The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-03-11
OUR DUTIES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES
rHE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT.
CAUSE FOR THANKFULNESS
He Says We Have Obligations Both
to Ourselves and to the World
and Can Shirk Neither.

Washington, March 4.-The following
is the text of President RooSevelt'S in
augural address:
My Fellow Citizens: No people on
earth lave more cause to be hankf
than ours, and this is said r~everently,
in no spirit OF boastfulness in our own
strength, but with gratitude to the GlVer
Of Good Who has blessed us with the
conditions which have enabled us to
achieve so large a measure of we'll being
and of happiness. To us as a people 1t
has been granted to lay the foundation
Of our national life in a new continent.
We are the heirs of the ages, and yet
We lave had to pay few of the penalties
which in old countries are eXacted by
the dead hand of a bygone civilization.
| We have not been Obliged to fight for
u existence against any alien race;
and yet our life has called for the rlgor
and effort without which the manlier
| and harder virtues wither away. I'm
der such conditions it would be our own
fault if we failed; and the success which
we have had in the past, the success
which we confidently believe the future
will bring, should cause in us no feels
luS VI Ndlu SloIs- Uut Idtltl d uSSp oht
abiding realization of all which life has
offered us; a full acknowledgement of
the responsibility which is ours; and a
fixed determination to show that under
a free government a mighty people can
thrive best, alike as regards the things
of the body and the things of the soul.
Much has been given to us, and much
will riShtfully be expected from us. We
have duties to others and duties to our
selves; and we can shirk neither. We
have become a great nation, forced by
the fact of its greatness into relations
with the other nations of the earth;
and we must behave as beSeems a peo-
pie with such responsibilities. Toward
all other nations, large n small, our
attitude must be one of cordial and sin
cere friendship. We must show not only
in our words, but in our deeds hat we
are earnestly DESTROYS of securing their
good will by acting toward them in a
spirit of just and generous recognition
of all their rights. But justice and gen
crosby in a nation, as in an individual,
count most when shown not by the
weak, but by the strong. While ever
careful to refrain from Wronging others,
we must be no less inSistent that we are
not wronged ourselves. We wish peace:
but we wish the peace of justice, the
peace of righteousness. We wish it be-
cause we hin it is right, and not be-
cause we are afraid. No weak nation
that acts manfully and justly should
ever have cause to fear us, and no strong
. power should ever be able to single us
. out as a subject for insOlent aggression.
= Our relations with the other powers
= of the world are important; but still
more important are our relations among
ourselves. Such growth in wealth, in
population and in powers as this nation
has seen during the century II a quar-
ter of it's national life is inevitably &C
. companied by a like growth in the prob
lens which are ever before every ma
ton that rises to greatness. Power in
y variably means both responsibility and
danger. Our fOrefathers faced certain
perils which We ave ~Outgrown. We
now face other perils the very existence
of which it was impossible that they
=, should f~oresee. Modern life is both com
pick and intense, and the tremendous
!, hange wrought by the extraordinary
= industrial development of the last hall
;, century are felt in every fiber of oul
social ana pOllIlcal DelHS.
:, The conditions which have told fol
our marvellous material well-being
which have developed to a very high de
= gree our energy, self-reliance and indi
=, vidual initiative, have also brought thu
- care and anxiety inseparable from thu
~ accumulation of great wealth in indus
- trial centers. Upon the success of GU
experiment much depends; not only a
- regards our own welfare, but as regard
a the welfare of mankind. If we fail, tn
20 cause of free self-government through
y, out the world will rock TO its founda
ba tons; and therefore, our ~responslblllt
IN is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as
~ is to-day. and to the generations ye
O. unborn.
- Yet, after all. though the problems ar
- new, though the tasks set before us diffe
from the tasks set before our father
q. who founded and preserved this reput
- lie. the spirit in which these tasks mus
be undertaken and these problems faced
if our duty is to be we'll done, remain
.ta essentially unchanged. We know thu
self-government is difficult. We kno
that no people needs such high trail
ba of character as that people which seel
to govern its affairs Alright through tt
ba freely expressed will of the free men WI
m compose it. But we ave faith that v
m shall not prove false to the memOri'
nd of the men of the mighty past. They d
ia their work, they left us the splend
heritage we now enjoy.
Definition of Duty.
A small boy went to Sunday scho'