Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-04-28
ROOSEVELT GIVES
FORMAL LECTURE
First of Series of Addresses in Europe is
Greeted With Warmest Applause.

VI |
the United States. The distinguished
American delivered his lecture in the
Sorbonne, the first Of the series of
formal addresses he is to make in
European cities, and was the recipient
Of the highest honors and the warm.
est applause.
Colonel Roosevelt was driven from
his hotel to the Sorbonne early in the
afternoon, and the street through
which he passed were thronged with
men, women and children who cheered
him enthusiastically. He genially &C.
knowledged their greetings, as he did
those of the immense crowd that he'd
assembled outside the Sorbonne, I'M
able to gain admittance, but deter
mined to see the famous visitor.
Lecture In the Sorbonne.
When the applause that greeted his
appearance had died down, the ex-
president was introduced by the rec
tor and at once began the delivery of
his lecture. His subject-was "Citizen-
ship in a Republic" and his words
were addressed especially to young
men. Speaking easily and 1uenNy in
French so excellent that it caused his
auditors to wonder, the lecturer set
forth vigorously and eloquently his
ideas of the opportunities, and more
particularly the duties of citizens I'M
der such governments as those Of the
United States and France. At the
close of his address the applause was
long and hearty, and MI. Roosevelt
was warmly congratulated by a num-
Der of the distinguished men who had
heard him.
Mr.. RooseveIt's Speech.
Mr.. Roosevelt spoke as follows:
Strange and impressive associations
rise in the mind of a man in the world
who speaks before this august body in
this ancient Institution of learning. Be-
fore his eyes pass the shadows Of
mighty kings and warlike mobiles, Of
great masters of law, and theology;
through the shining dust of the dead
centuries he sees crowded figures that
tell OF the power and learning and
splendor of times gone by; and he
sees also the innumerable host of
humble students to whom clerkship
meant emancipation, to whom it was
well nigh the only outlet in the dark
thraldom of the middle ages.
Service Stretched Far Back.
This was the most famous university
Of medieval Europe at a time when
no n dreamed that there was a new
world to discover. Its services to the
cause of human knowledge already
stretched far back into the remote
past at the time when my forefath.
ers, three centuries ago, were among
the sparse bands of traders, plowmen
wood choppers and fisherfolk who, in
hard struggle with the iron unfriend
illness of the Indian-haunted land, were
laying the foundations of what has
now become the giant republic of the
west.
"SVh TttHISNdi SOis"ibtOIIos
To conquer a continent, to tame the
shaggy %roughness of wild nature
e grim warfare; and the genera
tons engaged in it cannot keep, still
less add to the stores of garnered wis
dom which were theirs, and which are
still in the hands of their brethren
who dwell in the old land. To con
quer the wilderness means to wres
victory from the same hostile forces
with which mankind struggled in thu
immemorial infancy of our race. Thu
primeval conditions must be met b.
primeval qualities which are incom
patible with the retention of mucl
that has been painfully acquired b!
humanity as through the ages it hai
striven upward toward civilization. Il
condition SO primitive there can b.
but a primitive culture. At first onl,
the rudest schools can be established
for no others would meet the need
of the hard driven, sinewy folk VIII,
thrust forward the frontier in tn
teeth of the savage and savage ma
ture; and many years elapse befor
any of these schools can develop int
seats of higher learning and broade
culture.
AS the country grows, it's peopl
who have won success in SO man
lines, turn back to try to recover tn
possessions of the mind and the spil
1t, which perforce their fathers threN
aside in order better to wage tn
first rough battles for the ~continen
their children inherit. The leaders 9
thought and Of action grope their wa
forward to a new life, realizing, SOM
times dimly, sometimes clear-sightet
ly, that the life Of material gail
whether for a nation or an individual
is of value only as a foundation, onl
as there is added to it the uplift tina
comes from devotion to loftier ideal'
The new life thus sought can in par
be developed afresh from what
round about in the new world; but
can be developed in full only by fret
" drawing upon the treasure house
of the old world, upon the treasure
stored in the ancient abodes Of vii
dom and learning, such as this wher'
Of I speak to-day. 1t is a mistake fc
any nation merely to copy another
but it is an even greater mistake,
is a proof OF weakness in any nj
ton, not to be anxious to learn frol
another, and willing and able to adaI
that learning to the new national col
ditions and make 1t fruitful and pr
ductive therein. 1t is for us Of tn
new world to sit at the feet Of Gan