The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-02-26
NO MOLLYCODDLES ARE
WANTED, SAYS ROOSEVELT
Talks to Harvard Students Against
Abolition of Football.
SPORT MAKES BRAVE MEN
President Foresees Warfare Upon
Syndicated Wealth, and Dis
cusses the Question of Federal
Control.

cusses the Question of Federal
Control.
Boston. - The visist to Harvard
University of Theodore Roosevelt
who came not as President of the
United States, but as a grad" re-
turning to meet his fellow-Harvard
men, including his own son, Theodore
Roosevelt, Jr., developed into one of
the busiest days of his notable career.
President Roosevelt was constantly
moving about; both in Boston and in
Cambridge there were few, if any,
moments for real rest. Harvard hos
pitality was showered upon him dur
ing his two distinct visits to the uni
versity city during the day, and in
Boston his personal friends exerted
themselves to the utmost to make his
trip to Massachusetts most enjoyable.
The Presidential party arrived in
Boston from Washington shortly af-
ter a. m. 1t included. besides the
President. Mrs. Roosevelt, Represent
tative and Mrs. Nicholas Longworth,
and Miss Ethel Roosevelt. Mrs.
Roosevelt, Mrs Longworth and Miss
Ethel proceeded at once to the home
OF friends at Chestnut Hill. The
President went to the home of DR.. w.
S. Bigelow and ate breakfast with a
few personal friends.
Half an hour after breakfast Mr..
Roosevelt had become godfather of
the child of his Rough Rider and
Harvard friend, Guy Murchie. After
that there was visit to the rooms of
a we'll known publishing house, where
Mr.. Roosevelt was absorbed for a
time in examining some rare volumes,
and an automobile drive with Dr.
Bigelow to Chestnut Hill, where Mr.
Roosevelt saw his wife and daughters
before their departure for Groton to
see the Presidents son, Kermit, after
which he made brief call on Mrs.
Lee, the mother of his first wife, then
a motor car journey across the
Charles to Cambridge.
Mr.. Roosevelt stopped at a pub
fishing house to look at some more
valuable volumes, and incidentally to
transact some personal business as an
author Then he went to the Sphinx
Club, a private organization of Har-
ward students, of which his son is a
member, and partook of luncheon.
Among those present were Congress
man Longworth and Assistant Secre-
tary Bacon.
The principal event of the day was
President Roosevelt's address to the
Harvard students in the afternoon at
the Harvard Union, founded by Major
Henry L. Higginson, the Boston bank
er, as an institution which all Har-
ward men could join. Two thousand
Harvard men, mostly undergrad
yates. gathered in the great living
room of the union and gave the Presi-
dent rousing reception.
In his address he discussed some
subjects that have been moot points
at the university for some time, and
did 1t with such frankness that many
of his hearers were astonished.
He characterized the proposal to
abolish football and other rough
sports as Simple nonsense" He did
not think Harvard should turn out
"mollycoddles." President Eliot has
favored the discontinuance of foot
ball, basketball and hockey until
those sports are placed upon reform
basis, on the ground that they are
rough and sometimes brutal.
In speaking generally Mr.. Roose-
welt replied to State rights arguments
which recently have been brought
against him. He held that corpora
tons and others were trying to but
tress wrongs behind State rights and
said that the Nation would not per-
nit 1t.
Railway corporations, said Presi-
dent Roosevelt, will gain and not
lose by adequate Federal control;
most emphatically, it is both the duty
and the interest of our people to deal
fairly with such corporations and to
see that a premium is put upon the
honest management of them, and that
those who invest in them are amply
protected. But those who invoke the
doctrine of State rights to protect
State corporate creations in preda-
tory activities extended through other
States, are as shortslghted as those
who once invoked the same doctrine
to protect the special slaveholding in
terest. The States have shown that
they have not the ability to curb the
power of syndicated wealth, and,
therefore, in the interest of the peo-
pie, it must be done by national ac-
ton"
Upon leaving the Union President
Roosevelt made personal call at the
home of President Charles w. Eliot,
who is absent in Canada delivering
a series of addresses. Then he was
taken in an automobile to the Hasty
Pudding Club, where reception was
held, and after that called upon his
son in the latter's apartments in the
Dunster Dormitory. He returned to
Boston, and was the guest of Bishop
Lawrence at tea, and in the even
ing he returned to Cambridge and
took part in a gathering at the Porce-
lain Club, at which his son was initi-
nted into membership. Afterward
Mr.. Roosevelt returned to DR.. Bige-
lows home for the night,
Next day he visited Groton, where
he joined Mrs. Roosevelt and Miss
Ethel at Groton School. After the
visit to Kermit the Roosevelt party
returned to Washington.