The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-05-16
Fine and Healthy Family Life" is
What We Need Declares President
Roosevelt to Church Delegates
Character of Individual Men
and Women Mainstay Of Ma.
ton. Not Mere Per Capita
Wealth.

Washington. May 16.-Over
900 delegates to the general confer
enoe of the Methodist Episcopal
church at Baltimore, arrived here to-
, day as guests OF the American Uni
verslty. Luncheon was served. The
exercises began at 3 O'Clock, presided
lover by Bishop Cranston. President
Roosevelt, Vice President Fairbanks,
Senator Dolliver and others spoke.
/ Mrs. Roosevelt and the president
received the delegates in the college
building.
In his address before the Metho-
dist general conference President
Roosevelt said:
True religion. through church or
CARNATIONS, through phllanthropic or
CARNATIONS. in all the field of kindred
cndeavor, can manifest itself as effec-
lively in the crowded and complex life
OF today as in the pioneer yesterdays;
land the souls of men ned the light
now. and strive blindly toward II. as
they needed II, and strove toward II
in the vanished past. II is your task
TO do the work OF the Lord on the
farm and In the mine, In the counting
room and the factory, in the car shops
and beside the blasting furnaces, just
as il was the task OF your spiritual
forebears to wrestle for the souls OF
the men and women who dwelt on the
stump-dotted clearlngs in the wilder
ness.
mo nation In the world has more
right than ours to look with proud
confidence toward the future We
have grown better and not worse: for
II there is much evil. good also great
" abounds, and II wrong grows, 50
in even greater measure grows the
stern sense OF right before which
wrong must eventually yield. II would
be both unmanly and unwarranted to
become faint-hearted or dcspairing
about the nations future. C'ear-eyed
and far-sighted men who are both
brave of heart and cool of head. while
not for a moment TO see and acknowl-
edge the many evils around us. must
yet also feel a confident assurance
that In the struggle we shall win and
not lose, that the century that has
just opened will see great triumph
for our people.
Prosperity such as ours, necessary
though IL be as the material basis of
national greatness, inevitably tends
to undue exultation OF the merely ma
terial side OF the national character;
and We must largely rely on the eff
forts of such men and women as those
am addressing I'd build up the spirit
life amounts TO nothing. As gener-
alton succeeds generation the prob
lens change in their external shape;
but II remains as true as ever that In
the last analysis national greatness,
national happiness. national success,
depend upon the character of the In
dlvidual man and individual woman.
Most of all we need that fine and
healthy family life the lack of which
makes any seeming material prosper
ity but elttering sham. We can
not stand up for what is good in man
hood and womanhood without con-
demning what is evil. We must con-
denim the man who Is either brutal
and vicious, or weak and cowardly;
the man wba fails TO do his duty by
the public, who Is bad neighbor, an
idler. an inconsiderate and selfish
husband. a neglectful father. SO also
we must condemn the woman who,
whether from cowardice or GOODNESS,
from selfish love of ease or from lack
of true womanly quality, refuses to
do Alright her great and all-essential
duties of wifehood and motherhood
We admire a good man; but we adj
mire a GOOD woman more.
mo human being has a greater
title to respect than the mother who
does her full duty. who bears and
rears plenty of healthy children, so
there shall be national growth and
not national decadence, so that In
quality and in quantity our people
shall increase"