East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-04-23
CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC
Address Roosevelt at The soronne
,

matter how low the quality of the ay-
erage citizen; because the average cit
izen is an almost neglible quantity in
working out the final results of that
type of national greatness.
But with you and with us the case
Is different With you here, and with
us In my own home, in the long run,
success or failure will be condition.
ed upon the way in which the aver
age man or woman does his or her du-
", first in the ordinary, everyday af-
fairs of life, next in those great occas-
ional crises which call for heroic yir-
lures. The average citizen must be a
good citizen If our republics are to
| succeed. The stream will not per-
manently rise higher than the main
source; and the main source of nation
al power and national greatness Is
found In the average citizenship of
the nation. Therefore 1t behooves us
to do our best to see that the stand
ard OF the average citizen is kept high;
and the average cannot be kept un-
less the standard of the leaders is
| very much higher.
| The Qualities OF Leadership.
1t Is well If large proportion of
| the leaders in any republic in any
democracy, are, as a matter of course,
| drawn from the classes represented
| In this audience today; but only pro-
vided that those classes possess the
gifts of sympathy with plain people
| and of devotion to great ideals. You
| and those like you have received spe-
cial advantages; you have all of you
| had the opportunity for mental train
| ing; 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 fell
lows. To you and your kind much
has been given, and from you much
should be expected. Yet there are
| certain failings against which It is
| especially incumbent that both men
| of trained and cultivated intellect,
| and men of inherited wealth and po-
sition, should especially guard them
| selves, because to these failings they
| are especially liable; and If yielded
| to, their-your-chance of useful SER
vice are at an end.
Beware of Cinicism.
Let the man of learning. the man of
lettered leisure, beware Of that queer
| and cheap temptation to pose to him
self and to others as the cynic, as the
| man who has outgrown emotions and
beliefs. the man to whom good and
evil are as one. The poorest way to
face life is to face 1t with a sneer.
There are many men who feel a kind
| of twisted pride in cynicism; there are
many who conflne themselves to crit
icism of the way others do what they
themselves dare not even attempt.
There is no more unhealthy being, no
man less worthy of respect, than he
who either really holds, or feigns to
hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief
towards all that is great and lofty,
whether in achievement or in that no.
BILE effort which. even If it fail. comes
second to achievement. A cynical
habit of thought and speech a readi-
ness to criticise work which the crit
ic himself never tries to perform, an
intellectual aloofness which will not
accept contact with life's realities
all these are marks, not, as the pos
SCISSOR would fain think. of superior
| ity, but of weakness. They mark the
men unfit to bear their part manfully
in the stern strife of living, who seek,
in the affectation of contempt for the
achievements of others, to hide from
others and from themselves their own
weakness. The role is easy; there is
none easier, save only the role of the
man who sneers alike at both criti-
cism and performance.
1t is not the critic who counts; not
the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, 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 valiant
ly; who errs, and comes short again
and again, because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the
deeds; who knows the great enthusi-
asms, the great devotions: who spends
himself in worthy cause; who at the
best knows in the end the triumph
of high achievement, and who at the
worst, If he fails, at least fails while
| daring greatly, so that his place shall
| never be with those cold and timid
| souls who know neither victory nor
| defeat. Shame on the man of cult
waited taste who permits refinement
to develop into a fastidiousness that
| unfts him for doing the rough work
of a workaday world. Among the
| free peoples who govern themselves
there is but a small rIeld of useful
| ness open for the men of cloistered
| life who shrink from contact with
their fellows. Still less room is there
| for those who actually bear the hrunt
of the day; nor yet for those others
who always profess that they would
like to take action. IL only the condi-
tions of life were not what they ac-
tually are. The man who does moth
| ing cuts the same sordid figure in the
pages of history, whether he be cynic,
or fop or voluptuary. There is lit
| tie use for the being whose tepid soul
! knows nothing of the great and gen.
erous emotion, of the high pride, the
Il