The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-27
EDUCATORS SEE
THE PRESIDENT
Members of National ASSocia-
ton Pay Visit to the
White House.
ADDRESS BY ROOSEVELT
A. C. NELSON OF SALT LAKE
HONORED,
ADDRESS BY ROOSEVELT

| De no leI-up in PRESIDENT Roosevelt
policy of warning against rottenness
and corruption. was emphatically de-
clared by the president today i'm an adj
| dress to the delegates to the depart
ment of superintendent of the Nation
al Educational association during their
reception at the White House. Con-
tinuipg, the president gave his views
on educational methods at considerable
length, and with characteristic catholi-
| ~ of thought and vigor of expression.
| At today'S business session of the as
ISOLATION Oklahoma City was selected
as the next meeting place, and officers
were elected as follows:
Presfdent-W. II. Elson, Cleveland.
! Secretary-A. c. Nelson, Salt Lake
City. s
Presidents Address.
| President Roosevelt in his address to
the convention said in part:
"Of all the bodies of citizens that l
have received here at the White House,
/ there is none that occupies a more i'm
portant relation than yours 1 am
tempted to say none has come that has
occupied as important a relation to the
/ nation, because you men and women
who deal with education, who represent
the great American policy of education
for all children, a relation to the fam
/ lily, relation to the future of our
| whole people, such as no other like
number of individuals can bear. l own
six of the children that you educate,
and 1 am prepared to extend cordial
sympathy to some of you.
Character the Foundation.
| Seriously, friends, it is idle for any
man to talk of despairing of the future
of this country or feeling unduly
alarmed about it, if he will come in
contact with you here and with the
forces that you represent Funda-
mentally this country is sound; moral
| ly no less than physically. Funda-
mentally in its family life and in the
outside activities of its individuals, the
country is better and not worse than il
| formerly was This does not mean that
we are to be excused if we fail to war
| against rottenness and corruption. if
we fail to contend effectively with the
forces of evil; and they waste their
| time who ask me to withhold my hand
from dealing Herewith. But ii is worth
while to smite the wrong for the very
reason that we are confident that the
right will ultimately prevail. You who
are training the next generation, are
/ training this country as it is to be 4
/ decade or two hence; and while your
work in training the intellect is great
! ID is not as great as your work in
/ training character. More than any
1 thing else, I want to see the public
school turn out the boy and girl who
when man and woman will add TO the
sum of good citizenship OF the nation.
Educate Hand and Brain.
Il trust that more and more our peo-
pie will see to it that the schools train
toward and not away from the farm and
the workshop. We have spoken asgreat
deal about the dignity of labor in this
| country; but we have not acted up to
our spoken words; for in our education
we have tended to proceed upon the
assumption that the educated man was
/ to be educated away from and not to-
ward labor. The great nations of me-
diaeval times who left such marvellous
works of architecture and art behind
them were able to do so because they
/ educated alike the brain and hand OF
| the craftsman. We, too. in our turn
must show that we understand the law
which DEGREES that a people which loses
physical address invariably deteriOr-
ates so that people shall understand
that the great carpenter, the good
/ blacksmith, the good mechanic, the
good farmer really do fill the most i'm
portant positions in our land. and that
it is an evil thing for them and the
nation to have their sons and daugh-
| tiers fOrsake the work which, if well
and efficiently performed, means more
than any other work for our people as
a whole.
Dignity of Labor"
zone thing that 1 would have you
teach your pupils is that whether you
call the money gained salary or wages
does not make any real difference, and
that if by working hard by your hands
| you get more than if you work with
your head only, it does not atone for it
to call the smaller amount salary. The
| term dignity of labor implies that
manual labor is as dignified as mental
| labor; as, of course, 1t is.s Indeed, the
highest kind of labor is that which
makes demands upon the qualities of
both head and hand, of heart, brain
and body.
Physical prowess, physical address
are necessities; they stand on a level
with intellect. and only below charac-
ter. Let US show that we regard the
position of the man who works with his
hands as being ordinarily and in good
! faith as important and dignified and as
| worthy of consideration as that of the
| business man or professional NAM We
need to have a certain readjustment Of
values in this country. which must pri
Imarily come through the efforts of just
you men and women here, and the men
and women like you throughout the
land.
Teach Practical Things.
Il would not have you preach an inn
possible ideal; for if you preach an
ideal that is impossible you tend To
make your pupils believe that no ideals
are possible and, therefore, you tend
to do them that worst of wrongs-to
teach them to divorce preaching from
practice, to divorce the ideal that they
in the abstract admire from the prac-
teal good after which they strive
| Teach the boy or girl that their bust
ness is to earn their own livelihood:
teach the boy that he is to be the
homemaker; the girl that she must ul
| timately be the homekeeper; that the
work of the father is to be the bread
! winner and that of the mother the
housekeeper: that their work is the
most important work by far in all the
4 - Il s.t..