The copper era., 1905-03-23
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
 TALKS TO MOTHERS.
Says Women Who Are Aiding in Race Suicide are COntemptible Plain
 Talk Delivered.

WASHINGTON, March I3.-The ad
 dress by President Roosevelt was the
 feature of National Congress o1
 Mothers, holding its trienRal conven-
 tion at the Metropolitan NJ. E. Church. There was an immense
 crowd at the church, composed large i ly of w9men, and when Mir. Roose- welt arrived. he was given cordial
 reception.
 ! The president spoke as follows: No piled-up wealth, no splendor of
 material growth, no brilliance of ar tistic development, will permanently avail any people unless its home life
 is healthy, unless the average man possesses honesty, courage, common sense and decency, unless he works
 hard: and unless the average woman is a good wife, a good mother, able
 and willing to perform the first and
 greatest duty of womanhood. able and
 willing to bear, and bring up as they
 should be brought up, healthy child
 ren. sound in body. mind and char acter, and numerous enough so that
 the race shall increase and not de-
 crease.
 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 bit h1 nd tn Inc he homo lyor- hn
 breadwinner for his wife and child
 ren, and that primary duty of the
 woman is to be the helpmate, the
 housewife and mother. The woman should have ample educational ad-
 vantages: but safe in exceptional
 cases the man must be, and she need
 not be, and generally ought not to be
 trained for d lifelong career as the
 family breadwinner: and, therefore,
 after q certain point the training of
 the two must normally be different.
 This does not mean inequality of
 function, bat it does me an that nor mally there must be diSsimilarity of function. On the whole, I think the duty of the woman the more import ant, the more difficult, and the more honorable of the two; on the whole I respect the woman who does her duty even more strongly than I respect the man who does his.
 The birth bangs make all men the debtors of all women. Above all our sympathy and regard are due to the struggling wives among those whom Abraham Lincoln called the plain people, and whom he so loved and trusted: for the lives of these women are often led on the lonely heights of quiet, self-sacriticing heroism.
 The woman who is d good wife, a good mother. is entitled to our re- speCt as is no one else: but she is en- titled to it only because, and so long as she is worthy of it. Effort and self-sacrifice are the law of worthy life for the man as for the other. I do not in the least believe in the patient Griselda type of woman, in the woman who submits to gross and long continued ill treatment, any more than I believe in d man who tamely submits to wrongful aggres- sion. No wrongdOing by d man to- wards the wife and the children who should arouse every tender feeling in his nature. Seltishness towards them. lack of consideration for them, above all. brutality in any form to- wards them. should arouse the 1 heartiest scorn and indignation in every upright soul.
 I believe in the woman's keeping | her self-respect just as I believe in | the mans doing so. 1 believe in her | rights just as much as I believe in | the mans, and indeed, little more: ship, in which each partner is in | honor bound to think of the rights of | well as of his or her own.
 Into the woman's keeping is con- | mitted the destines of the generations | to come after us. In bringing up 1! your children you mothers must re- member that while it is essential to | be loving and tender it is not less es- sential to be wise and firm. Foolish | ness and affection must not be treated | as interchangeable terms; and be- | sides training 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. If you mothers through weakness bring up | your sons to be selfish and to think | only of themselves, you will be re- sponsible for much sadness. If you | let your daughters grow up idle, per haps under the mistaken impression | that as you yourselves have had to | work hard they shall know only en- joyment, you are preparing them to be useless to others and burdens for themselves. Teach boys and girls alike that they are not to look for ward to lives spent in avoiding diff culties, but to lives spent in over coming difficulties.
 There are good people who are denied the supreme blessing of children, and for those we have re- | spect and sympathy always due to l