The San Francisco call., 1910-04-24
ROOSEVELT WARNS FRANCE
AGAINST "RACE SUICIDE''

lerlt the land. III was Cne crow
of blessings in biblical times, and
it is the crown of blessings now.
GREATEST OF CURSES
THE greatest of all curses is
the curse of sterility, and the Sc
verest of all condemnations
should be that visited upon will
full sterility. The first essential
in any civilization is that the
man and the woman shall be
father and mother of healthy
children. so that the race shall
increase and not decrease. If
this is, not so. if through no fault
of the society there is failure to
increase, it is a great misfortune.
If the failure is due to deliberate
and willful fault, then it is not
merely a misfortune, it is one of
those crimes of ease and self
indulgence, of shrinking from
pain and effort and risk which
in the long run nature Furnishes
more heavily than any other.
IF we of the great republics,
II we, the free people who claim
to have emancipated ourselves
from the thralldom of wrong and
error, bring down on our heads
the curse that comes upon the
willfully barren, then it will be :.
an idle. waste of breath to prattle
of our achievements, to boast of
all that we have done. No re-
f1nement, of life no delicacy of
taste, no material progress. no
sordid heaping UP of riches, no
sensuous development of art and
literature. can in any way COM
pensate for the loss of the great
fundamental virtues; and of
these great fundamental virtues
the greatest is the races power
to perpetuate the race.
Character must show itself in
the mans performance, both of
the duty he owes himself and of
the duty he owes the state. The
mans foremost duty is owed to
himself and his family; and he
can do this duty only by earn
ing money, by providing what is
essential to material well being;
1t is only after this has been
done that he can help in move
ments for the general we'll being.
SCORES USELESS RICH
Nevertheless, while laying all
stress on this point, while not
merely acknowledging hut in
sisting upon the fact that there
must be basis of material well
being for the individual as for
the nation, let us with equal en-
phasis insist that this material
well being represents nothing but
the foundation, and that the
foundation, though indispensable,
raised the superstructure of
higher life. That is why l de-
cline to recognize the mere
multimillionaire, the man of
mere wealth. as an asset of value
to any country; and especially
as not an asset to my own coun-
IF he has earned or uses his
wealth in q way that makes him
of real benefit, of real use-and
such is often the case-why, then
he does become an asset of
worth. But it is the way in
which it has been earned or used,
and not the mere fact of wealth,
that entities him to the credit.
There is need in business, as in
most other forms of human ac-
tivity, of the great guiding in
telligences. Their places can not
be supplied by any number OF
lesser intelligences. 1t is a good
thing that they should have am
pie recognition, ample reward.
But we must not transfer our
admiral ton to the reward instead
of to the deed rewarded; and II
what should be the reward ex-
lists without the service having
been rendered. then admiration
will come only from those who
are. mean of soul.
FALSE STANDARDS
The truth is that, after GER
tain measure of tangible mate
rial success or reward has been
ing it becomes of constantly less
Importance compared to other
things that can be done in life.
1t is a bad thing for a nation to
raise and to admire a false
standard of success; and there
can be no falSer standard tnan
that set by the dedication of ma
terial well being in and for
itself.
There are plenty of men call
ing themselves socialists with
whom, up to a time point, it is
quite possible to work. If the
next step is one which both we
and they wish to take. why, of
course, take 1t, without any re-
gard to the fact that our views
as to the tenth step may differ.
But, on the other hand, keep
clearly in mind that, though it
has been worth while to take one
step, this does not in the least
mean that 1t may not be highly
disadvantageous TO take the next.
The good citizen will demand
liberty for himself, and. as a mat
ter of pride, he will see to it
that others receive the lib
erty which he thus claims as his
own. Probably the best test of
true love of liberty in any coun-
try is the way in which minori
ties are treated in that coun-
try. Not only should there be
complete liberty in matters of
religion and opinion. but COM
plete liberty for each man to
lead his life as he desires, pro-
vided only that in so doing he