The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-06-07
Former President Speaks at Ok
ford on Biological Analo-
gies in History"
FUTURE DEPENDS ON PEOPLE
There is Much Which Should Give Us
Hope, He Says-Declares National
Greatness Depends on National
Character.

London, June 7-Colonel Theodor,
Roosevelt spoke mt the oxford uni.
yersity today and took as the subjec
Of his lecture Biological Analogles II
History" Col. Roosevelt said:
Rome fell by attack from without
only because the ills within her owr
borders had grown incurable. What
is true of your country, my hearers, Is
true of my own; while we should be
vigilant against foes from without, yet
we need never really fear them so long
as we safeguard ourselves against the
enemies within our own households;
and these enemies are our own pas
sions and follies. Free peoples can
escape being mastered by others only
by being able to master themselves.
British Isles, alike, need ever to keep
in mind that, among the many quail
ties indispensable to the success of a
great democracy, and second only to
Il high and stern sense of duty, of NOR
al obligation, are self-knowledge and
self-mastery. You, my hosts, and
may not agree i'm all our views; some
of you would think me a very radical
democrat-as. for the matter of that,
! am; and my theory of imperialism
would probably suit the anti-imperial-
lists as little as it would suit a certain
type of forcible-feeble imperialist. But
there are some points on which we
must all agree if we think soundly.
The precise form of government, demo-
cratic or otherwise, is the instrument,
the tool with which we work. 1t is
important to have a good tool. But,
even if it is the best possible, it is only
tool No implement can ever take
the place of the guiding intelligence
that wields it. A very bad tool will
ruin the work of the best craftsman;
but good tool In bad hands is no
better. In the last analysis the all
important factor in national greatness
is national character.
Danger in Race Suicide.
There are questions that we of the
great civilized nations are ever tempt
ed to ask of the future. Is our time of
growth drawing to an end? Are we as
nations soon to come under the rule of
that great law of death which is itself
but part of the great law of life? None
can tell. Forces that we can see and
nth LII. tlaat
can but dimly be apprehcnded are at
work all around us, both for good and
for evil. The growth in luxury, i'm love
of ease, I'm taste for vapid and frivo-
lous excitement, is both evident and
unhealthy. The most ominous sign is
the diminution i'm the birth-rate, and
the rate of natural increase now To
larger or lesser degree shared by most
of the civilized nations of central and /
western Europe, of America and Aus !
tralia a diminution so great t if 1t
continues for the next century 1t the
rate which has obtained for the last
twenty-five years, all the more highly
civilized peoples will be stationary or
else have begun to go backward In |
population, while many of them will
have already gone very far backward
Hope for the Future.
There Is much that should give us
concern for the future. But there is
much also which should give us hope.
No man is more apt to be mistaken
than the prophet of evil. After the |
French revolution I'm 1880, Niebuhr
hazarded the guess that all civiliza-
ton was about to go down with |
crash, that we were all about to share |
The fall of third and fourth century
Rome-a respectable but painfully |
overworked comparison. The fears
once expressed by the followers of
Nautilus as to the future of the world
nave proved groundless as regards the |
civilized portion of the world Ii Is
strange indeed TO look back at Car
yle's prophecies of some seventy years |
life of achievement, the life of conquest |
'f every kind, and of noble effort |
'rowned by success, which has been |
ours for the two generations since he |
complained to high heaven that all
The tales had been told and all the |
songs sung, and that all the deeds |
'eally worth doing had been done. /
believe with all my heart that great
uture remains for us; but whether II
Toes or does not, our duty Is not al
cred However the battle may 60 the
soldier worthy of the name will with
utmost vigor do his allotted task, and |
'ear himself as valiantly in defeat as
n victory. Come what will. we belong
% peoples who have not yielded to the
raven fear OF being great In the ages
nat have gone by, the great nations,
ne nations that have expanded and
nat have played a mighty part In the
world have i'm the end grown old and
weakened and vanished; but so have
ne nations whose only thought was to