“We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood. We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always be done.”
It would be in the highest degree undesirable that
we should all work in the same way or at the same things, and for the
sake of the real greatness of the nation we should in the fullest and
most cordial way recognize the fact that some of the most needed work
must, from its very nature, be unremunerative in a material sense.
Each man must choose so far as the conditions allow him the path to
which he is bidden by his own peculiar powers and inclinations. But if
he is a man he must in some way or shape do a man’s work. If, after
making all the effort that his strength of body and of mind permits,
he yet honorably fails, why, he is still entitled to a certain share
of respect because he has made the effort. But if he does not make the
effort, or if he makes it half-heartedly and recoils from the labor,
the risk, or the irksome monotony of his task, why, he has forfeited
all right to our respect, and has shown himself a mere cumberer of the
earth. It is not given to us all to succeed, but it is given to us all
to strive manfully to deserve success.
We need, then, the iron qualities that must go with true manhood. We
need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable
will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always
be done, and to persevere through the long days of slow progress or of
seeming failure which always come before any final triumph, no matter
how brilliant. But we need more than these qualities. This country can
not afford to have its sons less than men; but neither can it afford to
have them other than good men. If courage and strength and intellect
are unaccompanied by the moral purpose, the moral sense, they become
merely forms of expression for unscrupulous force and unscrupulous
cunning. If the strong man has not in him the lift toward lofty things
his strength makes him only a curse to himself and to his neighbor. All
this is true in private life, and it is no less true in public life. If
Washington and Lincoln had not had in them the whipcord fibre of moral
and mental strength, the soul that steels itself to endure disaster
unshaken and with grim resolve to wrest victory from defeat, then the
one could not have founded, nor the other preserved, our mighty Federal
Union. The least touch of flabbiness, of unhealthy softness, in either
would have meant ruin for this nation, and therefore the downfall of
the proudest hope of mankind.
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
The
partnership should be one of equal rights, one of love, of self-respect,
and unselfishness, above all a partnership for the performance of the
most vitally important of all duties. The performance of duty, and not
an indulgence in vapid ease and vapid pleasure, is all that makes life
worth while.
Suffrage for women should be looked on from this standpoint. Personally
I feel that it is exactly as much a "right" of women as of men to vote.
But the important point with both men and women is to treat the
exercise of the suffrage as a duty, which, in the long run, must be
well performed to be of the slightest value. I always favored woman's
suffrage, but only tepidly, until my association with women like Jane
Addams and Frances Kellor, who desired it as one means of enabling them
to render better and more efficient service, changed me into a zealous
instead of a lukewarm adherent of the cause--in spite of the fact that
a few of the best women of the same type, women like Mary Antin, did not
favor the movement. A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon
the character of the user. The mere possession of the vote will no more
benefit men and women not sufficiently developed to use it than the
possession of rifles will turn untrained Egyptian fellaheen into
soldiers. This is as true of woman as of man--and no more true.
Universal suffrage in Hayti has not made the Haytians able to govern
themselves in any true sense; and woman suffrage in Utah in no shape or
way affected the problem of polygamy. I believe in suffrage for women
in America, because I think they are fit for it. I believe for women,
as for men, more in the duty of fitting one's self to do well and wisely
with the ballot than in the naked right to cast the ballot.
I wish that people would read books like the novels and stories, at once
strong and charming, of Henry Bordeaux, books like Kathleen Norris's
"Mother," and Cornelia Comer's "Preliminaries," and would use these,
and other such books, as tracts, now and then! Perhaps the following
correspondence will give a better idea than I can otherwise give of the
problems that in everyday life come before men and women, and of the
need that the man shall show himself unselfish and considerate, and do
his full share of the joint duty:
January 3, 1913.
“War is not merely justifiable, but imperative upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, where peace can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of national welfare”
The close connection between the subjects to be taken up by the Red
Cross Conference held at Geneva last summer and the subjects which
naturally would come before The Hague Conference made it apparent that
it was desirable to have the work of the Red Cross Conference completed
and considered by the different powers before the meeting at The Hague.
The Red Cross Conference ended its labors on the 6th day of July, and
the revised and amended convention, which was signed by the American
delegates, will be promptly laid before the Senate.
By the special and highly appreciated courtesy of the Governments of
Russia and the Netherlands, a proposal to call The Hague Conference
together at a time which would conflict with the Conference of the
American Republics at Rio de Janeiro in August was laid aside. No other
date has yet been suggested. A tentative program for the conference has
been proposed by the Government of Russia, and the subjects which it
enumerates are undergoing careful examination and consideration in
preparation for the conference.
