New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-21
no hampering ambitions as world
power.
America as Trustee.

no hampering ambitions as world
power.
America as Trustee.
Tf we have been obliged by circum-
stances. or have considered ourselves
to be obliged by circumstances IN the
mast to take territory which we other
wise would not have though; OF TAX
ing. believe | am right in saying that
we have considered i: our duty to ad-
minister that territory, not for our
selves. but for the people living IN IT,.
and to put this burden upon our con
sciences, not to think that this thing
is ours for our use, but TO regard our
selves as trustees Of the great bust
ness for those to whom it does really
belong, trustees ready to hand over
to the cestui cue trust at any time
when the business seems to make that
possible and feasible.
THAT is what | mean By saying we
have no hamperinG ambitions. We do
not want anything that does not be-
long to US. Isn't a nation in that posi-
ton free to serve other nations, and
isn't a nation like that ready to form
some part of the assessing opinion OF
the world ?"
The President provoked laugh and
hearty applause when he said that,
while he was not looking for trouble, II
any man wanted scrap which was IN
teresting and worth while he stood
ready to accommodate him.
"My interest in the neutrality OF the
United States is not the petty desire to
keep out of trouble. ! have never
looked for it, but | have always found
it. do not want to walk around
trouble. If any man wants a scrap
that is an interesting scrap and worth
while. | am his man. | warn him that
he is not going to draw me into the
scrap for his advertisement, but II he
is looking for trouble that is the
trouble Of men in general, and ! can
h lp little, why, then, | am in Tor IT,
But ! am interested in neutrality
because there is something so much
greater to do than fight, because there
is something, there is distinction
waiting for this nation that no nation
has ever yet got. That is the dlstlnc-
ton of absolute self-control and self
mastery. Whom do you admire most
among your friends? The irritable
man? The man out of whom you can
get a rise without trying? The man
who will fight at the drop of the hat
whether he knows what the nat is
dropped for or not?
News from Turtle Bay
Don't you admire and don't you
fear, if you have to contest with him.
the self-mastered man who watches
YOU with calm eye and comes IN only
when you have carried the thing so
far that you must be disposed of !
That is the man you respect. That Is
the man who you know has at bottom
much more fundamental and terrible
courage than the irritable, hghting
man.
The President at this point referred
to Turtle Bay" news. Pointing his
two fingers at those directly in front
of him, and lowering his head little
as if to strike home what he had to
say, he continued:
Now. ! covet for America this splen-
did courage of reserve moral force, and
| wanted to point out TO you gentle
men simply this: There is news and
news.
There is what is called news from
Turtle Bay, that turns out to be false
hood, at any rate in what II is said to
signify, and which, if you could get
the nation to believe II true, might
disturb our equilibrium and our self
possession. We ought not TO deal IN
stuff of that kind. We ought not TO
permit things OF that sort TO use up
the electrical energy of the wires, be-
cause its energy is malign, its energy
is not of the truth, its energy is OF
mischief. It is possible to sift truth.
81 have known some things to go out
on the wires as true, when there was
only one man or one group of men who
could have told the Originators of the
report whether it was true or not, and
they were not asked whether it was
true or not, for fear it might not be
true. That sort OF report ought not 10
70 out over the wires.
There is generally. if not always,
somebody who knows whether. that
thing is so or rot, and IN these days
above all other days we ought TO take
particular pr.ns to resort TO the one
small group of men or TO the one man,
If there be but one, who knows whether
those things are true or not. The
world ought 70 know the truth. but the
world ought not at this period OF IN
stable equilibrium 10 DE disturbed by
rumor, ought not 70 be disturbed by
imaginative combinations Of circum-
stances. OF rather, by circumstances
stated in combination which do not
belong in combination.
News "the Food Of Opinion"
For we are holding. not !, nut you
and gentlemen engaged ike you, the
balances IN your hand. This unstable
equilibrium rests upon scales that are
in your hands. For the food Of opin-
ion, as | began by saying, Is the news
Of the day. | have known many man
90 off at a tangent on information
that was not reliable. Indeed, that dc
scribes the majority OF men. The world
is held stable by the man who waits
for the next day 10 find out whether
the report was true or not.
I'VE cannot afford, therefore, TO let
the rumors of irresponsible persons
end origins get into the atmosphere OF
the United States. We are trustees for
what ! venture 10 say Is the greatest
heritage that any nation ever had
the love Of justice and righteousness
and human liberty. For. fundamentally.
those are the things TO which America
is addicted and 70 which she is de-
voted.
There are groups of selfish men in
the United States, there are coteries
where sinister things are purposed, but