Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-04-29
COL. ROOSEVELT
SPEAKS IN PARIS
Addresses Distinguished Audience
at Ancient University.
"CITIzENsRIP" HIS SUBJECT
Tells Students and Professors of Duty
OF France an Nation and Them
selves as individuals to the World
Reads Them Lecture or SterIIity.

Paris, April 23.-Ex-President Roose-
Welt today lectured before an audience
at the Sorbonne, that comprised the
greatest gathering of the intellect and
learning of France that has gathered
at this ancient educational sea In
more than a century, if ever before.
Long before the time announced for
the beginning of Colonel RoOsevelt's
lecture every seat in the great audi
forum was filled, and thousands lined
the walks and streets about the uni
Versity. Colonel Roosevelt said:
Foundations of Our Republic.
This was the most famous univer-
sity of medieval Europe at a time
when no one dreamed that there was
a new world to discover. Its services
to the cause of human knowledge al
ready stretched far back in to the
remote past at the time when my fore
fathers, three centuries ago, were
among the sparse bands Of traders,
plOwmen, wood choppers, and fisher
foil who, in a hard struggle with the
iron unfriendliness Of the Indian
haunted land, were laying the founda-
tions Of what has now become the
giant republic of the west. To con-
Quer a continent, to tame the shaggy
r%oughness Of wild nature means grim
warfare; and the generations engaged
in it cannot keep, still less add to,
the stores Of garnered wisdom which
were therein, and which are still in
the hands Of their brethren who dwell
In the old-land. To conquer the
wilderness means to wrest victory
from the same hostile forces with
which mankind struggled in the i'm
memorial infancy of our ace. The
primeval conditions must be met by
primeval qualities which are 1ncom-
patible with the retention of much
that has been painfully acquired by
humanity as through the ages 1t has
striven upward toward civilization.
In conditions so primitive there can
be but a primitive culture.
Building the Higher Life.
AS the country grows, its people, who
have won success in so many lines,
turn back to try to recOver the pos
sessions of the mind and the spirit,
which perforce their fathers threw
aside in order better to wage the first
rough battles for the continent their
children inherit. The leaders of
thought and Of action grope their way
forward to a new life, realizing, some
times dimly, sometimes clear-sighted-
ly, that the life Of material gain,
whether for a nation or an individual,
IL of value only as a foundation, only
as there is added to 1t the uplift that
comes from devotion to loftier ideals.
The new life thus sought a in part
be developed afresh from what is
round about In the new world; but
it car be developed in full only by
freely drawing upon the treasure
houses of the old world, upon the
treasures stored in the ancient abodes
of wisdom and learning, such as this
where l speak today.
It Is a mistake for any nation merely
to copy another; but it is an eve
greater mistake, 1t is a proof of weak
ness in any nation, not to be anxious
to learn from another, and willing and
able to adapt that learning to the new
national conditions and make 1t fruit
full and productive therein. 1t Is for
us of the new world to sit at the feet
of the Gamaliel of the old; then If we
have the right stuff In us, we can show
that Paul, in bis turn, can become a
teacher as well as a scholar.
Today, l shall speak to you on the
subject Of individual citizenship, the
one subject of vital Importance to you,
my hearers, and to me and my coun
trymen, because you and we are citi.
zens Of great democratic republics. A
democratic republic such as each OF
ours-an efort to realize in its full
sense government by, of, and for the
people-represents the most gigantic
of all possible social experiments, the
n fraught with greatest possibilities
alike for good and for evil.
Great Lessons of France.
France has taught many lessons to
other nations; surely one of the most
important is the lesson her whole his.
tory teaches. that a high artistic and
literary development is compatible
with notable leadership in arms and
~statecraft. The brilliant gallantry Of
the French soldier has for many cen
turtles been proverbial, and during
these same centuries at every court in
Europe the free masons of fashion
have treated the French tongue as
their common speech; while every art
LIST and man of letters, and every mar
of science able to appreciate that mar
velous instrument of precision, French
prose. has turned towards France fol
aid and inspiration. How long the lead
ersh!p in arms and letters has lasted
is curiously illustrated by the fact thai
the earliest masterpiece In modern
tongue Is the splendid French epic
which tells of Roland's doom and the
vengeance Of Charlemagne when tho
lords Of the Frankish host were
stricken at Roncesvalles.
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