The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-03-24
ROOSEVELT TO The
MOTHERS CONGRESS
President Speaks Of the Duties
and Obligations Of the
Mothers Estate.
MAKES AN EARNEST TALK
Received by Crowded Audience at the
Church, He Delivers His Address
from Manuscript with o.
casiona Departures.

Washington. March 1G.-An address
, by President Roosevelt was the feature
i of the session of the National Congress
of Mothers, now holding its triennial
convention at the Metropolitan Metho-
, dist Episcopal church There was an
/ immense crowd at the church. COM
posed largely of women. and when Mr..
Roosevelt, accompanied by Secretary
Loeb arrived he was given cordial
reception.
He read his speech, but now and then
tnterjected some eXtemporaneous re-
marks when he wished to emphasize a
point.
President Rooseve!t's Address.
| President Roosevelt said in part
Into the woman's keeping IS committed
the destiny of the generations to come
after us. In bringing up your children you
mothers must remember that while 1t Is
essential to be loving and tender it is no
less essential to be wise and firm. Fool
ishness and affection must not be trca ed
as Interchangeable terms; and besides
training your sons and daughters in the
softer and mildcr virtues YOU must seek
to give them those stern and hardy quail
tiles which In after life they will surely
need. Some children VII go wrong In
spite of the best training; and some viii
go right even'when lheir surroundings are
most unfortunate; nevertheless an i'm
/ mense amount depends upon the family
training If you mothers through weak
ness bring up your sons to be selfish and
to think only of themselves you will he
responsible for much sadness among the
women who are to be their wives N the
future. If you let your daughters grow
up idle, perhaps under the mistaken i'm
preston that as you yourselves have had
TO work hard they shall know only
useless to Others and burdens to them
selves. Teach boys and girls alike tina;
they are not to look forward to lives spent
IN avoiding difficulties but to lives spent
IN overcoming difficulties. Teach them
that work, for themselves and also for
otherS, is not curse but blessing; seek
to make them happy, to make them enjoy
life. but seek also to make them face life
with the steadfast resolution to wrest
success from labor and adversely, and to
do their whole duty before God and to
man. Surely she VINO can thus train her
sons and her daughters is thrice fortunate
! among women
MED the supreme blessing of children, and
for these we have the respect and SYM
patty always due to those who, from no
fault Of their own are denied any Of the
man or woman who deiiberat ely forgoes
these blessings. whether from viciousness,
GOODNESS. shallow self-indul-
gence or mere failure to appreciat tie Alright
the difference bet "een the all-mportant
and the unimpOrtant-why, such a Great
ure merits contempt as hearty as any Wis
Tied 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 able-bodied IS
! yet content to eat in idleness the bread
! which others provide.
The existence of women of this type
forms one of the most unpleasant and
unWholeSome features of modern life. If
any one is so dim # vision to fail to
see what thoroughly unloveiy creature
such woman is wish they would read
! Judge Robert Grants novel, "Unleavened
! Bread" ponder seriously the cha 'acter of
! Selma. and think of the fate that would
] surely overcome any nation which de-
] along such lines Unfortuna tely it would
be untrue to say that this type exists
only in American novels. That it also
exists in American life Is made unpieas-
antly evident by the statistics to the
dwindl,ng families In some localities. 1t
/ is made evident in equally sinister fashion
which fairly appalling; for easy di-
vorce is now as 1t ever has been, bane
to any nation. a curse to society, menace
! to the home, an Indictment to married I'M
! happiness and to immortality an evil thing
for men and still more hideous evil for
women These unpleasant tendencies in
our American life are made evident by
articles such as those which 1 actually
read not long ago in a certain paper
where a clergyman was quoted. seemingly
! with approval, as expressing the general
American attitude when he said that the
ambition of any save very rich man
should be to rear. two children only. so as
/ taste few Of the good things of life"
This man. whose profession and calling
should have made him a moral teacher
actually set before others the ideal, not of
| sending them forth with stout hearts and
ready minds to win triumphs for them
them the opportunity, ana giving them the
privilege of making their own place in the
world. but, forsooth. of keeping the num-
bier IF ehi fdw sa so that THE they might
give a child a fair chance in life is not
to bring 1t up in luxury. but to see that
It has the kind Of training thar will give II
the vital question Of national life, and
regarding only the individual interest OF
the children themselves haJPpiness in the
come to any given member Of a healthy
family Of healthy-minded children. well
brought up. well educated, but taught
that they must shift for themselves. must
win their own way. and by their own
exertions make their own positions of use
fulness. than 1t is apt to come to those
| whose parents themselves have acted or
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
\ The intelligence Of the remark is on q
par with its morality. for the most rudi.
mentary mental process would have showr
the speaker that II the average family ir
which there are children contained hui
two children the nation as whole woul6
4 decrease In population so rapidly that ir
two or three generations 1t would yer,
deservedly be on the point of extinction
SO that the people who had acted on this
place to others with drawer and more
robust ideals. Nor would such result
be In any way regrettable: for race thai
practiced such doctrine-that is. a race
that practiced race suicide-would thereby
conclusively show that 1t was unfit t.
exist, and that 1t had better give place II
people who had not forgotten the pr!
mary laws of their being.
To sum up, then: the whole matter Il
simple enough. If either a race or al
Individual prefers the pleasures of mer,
effortless ease, of self-indulgence, to TIL,
Infinitely deeper. the infinitely highe