The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-02-20
PRESIDENT SAYS MORALITY
IS THE CORNERSTONE
Roosevelt Gives Talk on Material
Prosperity.

Washington, D. G. (Special) In
terest in the work OF the fifth gener-
al convention of the Religious Edu-
cation Association centered in re-
ception and an address to the dele
gates by the President OF the United
States at the White House, in which
he declared that our material pros
perity will avail but little unless II
is built upon the superstructure of
the higher moral and spiritual life.
The real business before the second
days session, which was held In the
First Congregationalist Church, was
the reading of the annual reports or
survey" oil the work of the associa-
tion and of the progress in moral
and religious education and the cleo
tion of officers. as follows:
President, Francis Greenwood Pea
body, Harvard, Mass. first vice presi-
dent, Benjamin Ide Wheeler. Berke-
ley, CAL; vice presidents, Elmer E.
Brown, Washington, d. c.; James S.
Cutler, Rochester, N. Y; James H.
Kirkland, Nashville, Tenn; Henry W.
Boardsley, Kansas City, Mo-; Carter
Helm Jones, Lynchburg, Va; George
Hodges, Cambridge, Mass; william
r. Anderson, Chicago, ILL.,. Arthur
T. Hadley, New Haven, Ct; William
N. Hartshorn, Boston, Mass. Will
liam d. Murray, New York, N. Y;
Charles B. Galloway, Jackson, Tenn;
A. H. Mckay, Halifax, N. s.; George
r. Robinson, Chicago, ILL.,. William
0. Thompson, Columbus, o.; Frank
Strong, Lawrence, Kan, and Wood
row Wilson, Princeton, N. j.
The delegates we're received in the
East Room of the White House when
the President addressed them as fol-
lows
IL is very real pleasure to me
to greet the members of this associa-
ton. / doubt IL there is any lesson
more essential to teach in an indus
trial democracy like ours than the
lesson that any failure to train the
average citizen to belief in the
things of the spirit no less than the
things of the body, must in the long
run entail misfortune, shortcoming,
possible disaster upon the nation it.
self. 1t is eminently right that
we Americans should be proud of our
material prosperity. 1t is eminently
right that we should pride ourselves
upon a widely diffused and exceed
ingly practical system of education.
l believe in both, but neither will
avail If something else Is not added
to the nation.
The material prosperity is essen
tial as foundation, but it is only
foundation and upon II must be built
the superstructure of the higher NOR
al and spiritual life; for otherwise in
itself the material prosperity will
amount to but little. So without
education; it is necessary that we
should see that the children should
be trained not merely in reading and
writing, not merely in the elementary
branches of learning strictly so de-
fined; but trained industrially, train
ed adequately to meet the ever in
creasing demands of the complete
growth of our industrialism, trained
agriculturally, trained in handicrafts,
trained to be more efficient workers
in every field of human activity.
But they must be trained in more
than that or the nation will ulti-
mately go down. They must be train
ed in the elementary branches of
righteousness; they must be trained
so that it shall come naturally to
them to abhor that which is evil, or
we never can see our democracy take
the place which it must and shall
take among the nations of the earth.