Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-03-07
The President on the Critical
Attitude.

The President on the Critical
Attitude.
1t is possible that the President in
his recent Harvard address does less
than justice to some whom he would
place in the class of mollycoddles. Mr..
Roosevelt is distinguished for the force
full, not to say at times vituperative,
quality of his vocabulary, rather than
for the infallibility ofhis judgments of
Others, or for bis considerate treatment
of those who differ with him. We
must discount the animus of some of
bis remarks about mollycoddles by re-
membering that some of these molly
| coddles have been in the habit of pass
| ing adverse criticisms upon the policies
of the present administration. For
| aught the President knows, some of
these mollycoddles may be rendering
real service for the common good in
ways that are not apparent on the
gridiron or tennis court or directly
manifest at the ward primaries. 1t
may be that the President needs to
learn more perfectly some of his own
| favorite lessons. The strenuous foot
ball player expects that the opposing
| side will try to trip him and force him
back from his goal All that goes with
the game. And so the constructive
statesman ought to accept adverse
criticism of his policies and methods
| "a part of the game Among the fun
damental duties of good citizenship
are those of honest, independent think
ing and the free and honest expression
of opinion. The statesman who stands
| for a square deal will submit to any
| amount of adverse criticism rather than
begrudge to his fellow citizens the ex-
ercise Of free thought and free speech.
But after all possible personal ami
mus has been discounted in the Presi-
dents Harvard address, the central
| thought of his message is one that
needs to be emphasized and needed.
it is the gospel Of good citizenship,
based on virile manhood. The funda-
mental principle of democracy ia that
| every individual should count for one
and for only one. Mr. Roosevelt would
have every individual see to it that he
does count for one. In order to count
for ore in the fullest sense, one must
| be man in the fullest sense, having
| mans strength and positive force,
mans mind, mans practical aim and
sense, a MANS responsibility, mans
| ability to do his share of the worlds
| constructive work and mans wiling.
ness to bear his share of the common
| burden. In order that the individual
may really count for one, he must be
something more than solitary indi-
vidual; he must be social unit, man
among men, one willing to work in
harness with others, and, what is
equally important, one who knows how
to do it. The man who is unwilling to
rub shoulders with others, who prefers
the seclusion of his own den or the re-
stricted society of his own superior set,
refusing all wider contact and duty, is
taking the sure way to count for con-
siderably less than one. An aristocra-
cy of education and culture that holds
itself aloof from the work of govern
ment is less worthy of respect than is
the titled aristocracy of England,
which plays an important part in the
political affairs of the realm.
"Above all, you college men, remem-
ber that if your education, the pleas.
ant lives you lead, make you too fasti-
dious, too sensitive to take part in the
rough hurlyburly of the actual work of
the world, if you become so over culti-
waited, 80 over-reined that you cannot
do the hard work of practical politics,
then you had better never been educat-
ed at all. 1 want you to feel that it is
not merely your right to take part in
politics, not merely your duty to the
State, but that it is demanded by your
own self-respect, unless you are con-
tent to acknowledge that you are unfit
to govern yourself, and you have to
submit to the rule of somebody else as
a master-and this is what it means il
you d9 not do your own part in gov.
ernment"
nOdern Progress in New York.
Office buildings 26 stories high, contain
) ing thousand offices, hotels covering q
oit,, blooly nont.,io;no I 400 .oo,,,,. 49,,