It must ever be kept in mind that war is not merely justifiable, but
imperative, upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, where peace
can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of
national welfare. Peace is normally a great good, and normally it
coincides with righteousness; but it is righteousness and not peace
which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the
conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can
surrender conscience to another's keeping. Neither can a nation, which
is an entity, and which does not die as individuals die, refrain from
taking thought for the interest of the generations that are to come, no
less than for the interest of the generation of to-day; and no public
men have a right, whether from shortsightedness, from selfish
indifference, or from sentimentality, to sacrifice national interests
which are vital in character. A just war is in the long run far better
for a nation's soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by
acquiescence in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for
a nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the dreadful
consequences of being defeated in war, yet it must always be remembered
that even to be defeated in war may be far better than not to have
fought at all.
“No man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expedience”
Discarding the two extremes, the men who deliberately work for evil,
and the men who are unwilling or incapable of working for good, there
remains the great mass of men who do desire to be efficient, who do
desire to make this world a better place to live in, and to do what
they can toward achieving cleaner minds and more wholesome bodies. To
these, after all, we can only say: Strive manfully for righteousness,
and strive so as to make your efforts for good count. You are not to be
excused if you fail to try to make things better; and the very phrase
“trying to make things better” implies trying in practical fashion. One
man’s capacity is for one kind of work and another man’s capacity for
another kind of work. One affects certain methods and another affects
entirely different methods. All this is of little concern. What is of
really vital importance is that something should be accomplished, and
that this something should be worthy of accomplishment. The field is
of vast size, and the laborers are always too few. There is not the
slightest excuse for one sincere worker looking down upon another
because he chooses a different part of the field and different
implements. It is inexcusable to refuse to work, to work slackly or
perversely, or to mar the work of others.
No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency. He is
bound to do all the good possible. Yet he must consider the question
of expediency, in order that he may do all the good possible, for
otherwise he will do none. As soon as a politician gets to the point
of thinking that in order to be “practical” he has got to be base,
he has become a noxious member of the body politic. That species of
practicability eats into the moral sense of the people like a cancer,
and he who practices it can no more be excused than an editor who
debauches public decency in order to sell his paper.
We need the worker in the fields of social and civic reform; the man
who is keenly interested in some university settlement, some civic club
or citizens’ association which is striving to elevate the standard of
life. We need clean, healthy newspapers, with clean, healthy criticism
which shall be fearless and truthful. We need upright politicians,
who will take the time and trouble, and who possess the capacity, to
manage caucuses, conventions, and public assemblies.
“A just war is in the long run far better for a mans soul than the most prosperous peace”
A tentative program for the conference has
been proposed by the Government of Russia, and the subjects which it
enumerates are undergoing careful examination and consideration in
preparation for the conference.
It must ever be kept in mind that war is not merely justifiable, but
imperative, upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, where peace
can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of
national welfare. Peace is normally a great good, and normally it
coincides with righteousness; but it is righteousness and not peace
which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the
conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can
surrender conscience to another's keeping. Neither can a nation, which
is an entity, and which does not die as individuals die, refrain from
taking thought for the interest of the generations that are to come, no
less than for the interest of the generation of to-day; and no public
men have a right, whether from shortsightedness, from selfish
indifference, or from sentimentality, to sacrifice national interests
which are vital in character. A just war is in the long run far better
for a nation's soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by
acquiescence in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for
a nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the dreadful
consequences of being defeated in war, yet it must always be remembered
that even to be defeated in war may be far better than not to have
fought at all. As has been well and finely said, a beaten nation is not
necessarily a disgraced nation; but the nation or man is disgraced if
the obligation to defend right is shirked.
We should as a nation do everything in our power for the cause of
honorable peace. It is morally as indefensible for a nation to commit a
wrong upon another nation, strong or weak, as for an individual thus to
wrong his fellows. We should do all in our power to hasten the day when
there shall be peace among the nations--a peace based upon justice and
not upon cowardly submission to wrong. We can accomplish a good deal in
this direction, but we can not accomplish everything, and the penalty
of attempting to do too much would almost inevitably be to do worse
than nothing; for it must be remembered that fantastic extremists are
not in reality leaders of the causes which they espouse, but are
ordinarily those who do most to hamper the real leaders of the cause
and to damage the cause itself.
“The spirit of brotherhood recognizes of necessity both the need of self-help and also the need of helping others in the only way which every ultimately does great god, that is, of helping them to help themselves.”
Nowhere is it,
or will it ever be, possible to supplant individual effort, individual
initiative; but in addition to this there must be work in combination.
More and more this is recognized as true not only in charitable work
proper, but in that best form of philanthropic endeavor where we all do
good to ourselves by all joining together to do good to one another.
