The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1911-04-07
R~OOSFvELT'S ADDRESS.
Continued from page y

PVSoeSSioh Ny Tile orulndry man, Dy the
ordinary woman, of whose qualities we
OLD necessary to good citizenfhip.
And say an ordinary woman-now
mind you, the woman plays a greater
part than eve the man.
Our whole civilization rests upon the
home-upon the duty of the wife and
the mother in that home, and the shame
upon the man who does not recognize
that, and does not do his best to make
things easy for the wife and mother
who does her duty.
All of you know-I do-a certain type
of man the man or men who can 20
down to the crossroads store and ex-
plain in detail and at length how the
nation ought to be run, and meanwhile
he lives at all only because his wife
takes in washing; now, you are never
going to get a good citizen for the state
until first of all he is q good citizen in
his own family; if he is a man whose
family breathes a sigh Of relief when
he goes out of the house. you can guar
antee 1t is not worth while to have him
. go anywhere else; he is of mighty little
use elsewhere, if he is no use at home.
Hnd the first duty of every mar is to
pull his own weight; if he can't take
care of himself and those dependent
upon him, he is of mighty little use in
trying to take care of anyone else. l
don't care very much for the man who
a6ounds in philantropic enthusiasm, but
whose friends have to pay his debts.
Now. any one of US will stumble;
there isn't a man of US here who
doesn'n now and then stumble: in that
case, shame to the man who doesn't
stretch out his hand to his brother who
has slipped, who has fallen and HELM
him up, but when you help him up he
has got to walk himself; if he laws down
there is no use trying to carly him:
help him up, and then he has got to
walk himself. He has got to be able to
DO himself and to those dependent upon
him before he is of any use in trying
to do his duty outside.
But that isn't enough; besides doing
squarely in his family, he has then got
to bear his duty to the state, to the
nation, his duty to the commonwealth;
he has got to join with his fellows IN
giving the elementary necessaries of
good government, and to do that. in
the private man, as well as in the pub
lie nan. what is needed is not genius,
not ever intellect so much of itself.
so much as character.
That is what is of the most value to
any man-is character; and character
is made up of a good many qualities.
but above all others, of these three: in
the first place, the mar has got to be
an honest mani use honesty in the
widest and deepest sense and signif-
cance--he has got to be square in his
dealings all along. don't care how
able a man is, if he isn't honest. then
the ADLER he is, the more dangerous he
is, and ave no patience with that type
OF man who deties a nan because thew
say he is smart.
The smart public mar who hasn't :
any conscience is a danger to every
body, and especially a danger to those
who follow him. Don't you ever trust
a mar who seeks to tell you that he
will help you by doing damage to some |
body else in your interest; he will do
damage to you in his interest, if he
gets a chance; Let me give you one
example OF when | lived in the COW
country out west. They used to have
no fences and the cattle were branded.
each calf with the brand of the COW ii
followed, and by ranch law we would
slip on the brand of the ranch on which
he found an unbranded yearlinp. | had !
a new COW puncher hired one day. and
we started over the ranch and we struck
a maverick, and we got out the iron !
and started to brand him, and | said.
You ar on the Thistle Ranch, put on
the Thistle brand" He said. All
right, boss, | know my business"
SAID, Hold up, you are putting on my
brand. He said, Yes, always put
on the boss's brand" l said, You go
back and get your time" He saws.
WHATS that for? | was putting on
your brand and | said, Yes. nv
friend, if you will steal for me, YOU
will steal from me-" !
So you want honesty first and hon
esty mt enough. | havn't anv use
for the honest man who is afraid--a
timid nan doesn't amount to any,
thing. | don't care how patriotic a SOL
der is, his patriotism doesn't count if
he runs away when the bullets come
over. You have got to have in addition
to honesty-you have got to have cour-
age. You can't be a good citizen in
any community unless, with honesty,
you have courage. And courage isn't
enough. :
don't care how brave a man is and
how honest, you a do mighty little
with him if he is a natural born fool.
In addition to honesty and in addition
~ SouidSc, yOu IuuSJ nave COe saving 4
grace of common sense; and the three
essentials to us here in America to
making a success of this great demo-
cratic community of are those
three essentials, the chief ingredients
of character: courage, honesty and
common senSe. |
And now friends, in closing, | re-
Gently took a trip abroad, a trip to AT +
RIGA first, then in Europe. l saw in
each country in Europe something by
which We could profit. l havn't any
use for a man that can't learn; when
ever a man has gotten to the point he
can't learn anything, his usefulness has
ended; bury him when he has got past
the stage of learning.
Isaw something to learn from in
each country. and | am fully aware of
the shortcomings in my own country;
| struggled pretty hard to remedy some
of them, and yet after all that is said
and done, l came back to my own coun-
try feeling that there is no other land
on the face of the globe where it is as