Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-04-23
ROOSEVELT RAPS
kACE SUICIDE TO
FRENCH SAvANTS

peoples who govern themselves there
is but a small field of usefulness open
for the men of clustered life who
shrink from contact with their fellows.
Still less room is there for those who
deride or slight what is lone by those
who actually pear the brunt of the day;
nor yet for those others who always
profess hat they would like to take
action. If only the conditions of life
were not what they actually are.
Il pay all homage to intellect, and 10
elaborate and specialized training of
the intellect; and yet / know l shall
have the assent of all of you present
when I add that more important still
are the commonplace, everyday quail
ties and virtues.
such ordinary, everyday qualities
include the will and the power to work,
to fight at need, and to have plenty of
healthy children. There are a few peo-
pie in every country so born that they
a lead lives of leisure. These fill a
useful function If they make it evil
dent that leisure does o mean idle
ness, But the average man must earn
his own livelihood. He should be
trained to do so. and he should be
trained to feel that he occupies a con
temptible position if he does not do so:
that he is not an object of envy IL he
Is idle, at whichever end of the social
scale he stands, but an object of con-
tempt. an object of derision.
I'm the next place. the good man
should be both a strong and a brave
man; that is. he should be able to
fight, he should be able 20 serve his
country as a soldier if the need arises.
There are well-meaning philosophers
who declaim against the unrighteous-
ness of war. They are right only If
they lay all their emphasis upon the
unrighteousness. War is a dreadful
thing, and unjust war is a crime
against humanity. But ii is such a
crime because it is unjust. not because
it is war. The choice must ever be
in. favor Of righteousness, and this
whether the alternative be peace or
whether the alternative be war. The
question must not be merely, Is there
to be peace or war; The question
must be: Is the right TO prevail? Are
the great laws Of righteousness once
more to be fulflled?' And the answer
from a strong and virile people must
be, Yes whatever the cost,
Rnce Suicide Scored.
Finally, even more important than
ability to work, even more important
than ability TO fight at need, is 1t tc
remember that the chief of blessings fol
any nation Is that it shall leave its seed
to inherit the land. 1t was the crown
of blessings in Biblical times; and 1t Il
the crown of blessings now The great
est of all curses is the curse of sterility
and the severest of all condemnations
should be that visited upon wilful ster.
ility. The first essential in n c~iviliza-
ton is that the mar and the woman
shall be father and mother of healthy
children, so that the rae shall increase
and not decrease.
IF this is not so. if through no fauli
of the society there is failure to in
crease, II is a great misfortune. If the
failure is due to deliberate and wilfu'
fault, then it Is not merely q misfor-
tune, IT Is n 81 those crimes of ease
and self-indulgenee. of shrinking from
pain and effort and risk. which, in ths
long run, nature Furnishes more heavily
than any other If we of the great re.