Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-05-16
AMERICAN VARSITY
HAS MANY GUESTS
Thousand NJ. E. Delegates Visit
Institution Being Built
Near Washington
!
PRESIDENT TO DELIVER SPEECH
Addresses Also Given by Vice Presi-
dent Fairbanks and Senator DoIiver
Roosevelt Tends Reception to Del
eaates-M. e. Conference Invites M.
Pc to Appoint Commission.
VOLUME THlRTy-FouR.

washington, May 16.-The trustees
( o. the American University, in course
s OF construction near this city, today
hs.d as their guests President Roose-
ve.t, Vice President Fairbanks and
Senator Dolliver, who were scheduled
to deliver speeches, and upwards OF a
/ thousand Methodists attending the
general conference of the Methodist
church at Baltimore. Following the
exercises, Roosevelt rendered a recep-
ton to the delegates of the general
conference, in the college history
building.
Pre- esident Roosevelt said in part:
1T lis a pleasure to be with you to-
day and to bid welcome on behalf of
the NATION, here in the capital Of the
nation. Important tho the Methodist
church is in many lands, there is none
in which it has played 50 great and
peculiar q part as here in the United
States; Its history is indissolubly in
terwoven with the history of our coun-
try for the six score years since the
constitutional convention made US
really u nation. Methodism in Amer
lea entered on its period Of rapid
growth just about the time of WASH
dngton's first presidency. Its essential
democracy, it's fiery and restless energy
OF spirit, and the wide play that 1T
gave to Individual Initiative, all tended
to make 1t peculiarly congenial to a
hardy ad1d virile folk, democratic to the
core, prtizing individual Independence
above ahl earthly possessions and en-
gagged III the rough and stern work of
conquertng a continent. iMethodism
spread 4ven among the old commun-
1ties r4hd the long -settled district of
the Atlantic tide water; but its. phe-
nomena1 growth was from these re-
gions westward. The whole country
is under a debt of gratitude to the
Methodist circuit riders, the Methodist
pioneer preachers, whose movement
westward kept pace with the
movement OF the frontier, who
shared all the hardshfps in the
life Of the frontiersrnan, while at the
same time ministering to that from
tiersman's spiritual needs, and seeing
that his pressing material cares and
the hard and grinding poverty of his
life did not wholly extinguish the d.
vine fire within his soul. Such was
your work in the past; and your work
in the present is as great; for the need
and opportunity for service widen as
the field Of national interest Widens. 1t
IS not true in this country that the
poor have grown poorer; but 1t is true
( that in many sections, and particularly
in our large cities, the rich have
grown so very much richer as to widen
the gulf between the man of very large
means and the man who makes each
days livelihood by that days work;
and those who with sincerity, and ef-
ficiency, and deep conviction, band to-
Rether for mutual help, are those who
can do most to keep the gulf from be-
coming too wide True religion, thru
church organizations, thru philan-
tlropic organizations, in all the field
OF kindred endeavor, can manifest 1T
self as effectively The crowded and
complex life of today as in the pioneer
yesterdays; and the souls of men need
the; light now, and strive blindly to-
ward it, as they needed it, and strove
toward 1t in the vanished past. 1t is
your task to do the work Of the Lord
on the farm and in the mine, in the
countfngroom and the factory, in the
car shops and beside the blasting fur
races, just as 1t was the task of your
spiritual forebears to Wrestle for the
souls of the men and women who
dwelt on the stumpdotted clearings In
the wilderness"