The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-06-07
BIOLOGICAL
ANAL0G|ES
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Col. Roosevelt's Scholarly Ad.
dress Before the University
Of Oxford Today.
SOME OF NATIONS PROBLEMS
AND HOW TO SOLVE THEM

Strength Coupled With Justice Be.
tween Nations and Among Men Must
Be the Rule Of Action-Two Kinds
Of National Problems.
London, June 7.-Colonel Roosevelt
spoke at Oxford university today and
took as the subject of his lecture
Biological Analogies in History"
Colonel Roosevelt said:
Rome fell by attack from without.
only because the Ills within her own
borders had grown incurable. What
!s true Of your country, my hearers,
10 true Of my own; while we should
be vigilant against foes from without,
yet we need never really fear them
30 long as we safeguard ourselves
against the enemies within our own
households; and these enemies are
our passions and follies. Free peoples
can escape being mastered by others
only by being able to master them
selves. We Americans, and you people
Of the British Isles, alike, need ever
TO keep in mind that, among the many
qualities indispensable to the sue
cess Of q great democracy, and second
only to high and stern sense of duty,
Of moral obligation, are self-knowl-
edge and self-mastery. You, my hosts,
and l may not agree in all our views;
some Of you would think me very
radical democrats, for the matter
Of that, am; and my theory of i'm
perialism would probably suit the an
ti-imperialists as little as 1t would
suit a certain type Of forcible-feeble
tmperialist. But there are some
points on which we must all agree If
we think soundly. The precise form
Of government, democratic or other
wise. is the instrument, the tool, with
which We work. It is important to
have a good tool. But, even If 1t is
the best possible, 1t Is only tool No
implement can ever take the place Of
the guiding intelligence that wields it..
best craftsman; but good tool in bad
alysis the all-important factor in ma
ter.
"There are questions that we of the
great civilized nations are ever tempt
ed to ask Of the future. Is our time
Of growth drawing to an end? Are
we as nations soon to come under
the rule Of that great law of death
which is itself but part Of the great
law of life? None can tell. Forces
that we can see and other forces that
are hidden or that can but dimly be
apprehended are at work all around
Us, both for good and for evil. The
growth In luxury, in love of ease, in
taste for vapid and frivolous excite
ment. is both evident and unhealthy.
The most ominous sign is the diminu-
tion in the birth rate, and the rate of
natural increase. now to larger or
lesser degrees shared by most of the
civilized nations Of central and west
ern Europe. Of America and Australia;
dim!nution SO great that IL it CON-
tinues for the next century at the rate
which has obtained for the last twen-
ty-five years. all the more highly civ
ilized peoples will be stationary or
else have begun to go backward in
population, while many of them will
There Is much that should give US
much also which should give US hope.
ANO u0u 10 uOI0 opt W U0 ul10ldhOu
than the prophet of evil. After the
French revolution in 1880, Niebuhr
haEaraded the guess that all civiliza-
tion was about to go down with q
crash. that we we're all about to share
the fall Of third and fourth century
Rome-a respectable but painfully
overworked comparison. The fears
once expressed by the followers of
Malthus as to the future of the world
have proved groundless as regards the
civilized portion of the world; it is
strange indeed to look back at
Carlyle's prophecies of some seventy
years ago, and then think of the
teeming life of achievement, the life
Of conquest of every kind, and of
noble effort crowned by success,
which has been ours for the two gen.
erations since he complained to high
heaven that all the tales had been
told and all the songs sung, and that
oil the deeds really worth doing had
been done. believe with all my heart
that great future remains for us;
but whether 1t does or does not. our
duty is not altered. However the bat
tie may go, the soldier worthy of the
name will with utmost vigor do his
allotted task, and bear himself as val
iantly in defeat as in victory. Come
what will, we belong to peoples who
nave not yielded to the craven fear
of being great In the ages that have
gone by, the great nations, the ma
tions that have expanded and that
have played mighty part In the
world, have in the end grown old and
weakened and vanished; but so have
the nations whose only thought was
to avoid all danger, all effort, who
would risk nothing, and who therefore
gained nothing. In the end the same
fate may overwhelm all alike: but the
memory of the one type perishes with
It. while the other leaves it's mark
deep on the history of all the future
Of mankind.
"A nation that seemingly dies may