Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-27
WAR ON CORRUPTION
Presidents Position Empha-
sized in an Address.
RECEPTION TO EDUCATORS
Train the Young and Add to Sum
Of Good Citizenship.
DIGNITY OF TEACHERS WORK
Immaterial Whether Money Earned
Shall Be Designated as Salary
or Wages.
DIGNITY OF TEACHERS WORK

That there will be no let-up in
President Roosevelt's policy OF
warning against rottcnness and
corruption was emphatically de
clared by the President yesterday
afternoon in All address to the
delegates during their reception at
the White House. The President
gave his views on educational
methods at considerable length
and with characteristic catholicity
of thought and vigor of express
sion.
'Of all the bodies of citizens that
1 have received here at the White
House,, said the President. there
is none which occupies a more i'm
portant relation than yours Il am
tempted to say none has come that has
occupied important a relation to the
nation. because you men and women
who deal with education, who repre-
sent the great American policy OF -edu-
cation for all children, provided by the
public as the prime duty of the public.
$3.50
to the future Of our whole people. such
as no other like number of individuals
can bear. | own six of the children
that you educate, and l am prepared to
extend cordial sympathy to some of
you.
Seriously. friends. it is idle for any
man to talk of despairing of the future
OF this country or feeling unduly ala rmed
about it if he will come in contact with
you here and with the forces :l.at you
represent. Fundamentally this country
is sound; morally no less than bhysi-
cdlly. Fundamentally. in it's family life
ana In the outside activities OF ITS indi-
VldualS the country is better, and not
worse, than it formerly was. This does
not mean that we are to be excused if
We fail to war against rottenness and
corruption ii we fail to contend eff
fectively with the forces of evil; and
they waste their time who ask me to
withhold my hand from dealing there
with.
Reason for Shifting Wrong.
But it is worth while to smlte 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
1t is to be a decade or two hence: and
while your work in training the intel
lect is great, 1t is not as great az your
work in training character. More than
anything else, | want to see the public
school turn out the boy and Sirl who
when man and woman will add to the
sum of good citizenship of the nation.
1t Is not my province. nor would it be
with my capacity, to speak about your
pedagoglc problems. You yourselves
are far better able to discuss them
But as a layman let me say one or two
things about your work.
I'm the first place | trust that more and
more our people will see to it that the
schools train toward and not away from
the farm and the workshop We have
spoken a great 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 medieval times
who left such marvellous works of archi-
lecture and art behind them were able to
90 so because they educated alike the
brain and hand of the craftsman. We,
too, in our turn. must show that we I'M
derstand the law which DEGREES that
people which loses physical address in
Variably deteriOrates: so that our people
shall understand that the good character,
the good blacksmith, the good mechanic.
the good farmer, really do fill the most
important positions in our land. and that
| it is evil thing for them and for the
! forsake the work which. if well and eff
GENTLY performed means more than any
other work for our people as a whole.
But Little Difference in Terms.
| "One thing that l would like to 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 with 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 abor' implies that manual
| la Dor is digniiied as mental labor, as.
/ of course, it is. Indeed, the highest kind
! of labor is that which makes demands
upon the quantities of both head and
| hand, of heart, brain and body. Physical
| prowess. physical address are necessities;
| they stand on level with intellect, and
| only below character. 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 dignI-
| fed and as worthy of consideration. as
| that OF business man or professional
man We need to have a certain read
! justment of values in this country. which
must primarily come through the efforts
of Just YOU men and women here, anu the
men and women like you throughout this
! land.
| Il would not have YOU preach an i'm
! possible ideal; for if you preach an ideal
| pupils believe that no ideals are possible,
| and therefore you tend to do them that
worst of wrOngs-to teach them to\divorce
| aching from practice, to divorce the
| ideal that they in the abstract admire
| from the practical good after which they
| strive
Teach the boy and girl that their bust
| ness is to earn their own livelihood: teach
| the boy that ne IS to be the hOmemaker;
! the girl that she must ultimately be the
| homekeeper; that the work of the father
| is 10 be the breadwinner. and that of the
| mother the housekeeper; that their work
| is the most important work by far in all
/ the land that the work of the statesman.
! the writer. the captain of industry and
| all the rest is condition, first. upon the
work that finds it's expression in the fam
! lily tina. supports the family.
Should Be Self-Supporting.
so teach the boy that he is to be ex-
| pected to earn his own livelihood; that it
| is a shame and scandal for him not to
| be self-dependent, not to be able to hold
| his own in the rough work of actual life.
| Teach the girl that, SO far from it's being
! HEP duty to try to avoid all labor all
! effort. it should be a matter of pride
/ to her to be as good a housewife as her
mother was before her. Sometimes the
! kindest and most Well-meaning mother
| sometimes a kind and Weil-meaniug ia