This is exactly what is done in your associations.
It seems to me that there are several reasons why you are entitled to
especial recognition from all who are interested in the betterment of
our American social system. First and foremost, your organization
recognizes the vital need of brotherhood, the most vital of all our
needs here in this great Republic. The existence of a Young Men’s or
Young Women’s Christian Association is certain proof that some people
at least recognize in practical shape the identity of aspiration and
interest, both in things material and in things higher, which with us
must be widespread through the masses of our people if our national
life is to attain full development. This spirit of brotherhood
recognizes of necessity both the need of self-help and also the need
of helping others in the only way which ever ultimately does great
good, that is, of helping them to help themselves. Every man of us
needs such help at some time or other, and each of us should be glad
to stretch out his hand to a brother who stumbles. But while every man
needs at times to be lifted up when he stumbles, no man can afford to
let himself be carried, and it is worth no man’s while to try thus to
carry some one else. The man who lies down, who will not try to walk,
has become a mere cumberer of the earth’s surface.
These Associations of yours try to make men self-helpful and to help
them when they are self-helpful. They do not try merely to carry them,
to benefit them for the moment at the cost of their future undoing.
This means that all in any way connected with them not merely retain
but increase their self-respect. Any man who takes part in the work
of such an organization is benefited to some extent and benefits the
community to some extent—of course, always with the proviso that the
organization is well managed and is run on a business basis, as well as
with a philanthropic purpose.
“The men and women who have the right ideals... are those who have the courage to strive for the happiness which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice, and those whose joy in life springs in part from power of work and sense of duty.”
They have
had their share of accidents and escapes; as I write, word comes from
a far-off land that one of them, whom Seth Bullock used to call "Kim"
because he was the friend of all mankind, while bossing a dangerous
but necessary steel structural job has had two ribs and two back teeth
broken, and is back at work. They have known and they will know joy and
sorrow, triumph and temporary defeat. But I believe they are all the
better off because of their happy and healthy childhood.
It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks,
and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home. No
father and mother can hope to escape sorrow and anxiety, and there are
dreadful moments when death comes very near those we love, even if for
the time being it passes by. But life is a great adventure, and the
worst of all fears is the fear of living. There are many forms of
success, many forms of triumph. But there is no other success that in
any shape or way approaches that which is open to most of the many, many
men and women who have the right ideals. These are the men and the women
who see that it is the intimate and homely things that count most. They
are the men and women who have the courage to strive for the happiness
which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice, and only to
those whose joy in life springs in part from power of work and sense of
duty.
CHAPTER X
THE PRESIDENCY; MAKING AN OLD PARTY PROGRESSIVE
On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was shot by an Anarchist in the
city of Buffalo. I went to Buffalo at once. The President's condition
seemed to be improving, and after a day or two we were told that he
was practically out of danger. I then joined my family, who were in the
Adirondacks, near the foot of Mount Tahawus. A day or two afterwards
we took a long tramp through the forest, and in the afternoon I climbed
Mount Tahawus. After reaching the top I had descended a few hundred feet
to a shelf of land where there was a little lake, when I saw a guide
coming out of the woods on our trail from below. I felt at once that he
had bad news, and, sure enough, he handed me a telegram saying that the
President's condition was much worse and that I must come to Buffalo
immediately. It was late in the afternoon, and darkness had fallen by
the time I reached the clubhouse where we were staying. It was some time
afterwards before I could get a wagon to drive me out to the nearest
railway station, North Creek, some forty or fifty miles distant.
“Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to anothers keeping.”
The close connection between the subjects to be taken up by the Red
Cross Conference held at Geneva last summer and the subjects which
naturally would come before The Hague Conference made it apparent that
it was desirable to have the work of the Red Cross Conference completed
and considered by the different powers before the meeting at The Hague.
The Red Cross Conference ended its labors on the 6th day of July, and
the revised and amended convention, which was signed by the American
delegates, will be promptly laid before the Senate.
By the special and highly appreciated courtesy of the Governments of
Russia and the Netherlands, a proposal to call The Hague Conference
together at a time which would conflict with the Conference of the
American Republics at Rio de Janeiro in August was laid aside. No other
date has yet been suggested. A tentative program for the conference has
been proposed by the Government of Russia, and the subjects which it
enumerates are undergoing careful examination and consideration in
preparation for the conference.
