superstructure, no
matter how attractive, is in imminent
danger of falling.
But far more important than the
question of the occupation of our cit
liens is the question of how their fam
lily life is conducted. No matter what
that occupation may be, as long as
there Is a real home and as long as
those who make up that home do their
duty to one another, to their neighbors
and to the state, it Is of minor con-
sequence whether the mans trade Is
piled IN the country or the city,
whether it calls for the work of the
hands or for the work of the head.
Nation Depends on Home.
'But the nations is in bad way If
there is no real home, if the family
is not of the right kind; if the man is
not good husband and father, if he
is brutal or cowardly or selfish, if the
woman has lost her sense of duty. If
she is sunk in vapid self-indulgence or
has let her nature be twisted SO that
she prefers a sterile pseudo-intellect-
uality to that great and beautiful de-
yelopment of character which comes
only to those whose lives know the
fullness of duty done, of effort made
and self-sacrifice undergone.
''In the last analysis the welfare of
the state depends absolutely upon
whether or not the average family, the
average man and woman and their
children, represent the kind of citi-
zenship fit for the foundation of
great nation; and if we fail to appre-
ciate this we fail to appreciate the
root morality upon which all healthy
civilization is based.
No piled-up wealth, no splendor of
material growth, no brilliance of artis.
tic development,will perm anently avail
any people unless it's home life is
healthy, unless the average man pos
sesses honesty, courage, common
sense, and decency, unless he works
hard and is willing at need to fight
hard; and unless the average woman
is good wife, a good mother, able and
willing to perform the first and great.
est duty Of womanhood, able and will.
ing to bear, and to bring up as they
should be brought up, healthy children.
sound in body, mind and character. and
enough SO that the race
shall increase and not decrease
Man the Bread Winner.
There are certain old truths which
will be true as long as this world en-.
dures, and which no amount of PRO
gress can alter. One of these is the
truth that the primary duty of the hus-
band is to be the home maker the
bread-winner for his wife and children,
and that the primary duty of the
woman is to be the helpmeet, the
and mother. The woman
should have ample educational advan-
tages; but save in exceptional cases
the man must be, and she need not
be, and generally ought not to be,
trained for lifelong career as the
family bread-winner; and. therefore,
after certain point the training of the
two must normally be different be
cause the duties of the two are nor
mally different. This does not mean
Of function, but it does m can
that normally there must be dissimi-
larity of function. On the whole, II
think the duty of the woman the more
important, the more difficult, and the
more honorable Of the two; on the
whole respect the woman who does
her duty even more than respect the
man who does his.
Woman's Work at Home.
mo ordinary work done by a man is