The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-28
Colonel Roosevelt in an Adj
dress at the University
At Sac PaulO, Brazil, Defines
Good Citizenship.
A REPUBLIC CANNOT PROSPER
He Says Without Courage, Res
OlutiOn, Energy and Power
On the Part of Those COnStitut-
ing the Body Polite.

Sac Paulo, Oct. 2S.-What constitutes
character?
Theodore Roosevelt addressed him
self to this question today in a speech
on Character and Civilization de-
Iivered in the government university
here.
THE sum of those qualities, distinct
from the purely intellectual qualities,
which are essential to moral eff
cheney" was Colonel ROosevelt's def
milton of character. Resolution, cour-
age. energy, power of self-control COM
bined with fearlessness in taking the
initiative and assuming responsibility
q just regard for the rights of others,
together woth unfiinching determine
ton to succeed. no matter what obsta-
Giles and barriers have TO be beaten
down. There is, moreover, one quail
ity too often wholly lacking in men of
high intellectual ability. whichout
which real character cannot exist;
namely. the fundamental gift of COM
mon sense"
Character, Colonel Roosevelt said,
must ever outrank genius and intel
1ect- Intellect was a useful servant
but an evil master unless itself mas
tered by character. This was true of
individuals and in larger sense true of
nations. American republics. north
and south. had shown in the past
again and again, curious forgetful-
ness of this precept. A republic could
prosper although the average man
were not brilliant; republic could not
prosper if its average man became in
firm of mind and soul, if he feared
hard labor. if he sought to rise by
ways that represent wrong to his
wea ker brethren
History had written large the truth
that only the nation with character
endured. Colonel Roosevelt continued
"
the leaders led lives of self-indulgence
and viciousness. the nation decayed
and declined.
I'VE citizens of the various common
wealths of the New World are engaged
in a double task" Colonel Roosevelt
said. I'VE are endeavoring to retain
without loss the cultural civilization
inherited through our fOrefathers who
came hither from the Old World. We
are also endeavcring so to develop and
adapt this Old World civilization as to
purge it of whatever of evil is mixed
with the good therein. to bring forth
new good. and to fit and adjust it to
the peculiar needs and opportunities
yielded by the Western hemisphere.
Both sides of the task present grave
difficulties.
Conquering New Continent.
1.-THE work of conquering a new con-
tinent is one of incredible hardship.
The men of greatest cultivation are
rarely fit for the task. Only men of
rugged will and bold and adventurous
temper can undertake it. The strain
on the pioneers engaged in the feat is
such that under it they tend to lose
something of the culture their ancea-
tors beyond the seas had through he
long ages slowly acquired. 1t is there
fore our duty to exercise an unceas-
ing watchfulness in order not to lose
any part of our heritage in world civ
liza ton. and. if We do lose anything,
promptly to recover it. Furthermore,
there is no small amount of wrong
which our forefathers in the Old World
handed down to US, and for this it is
our duty to devise remedies.
Moreover. the circumstances of or
lives under the new conditions yielded
by life on new continents not only Of
fer great opportunities which our Old