Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-07-07
President Heard by the
Teachers in Session
at Asbury Park.
GIVES HELPFUL HINTS
Mission of Teachers to Make
Homogeneous Mixed
Population.

Oyster Bay, July president
Roosevelt, accompanied by Secretary
Loeb, left at IL today for Ocean Grove.
n. j., where the president will deliver
an address this afternoon before the
National Educational association. The
president expects to reach Oyster Bay
on his return at Gas D. N.
Met by Crowd.
Asbury Park, July 7.-President
Roosevelt arrived here at 2 this after
noon. He was greeted at the station
by large crowd. When he arrived at
the convention of the National Educa-
tional association the audience arose
and greeted him with the chautauuua
salute. The president at once began
the delivery of his address.
Text of Address.
He said in part:
The chief harm done by the men of
swollen fortune to the community is
not the harm that the demagogue is
apt to depict as springing from their
actions, but the fact that their success
sets up false standard, and so serves
as bad example for the rest of us.
If we did not ourselves attach an ex-
aggerated Importance to the rich man
who is distinguished only by his rich |
es, this rich man would have a most
Insignificant influence over us.
Damage Own Fault.
1T is generally our own fault if he
does damage to us, for he damages us
chiefly by arousing our envy or by rem
6ATfngr Hicnnnt1,t,r
his actual business relations he is
much more apt to benefit than harm
the rest of us; and though ii is emin- |
emily right to take whatever steps are
necessary in order to prevent the ex-
ceptiOnal members OF his class from
doing harm, it is wicked folly to let |
be drawn into any attack up |
on the man of wealth merely as such. |
Moreover. such an attack is in itself |
an exceptionally crooked and ugly tri- |
butte TO wealth, and therefore the proof |
of an exceptionally ugly and crooked |
state of mind in the man making the |
attack. VenomOus envy of wealth is |
simply another form of the spirit. |
which in one of its manifestations
takes the shape of cringing seryility !
OOmdiu "tdllH, anu III dnOlil6I llle
shape of brutal arrogance on the part
Of certain men of wealth.
All Close Hin.
Each one of these states of mind |
whether it be hatred, servility, or AFRO
gance, is in reality closely akin TO the |
other two; for each of them springs |
from a Enthusiastically twisted and exag-
gerated idea of the importance of |
wealth as compared to other things. |
The clamOr of the demagogue against
wealth, the snobbery of the social col
umns of the newspapers which deal
with the doings of the wealthy, and the
of those men of wealth
who act with brutal disregard of the
rights of others, seem specifically to
have no fundamental relation: yet in
reality they spring from shortcomings
which are fundamentally the same;
and one of these shortcomings is the
failure to have proper ideals.
Teachers Have Remedy.
This failure must be remedied in
large part by the actions of you and
YOUR feIlow-teachers, your fellOw-edu
Gators throughout this land. By your
lives. no less than by your teachings,
YOU show that while you regard wealth
as a good thing. you regard other
things as still better.
1T is absolutely necessary to earn
a certain amount of money; 1t Is a
mans first duty 10 those dependent
upon him to earn enough for their sup
port: but after a certain point has been
mOney-making can never
stand on the same plane with other
and nobler forms of effort.