The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1910-05-13
ROOSEVELT
TO GERMANS
MEN MUST BE GOOD HUSBANDS
AND FATHERS, SAYS HE.
IF CIVILIZATION is TO LAST
The Former President Declares Our
Present Civilization Will Not Fall
Unless We Earn Our Decline; Makes
Plea for HomeIy Virtues.

OnleSS we Earn our DeCllne' wakes
Plea for HomeIy Virtues.
Berlin, May 12.-Theodore Roose
velt former president of the United
States, delivered lecture today on
the topic, THE World Movement" at
the University of Berlin and received
from the university the honorary de.
gree of doctor of philosophy, Emperor
William honored the occasion with his
presence.
A Significant Compliment.
1t was the first time his majesty had
graced a conferment and the courtesy
was significant in view of the fact that
the German court is in mourning for
King Edward.
Confer Degree On Roosevelt
The ceremony of comforting the de-
gree was conducted with impressive
simplicity. There were no flags or
emblems of royalty and the govern
ment and the walls of the hall were
bare save those of the busts of famous
scholars and scientists.
A Touch of Color.
The only touch of color was fur
sity with their robes of scarlet and
blue and the five heads of the student
corps, who wore blue jackets, white
breeches, jack boots and paticolored
sashes.
Four hundred guests of the univer-
sity who held cards of admission were
seated when Emperor William entered,
accompanied by Mr.. Roosevelt
The play of new forces is as evident
in the moral and spiritual world as in
the world of the mind and the body.
Forces for good and forces for evil
are everywhere evident, each acting
with hundred or thousand fold
the intensity with which it acted in
former ages. Over the whole earth
the swing of the pendulum grows more
and more rapid, the handspring coils
and spreads at a rate constantly quick
ening, the whole world movement is
of constantly accelerating velocity.
What is the lesson to us today?
Are we to go the way of the older
civilizations? The immense increase
in the area of civilized activity today,
so that it is nearly coterminous with
the worlds surface; the immense in
crease in the multitudinous variety of
it's activities; the immense increase in
the velocity of the world movement
are all these to mean merely that the
crash will be all the more complete
and terrible that the answer will be
in the negative; but of this we can
be certain, that we shall not go down
in ruin unless we deserve and earn our
end. There is no necessity for us to
fall; we can hew out our destiny for
ourselves, if only we have the wit
and the courage and the honesty.
Our Civilization is Not to Fall.
Personally, do not believe that our
civilization will fall. | think that on
the whole we have grown better and
not worse. | think that on the whole
the future holds more for us than even
the great past has held. But, assur-
eddy, the dreams of golden glory in
the future will not come true unless,
high of heart and strong of hand, by
our own mighty deeds we make them
come true. We cannot afford to de-
velop any one set of qualities, any
one set of activities, at the cost of
seeing others, equally necessary, afro
phied. Neither the military efficiency
of the Mongol, the extraordinary bust
ness ability of the Phoenician, nor the
subtle and polished intellect of the
Greek awaited to avert destruction.
We, the men of today and of the
future, need many qualities if we are
to do our work well. We need, first
of all and most important of all, the
qualities which stand at the base of
individual, of family life, the funda-
mental and essential qualities-the
homely, everyday, all-important vir-
tues. If the average man will not
work if he has not in him the will
and the power to be good husband
and father; if the average woman is
not a good housewife, a good mother
of many healthy children, then the
state will topple, will go down, no mat
ter what may be it's brilliance of ar
tistic development or material achieve
ment But these homely qualities are
not enough.
Need of Organization.
lnere must, In audltlOn, pc tnat
power of organization, that power of
working in common for common end.
which the German people have shown
in such signal fashion during the last
half-century. Moreover, the things of
the spirit are even more important
than the things of the body. We can
well do without the hard intolerance
and arid intellectual barrenness of
what was worst in the theological sys-
TENS of the past, but there has never
been greater need of nigh and fine
religious spirit than at the present
time. So, while we can laugh good
humoredly at some of the pretensions
of modern philosophy in its various
branches, it would be worse than fol.
ly on our part to ignore our need of
intellectual leadership. Your own
great Frederick once said that if he
wished to punish a province he would
leave it to be governed by philoso,
piers; the sneer had in ii an element
of justice; and yet no one better than
the great Frederick knew the value OF
philosophers. the value of men OF
science, men of letters, men of art
1t would be bad thing indeed to &C
cept Tolstoy as a guide in social and