Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-13
ROOSEVELT
URGESHIGHER
MORAL LIFE
MATERIAL PROSPERITY ALONE
COUNTS FOR LITTLE
SPIRITUAL SuPERsTRUcTURE IS
NEEDED, SAYS PRESIDENT
Members of Religious Educational AS
ISOLATION Received at White
House and Hear
Sermon

BY Associated Press.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12.--Interest il
today's work OF the fifth general con-
Nention of the Religious Educational
association centered in a reception and
an address to the delegates by the
president of the United States at the
White House in which he declared that
our material prosperity will avail but
little unless it is built upon the super
structure of the higher moral and spir-
ilual life.
officers:
President-Francis Greenwood Pea
body, Harvard, Mass.
First vice Observation-Disclosures lde
Wheeler, Berkeley, Cal.
The delegates were received in the
east room of the White House this
afternoon. when the president said to
them: 81 doubt if there is any lesson
more essential to teach in an industrial
democracy like ours than the lesson
that any failure to train the average
citizen in the belief of the things of
the spirit no less than the things OF
the body must in the long run entail
misfortune. shortcomings, possible dis
aster upon the nation itself 1t is emf
nently right that we Americans should
Higher Morals Needed
cit is eminently right that we should
pride ourselves upon a widely diffused
and emihently practical system of edu-
cation / believe in BOTH but neither
will avail if something else is not added
tC the nation. The material prosperity
is essential as q foundation. but it Is
only a foundation and upon it must be
,f tho higher
moral and spiritual life; for otherwise
in itself the material prosperity Will
amount 10 but little
so with our education II is necessary
that we should see that the child Is
trained not merely in reading and writ e
ing. not merely in the elementary
branches of learning strictly so defined,
btu trained irdustrially, trained ade-
ollately to meet the eNer-inCreaslng de-
1hands of the complex growth of our
iudustrialisIn, trained agriculturallJ
trained in handicrafts. trained to b.
more efficient workers in every field of
human activity. But they must be
trained in moro than that or the nation
will ultimately go down.
''T'hev must be trained in the elemen
tary branches of righteousness: they
must be trained so that it shall como
naturally to them to abhor that which
is evil or we never can see our demo
dracy take the place which it must and
snail take among the nations of thu
earth.
IN making an address in greeting a
hody like this | always want my words
taken at their exact face value. | do
not believe ever i'll teaching what can
not be practiced. l do not want ever
to hear man say to pay no regard to
the things of the body in life, as it is
today.
ION the contrary, | would tell every
young man that it is his first duty to
pull his own weight; to take care CT
himself and take care of those depend
ent upon him. He cannot do anything
For others until he has first made Il
Certain that he will not be burden
upon others. I want to see man able
to earn his livelihood. l want to sec
the woman able to do her part as
housewife and mother.
But all my plea is that the man
shall not be content with merely that;
that the man shall realize that after a
certain point has been reached the in
crement of his fortune, the increment
Of his well being amounts to very little
compared to the result of effort spent
in other directions"