It must ever be kept in mind that war is not merely justifiable, but
imperative, upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, where peace
can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of
national welfare. Peace is normally a great good, and normally it
coincides with righteousness; but it is righteousness and not peace
which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the
conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can
surrender conscience to another's keeping. Neither can a nation, which
is an entity, and which does not die as individuals die, refrain from
taking thought for the interest of the generations that are to come, no
less than for the interest of the generation of to-day; and no public
men have a right, whether from shortsightedness, from selfish
indifference, or from sentimentality, to sacrifice national interests
which are vital in character. A just war is in the long run far better
for a nation's soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by
acquiescence in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for
a nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the dreadful
consequences of being defeated in war, yet it must always be remembered
that even to be defeated in war may be far better than not to have
fought at all. As has been well and finely said, a beaten nation is not
necessarily a disgraced nation; but the nation or man is disgraced if
the obligation to defend right is shirked.
We should as a nation do everything in our power for the cause of
honorable peace.
“To waste, to destroy, our natural resources,to skin and exhaust the land instead ofusing it so as to increase its usefulness,will result in undermining in the days of our childrenthe very prosperity which we ought by right tohand down to them amplified...”
Complaints against the present
methods have continued for years and they are growing in volume and
intensity, not only in this country but abroad. I therefore suggest to
the Congress the advisability of a National system of inspection and
grading of grain entering into interstate and foreign commerce as a
remedy for the present evils.
The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use
constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other
problem of our National life. We must maintain for our civilization the
adequate material basis without which that civilization can not exist.
We must show foresight, we must look ahead. As a nation we not only
enjoy a wonderful measure of present prosperity but if this prosperity
is used aright it is an earnest of future success such as no other
nation will have. The reward of foresight for this Nation is great and
easily foretold. But there must be the look ahead, there must be a
realization of the fact that to waste, to destroy, our natural
resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to
increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our
children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to
them amplified and developed. For the last few years, through several
agencies, the Government has been endeavoring to get our people to look
ahead and to substitute a planned and orderly development of our
resources in place of a haphazard striving for immediate profit. Our
great river systems should be developed as National water highways, the
Mississippi, with its tributaries, standing first in importance, and
the Columbia second, although there are many others of importance on
the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf slopes. The National Government
should undertake this work, and I hope a beginning will be made in the
present Congress; and the greatest of all our rivers, the Mississippi,
should receive especial attention. From the Great Lakes to the mouth of
the Mississippi there should be a deep waterway, with deep waterways
leading from it to the East and the West. Such a waterway would
practically mean the extension of our coast line into the very heart of
our country. It would be of incalculable benefit to our people.
“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”
It is an offense against the country, not against the
President. At this time to oppose the draft or sending our armies to
Europe, to uphold Germany, to attack our allies, to oppose raising the
money necessary to carry on the war are at least forms of sedition,
while to act as a German spy or to encourage German spies to use
money or intrigue in the corrupt service of Germany, to tamper with
our war manufactures and to encourage our soldiers to desert or to
fail in their duty, and all similar actions are forms of undoubtedly
illegal sedition. For some of these offenses death should be summarily
inflicted. For all the punishment should be severe.
The Administration has been gravely remiss in dealing with such acts.
Free speech, exercised both individually and through a free press, is
a necessity in any country where the people are themselves free. Our
Government is the servant of the people, whereas in Germany it is the
master of the people. This is because the American people are free and
the German are not free. The President is merely the most important
among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or
opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct
or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal,
able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore
it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell
the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary
to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right.
Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To
announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we
are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing
but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is
even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about
him than about any one else.
During the last year the Administration has shown itself anxious to
punish the newspapers which uphold the war, but which told the truth
about the Administration’s failure to conduct the war efficiently,
whereas it has failed to proceed against various powerful newspapers
which opposed the war or attacked our allies or directly or indirectly
aided Germany against this country, as these papers upheld the
Administration and defended the inefficiency. Therefore, no additional
power should be given the Administration to deal with papers for
criticizing the Administration. And, moreover, Congress should closely
scrutinize the way the Postmaster-General and Attorney-General have
already exercised discrimination between the papers they prosecuted and
the papers they failed to prosecute.
Congress should give the President full power for efficient executive
action. It should not abrogate its own power. It should define how he
is to reorganize the Administration. It should say how large an army we
are to have and not leave the decision to the amiable Secretary of War,
who has for two years shown such inefficiency.
