Omaha daily bee., 1919-01-13
ROOSEVELT May
HAVE DIED FROM
BROKEN HEART
Rev. Frank Smith Thinks That
Death Of Son May Have
fastened End; Expected
to Visit Grave.


heart, was the suggestion in the
peroration of aeIoquent discourse
delivered yesterday morning by the
Rev. Frank G. Smith, at the First
Central Congregational church.
Il almost wonder sometimes if
he did not die of a broken heart"
said the speaker Il wonder if
when the airplane fell out of the
sky and his baby boy was laid to
rest under the soil Of a foreign
land, where he so CALAMITY gave his
! life for his country, if all unknown
perhaps to himself it was not then
that his heart received the wound
fFom which he died.
He wanted soon to go to France
to visit Quentin's grave. Little did
he dream that so soon unseen fng-
ers would unlock the gates, and he
and his boy would be together again.
God give them both today the chap
glets of victors. God grant them
both rest and joy and peace and
send US forth TO complete their I'M
finished tasks for God and home and
native land, and all the big wide
world besides"
Roosevelt Great Man.
DR.. Smith selected for his subject
THE Leavening Power of Great
Personality" The minister devoted
his sermon to the far-reaching in
fuence in national life and history
of the words and deeds of Americas
great statesman.
The speaker declared that with
out any question both those who
agreed with him and those who diff
fered with him on questions of state
would all unhesitatingly vote Roose-
welt one of the very greatest men
the country has ever produced.
Just as mountain range seems
to be bound together by its lofty
peaks, which here and there lift
their grey. rugged heads above their
surroundings" continued DR.. Smith,
TO be buffeted by the storms and
kissed by the sun, so the history Of
nation is unified and glorifed by
its great hearts, great artists, philos-
ophers. inventors, scientists. preach
ers, warriors, orators and states
men, who in every generation rise
above the low range of the multi
tude, and lift their granite forms up
into the storm of unsettled prob
lens, and now and again are warm
ed and kissed by the sunlight OF
achievement.
Stands Out Among Men.
"And among these human noun
tain peaks in Americas history
stands Roosevelt. In a fine ming
ling and a we'll poised balance Of
conservatism and progress, he prob
ably was excelled by Washington;
| in those unfathomed depths of hui
man sympathy that makes a man
akin to all the world and the bearer
] of its burdens, he undoubtedly was
excelled by Linco;o; IN genial
courteous, diplomatic statesman
ship, Mckinley was easily his SUI
perior, and in ferverent, but scholar
ly and logical idealism, coupled with
an ability to state clearly and con-
] vincingly, and a winsome, persis-
tent, enthusiastic conviction of the
immediate possibility of the realiza-
ton of these ideals, the present IN
cumbent of the white house is un-
doubtedly his peer, and perhaps his
superior.
but perhaps in none of these
could be found so many qualities
that appealed to all grades and
shades of humanity as were found
in this great soul, who so quietly
fell asleep one week ago. OF all
the great men of our generation
he was pre-eminently the most YER
satile and most verile. In him all
the elements so thoroughly mixed
that All the world could say, that
this is man.
Things Which Stand Out.
"Time forbids us to enter into any
analysis of the elements of his great
ness today, but certain things stand
out so prominently that they may be
spoken of in a word. First of all
he had a clear, we'll defined con-
seriousness of the dignity and nobil-
| ity of human life, of human person
atty. He believed that the body
was the instrument through which
the soul reveals its music and the
machinery by which the mind
achieves and therefore that every
human being ought to have a chance
to have the finest, cleanest, strong
est body that it was possible for him
to possess. Hence his intense in
terest in ali forms of athletics and
exercise and his fervent espousal OF
the cause of universal training.
Roosevelt believed that the mind
was the means by which man dis
ccvers all the hidden secrets of
God, that once understood. make
life vastly more worth while and
therefore it should be trained and
disciplined until it glistens and gilt
tiers like a Damascus blade; and he
/ believed that the heart is the great
deep of mans spiritual being, the
| dynamo of his moral activities and
that only as he keeps it pure can he
walk with the Infinite and talk with
Him and thus be guided into the
highest realms of human achieve
ment.
The dignity and nobility of hui
man life was a gospel that he
| preached to all men everywhere
both by word and deed. And again
he had very clear cut conscious
ness of the unity of life; that no
man liveth to himself and no man
dieth to himself; that all our lives
are bound up together; that every
man ought to have a fair chance to
receive from society in proportion
to his value to society. 1t was in
pursuance of his belief in this prin-
ciple that he arrayed himself against
the gigantic trusts when he was
president of our country and cast
in his lot with the common people