Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1910-04-29
ASA.MAN OF letters
ROOSEVELT SPENDS DAY AT
FRENCH CAPITAL.
Delivers a Mastery Address at Scr
bonnie, Receiving Great Ovation
Takes His Seat as Member of French
Academy-25,O 900 People Hear His
Address.

Address.
Paris, April 24.-ColoneT Roosevelt's
own word Saturday marked the crown
ing of his career as a man of letters.
He participated as a member at a ses-
sion of the French academy, delivered
lecture at the Sorbonna, which, as
he said, was the foremost seat of learn
ing in Europe before America was
discovered, and remaining as the guest
of the faculty for dinner and the grand
reception given by the university in his
honor.
Colonel Roosevelt s reception at the
institute and that at the Sorbonne
were equally impressive, but in diff
ferent way. At the former he was in
troduced merely as a member and he
took a seat among the distinguished
confreres, most of whom have grown
old in the service of science.
According to the traditional custom
of the Academy of Moral and Political
Sciences, Mr.. Roosevelt entered with
QUE 1ormal presentation.
Greeting Is Enthusiastic.
Emile Boutroux, who presided, after
the customary routine business had
been concluded, addressed the academy
on the result of his observations,
made during his recent visit to the
United States regarding the growth
of education there. M. Boutroux took
Colonel Roosevelt's ideal as the high
est type of man which American edu-
cation sought to produce, quoting fire.
quently Roosevelt IS own words in the
exposition of his theme.
Roosevelt's Address.
In his address on Citizenship in
Republic" Theodore Roosevelt, former
president of the United States, among
other things, said:
The life of material gain, whether for
a nation or an individual, is of value
only as a foundation.
The main source of national power
and national greatness is found in the
average citizenship of the nation.
The poorest way to face life is to
face it with a sneer.
Credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood.
The man who does nothing cuts
sordid figure in history.
The most important are the common
place, everyday qualities and virtues.
The first essential in any civilization
is that the man and the woman shall
be father and mother of healthy chill
dren.
The mere multimillionaire is not an
asset of value to any country.
To admire the gift of oratory with
out regard to the moral quality behind
the gift is to do wrong to the republic.
Offenses against taste and morals,
which are bad enough in private citi.
zen, are infinitely worse if made into
instruments for debauching the commu-
nifty through a newspaper.
To judge a man merely by success is
an abhOrrent wrong.
Let as try to level up, but let US be-
ware of the evil of leveling down.
Good citizenship is indispensable to
the perpetuity of republics.
The exercise of citizenship by every
individual possessing it is of vital i'm
portance. The success Of a republic is
conditioned on the way the average man
does his duty in everyday affairs and
in crises that call for heroic virtues.
1t follows that character, as the sum
of good qualities, is the supreme need
of a republic.
Courage, force, good faith and the
sense of honor are the requisites of the
good citizen. So are the will and the
power to work, to fight, to have plenty
of healthy children.
Character must show itself in the
citizen 8 performance of his duties to
himself, his family, his neighbor, the
state and other nations.
1t is essential to good citizenship to
understand that such gifts, for example,
as the capacity for money'making, for
oratory, for welding the power of the
press, deserve admiration only when
used Alright. Regard must be had to the
moral quality behind the gift.
The good citizen must realize that he
ought to possess those qualities which
make for efficiency, and those, also,
which direct efficiency to the public
good. If efficiency be not guided and
ruled by the moral sense, the efficient
citizen becomes the evil citizen.
The worthy citizen will demand lib
erty for himself, but also see that others
receive the liberty he claims. He must
combine earnestness of conviction with
broad tolerance of difference of con-
viction. He should beware of the man,
beyond all others, who appeals for sup
port on the ground of hostility to other
citizens and promises profit to his sup
porter at other mems expense.