The Topeka state journal., 1919-10-23
AMERICANS IN THE MAKING.

AMERICANS IN THE MAKING.
With every five cents given this
week by the school boy as an offering
to the Roosevelt Memorial fund that
boy is doing more. than contributing
his mite to the building of material
monument to Theodore Roosevelt. He
is laying the foundation for sturdy
manhood that will enable him to face
the entire world with confidence and
sele respcct-the ideal American.
In no surer way will the boys of the
United States come under the influ-
ence of the Great Exponent of Amer
icanism than by their interest being
compelled thru making them part
proprietors in the memorial to be
built as mark of Rooseyelt's coun-
try's appreciation of his character as
stone and marble but OF the very boys
themselves.
Every boy is a hero worshiper. He
plays with, eats with, lives with. his
hero. The world of boyville is made
up of plastic minds and the immature
ideals Of child. when wisely direct
ed, unfold and grow and develop as
he passes from boyhood and becomes
a man in a world of men. And all
important is the moulding master
hand.
A boys abstract hero becomes a
concrete reality as soon as his heart
swells with the pride of possession.
The ideals of Roosevelt are his from
the moment he adds his loyal offer
ing to his schools Roosevelt fund. It
follows that this interest will compel
the development of q closer knowl-
edge, a personal, more intimate. ac-
quaintance of the man himself, than
whom there is none better for him to
set up as guide and example.
1t is significant that it is not as
president that Roosevelt appeals to
the youth OF the nation, but as Roose-
welt the man. His intense earnest
ness, his daring initiative, his fearless
honesty reach the boyish sense of hon
or and squareness as never the posi-
ton of president could do. It is the
democracy of Roosevelt in touch with
the democracy of boyhood.
Everything the boy aspires to be,
Roosevelt was. And he was because
he made himself so. Handicapped in
childhood by physical weakness. with
eyesight defective. he had every dis
advantage that would have discour-
aged the ordinary student.
But because Roosevelt was not or
binary he was not discouraged. To
make up for lost school attendance. he
followed special courses in study and
reading. Because he succeeded, the
to persevere and so carry on his edu-
cation.
The delicate boy. constitutionally
weak, will be enhearteneds to follow
health rules because, tho Roosevelt
was a sickly child, his observance of
the laws OF nature in careful living
brought him to hardy maturity.
But the strongest appeal of Roose-
velt's life is. the average quality of it.
To begin with, he was an average
man and compelled success in all his
undertakings by getting the utmost
possible out OF the qualities he ac-
tually possessed. He did nothing the
average boy can not hope to do. His
idea was that the average man who
is successful-the average statesman,
the average public servant. the aver
age soldier, who wins what we call
great success-is not a genius. He is
a man who has merely the ordinary
qualities that he shares with his fell
lows, but who has developed those or
binary qualities to aA more than ordi-
nary degree
And no one can deny that the big
gest, the best. the finest things in life
are taught by the books Roosevelt
wrote. the life he lived, and the mem
ory he leaves behind him.