The San Francisco call., 1910-04-24

PARKS, april Z5.-ln MS lee
ture today at the Sorbonne,
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
spoke on individual citizenship
in the republics of France and
the United States. In part he
said:
With you here. and with us in
my own home, in the long run,
success or failure will be condi-
toned upon the way in which the
average man, the average
woman, does his or her duty first
in the ordinary, everyday af-
fairs of life and next in those
great occasional crises which
call for the heroic virtues. The
average citizen must be a good
citizen if our republics are to
succeed The stream will not
permanently rise higher than the
main source; and the main
source of national power and ma
tional greatness is found in the
average citizenship of the ma
tion. Therefore it behooves US
to do our best to see that the
standard of the average citizen
is kept high; and the average
can not be kept high unless the
standard of the leaders is very
much higher.
SPECIAL ADVANTAGES
1t is well If a large proper
tion of the leaders in any repub-
lie. in any democracy, are, as a
matter of course, drawn from the
classes represented in this au-
dience today; but only provided
that those classes possess the
gifts of sympathy with plain
people and of devotion to great
ideals. You and those like you
have received special advan-
ages; you have all of you had
the opportunity for mental
training; many of you have had
leisure; most of you have had a
chance for the enjoyment of life
far greater than comes to the
majority of your fellows. To
you and your kind much has
been given, and from you much
should be expected.
1T is not the critic who
counts; not the man who points
out how the strong man STUN
bles, or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and
sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs, and comes
short again and again, because
there is no effort without error
and shortcomiug; but who does
actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows the great enthusiasm,
the great deyotons; who spends
himself in a worthy cause; who
at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, If he falls,
at least fails while daring great
ly, SO that his place shall never
be with those cold and timid
souls who know neither victory
nor defeat.
SHAME ON THESE MEN
Shame on the man OF culti-
waited Taste who permits refine
ment to develop in a fastidiouS
ness that units him for doing
the rough work of a workaday
world Among the free peoples
who govern themselves there is
but 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 de-
ride or slight what is done by
those who actually bear the
brunt of the day; nor yet for
those others who always profess
that they would like TO take ac-
tion, if only the conditions of life
were not what they actually are.
Il pay all homage to intellect and
TO elaborate and specialized
training of the intellect; and yet
] know / shall have the assent of
all of you present when add
that more important still are the
commonplace, everyday qualities
and virtue.
such ordinary, everyday quail
ties include the will and the pow
er to work, to fight at need, and
to have plenty of healthy chill
dren. There are few people in
every country so born that they
can lead lives of leisure. These
fill a useful function If they
make it evident that leisure does
not mean idleness. But the av
erage 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 if he is idle, at whichever
end of the social scale he stands,
but an object of contempt, 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
to serve his country as a soldier
if the need arises. There are well
meaning philosophers who de-
claim 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 it is such a crime because it
is unjust, not because 1t is war.
The choice must ever be in favor
of righteousness, and this
whether the alternative be peace
or whether the alternative be
war
Finally, even more important
than ability to work, even more
important than ability to fight at
need, is 1t to remember that the
chief of blessings for any nation is