The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1910-05-13
ROOSEVELT'S ADDRESS
ON WORLD MOVEMENT"

in the velocity of the world movement
ARE ali these to mean merely that
the crash will be all the more COM
plete and terrible that the answer
will be In the negative; but of this we
can be certain, that we shall not go
down to ruin unless we deserve and
earn our end. There is no necessity
for us to fall; we can hew out our
destiny for ourselves, IL only we have
the wit and the courage and the hon
esty.
Personally. | do not believe that
our civilization will fall. l 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
|assuredly. the dreams of golden glory
in the future will not come true un-
less, high OF heart and strong of hand
by our own mighty deeds we make
them come true. We cannot afford
to develop any one set of qualities,
any one set of activities, at the cost
of seeing others, equally necessary,
atrophied. Neither the military eff
cheney Of the Mongol, the extraordin-
ary business ability of the Phoeni-
clan, nor the subtle and polished in
tellect of the Greek availed to avert
destruction.
we, the men of today and of the
future, need many qualities if we are
to do our work we'll 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, good mother Of
many healthy children, then the state
will topple, will go down, no matter
what may be its brilliance of artistic
development or material achievement.
But these homeIy qualities are not en-
ough. There must In addition be
that power Of organization, that power
OF working in common for a 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 we'll do without the
hard intolerance and arid intellectual
barrenness Of what was worst in the
theological systems of the past, but
there has never been greater need Of
high 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, 1t would be
worse than folly on our part to ignore
our need Of intellectual leadership.
Your own great Frederick once said
that if he wished to punish province
he would leave it to be governed by
the sneer had in 1t
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 In
deed to accept Tolstoy as guide in
social and moral matters; but it would
also be a bad thing not to have Tol.
stoy, not to profit by the lofty side Of
his teachings. There are plenty of
scientific men whose hard arrogance.
whose cynical materlalism, whose
dogmatic intolerance put them on
level with the bigoted medieval