“I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of strenuous life”
CONTENTS
THE STRENUOUS LIFE 3
EXPANSION AND PEACE 23
LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE AMONG REFORMERS 37
FELLOW-FEELING AS A POLITICAL FACTOR 58
CIVIC HELPFULNESS 80
CHARACTER AND SUCCESS 98
THE EIGHTH AND NINTH COMMANDMENTS IN POLITICS 107
THE BEST AND THE GOOD 113
PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE 119
THE AMERICAN BOY 128
MILITARY PREPAREDNESS AND UNPREPAREDNESS 138
ADMIRAL DEWEY 156
GRANT 171
THE TWO AMERICAS 189
MANHOOD AND STATEHOOD 201
BROTHERHOOD AND THE HEROIC VIRTUES 215
NATIONAL DUTIES 228
THE LABOR QUESTION 245
CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP 262
THE STRENUOUS LIFE
SPEECH BEFORE THE HAMILTON CLUB, CHICAGO, APRIL 10, 1899
In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of
the State which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who
pre-eminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the
American character, I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease,
but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of
labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes,
not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not
shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of
these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.
A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which springs merely
from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things,
is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. I ask only that
what every self-respecting American demands from himself and from his
sons shall be demanded of the American nation as a whole. Who among
you would teach your boys that ease, that peace, is to be the first
consideration in their eyes—to be the ultimate goal after which they
strive? You men of Chicago have made this city great, you men of
Illinois have done your share, and more than your share, in making
America great, because you neither preach nor practice such a doctrine.
You work yourselves, and you bring up your sons to work.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
In the three houses there were at one time sixteen of these
small cousins, all told, and once we ranged them in order of size and
took their photograph. There are many kinds of success in life worth
having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful
business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or
doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of
a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for
unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things
go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and
achievement lose their importance by comparison. It may be true that
he travels farthest who travels alone; but the goal thus reached is not
worth reaching. And as for a life deliberately devoted to pleasure as
an end--why, the greatest happiness is the happiness that comes as a
by-product of striving to do what must be done, even though sorrow is
met in the doing. There is a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire
Bill Widener, of Widener's Valley, Virginia, which sums up one's duty in
life: "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are."
The country is the place for children, and if not the country, a city
small enough so that one can get out into the country. When our own
children were little, we were for several winters in Washington, and
each Sunday afternoon the whole family spent in Rock Creek Park, which
was then very real country indeed. I would drag one of the children's
wagons; and when the very smallest pairs of feet grew tired of trudging
bravely after us, or of racing on rapturous side trips after flowers and
other treasures, the owners would clamber into the wagon. One of these
wagons, by the way, a gorgeous red one, had "Express" painted on it in
gilt letters, and was known to the younger children as the "'spress"
wagon. They evidently associated the color with the term. Once while we
were at Sagamore something happened to the cherished "'spress" wagon to
the distress of the children, and especially of the child who owned it.
Their mother and I were just starting for a drive in the buggy, and we
promised the bereaved owner that we would visit a store we knew in East
Norwich, a village a few miles away, and bring back another "'spress"
wagon.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
There are many men who feel a kind of twisted pride
in cynicism; there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the
way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. There is no
more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who
either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering
disbelief towards all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement
or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes second to
achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to
criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an
intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's
realities--all these are marks, not, as the possessor would fain
think, of superiority, but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to
bear their part manfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in
the affectation of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide
from others and from themselves their own weakness. The role is easy;
there is none easier, save only the role of the man who sneers alike
at both criticism and performance.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is
no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive
to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the
end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall
never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor
defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to
develop into a fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work
of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves
there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of
cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less
room is there for those who deride or slight what is done by those who
actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who
always profess that they would like to take action, if only the
conditions of life were not what they actually are. The man who does
nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether
he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being
whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and generous emotion, of
the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who
quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they
succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that
they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and
strength.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men
and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives; when
the children are so trained that they shall endeavor, not to shirk
difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek ease, but to know how
to wrest triumph from toil and risk. The man must be glad to do a
man’s work, to dare and endure and to labor; to keep himself, and to
keep those dependent upon him. The woman must be the housewife, the
helpmeet of the homemaker, the wise and fearless mother of many healthy
children. In one of Daudet’s powerful and melancholy books he speaks
of “the fear of maternity, the haunting terror of the young wife of the
present day.” When such words can be truthfully written of a nation,
that nation is rotten to the heart’s core. When men fear work or fear
righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of
doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they
are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves
strong and brave and high-minded.
As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. It is a base
untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice
happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to
dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by
failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy
much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows
not victory nor defeat. If, in 1861, the men who loved the Union had
believed that peace was the end of all things, and war and strife the
worst of all things, and had acted up to their belief, we would have
saved hundreds of thousands of lives, we would have saved hundreds
of millions of dollars. Moreover, besides saving all the blood and
treasure we then lavished, we would have prevented the heartbreak of
many women, the dissolution of many homes, and we would have spared
the country those months of gloom and shame when it seemed as if our
armies marched only to defeat. We could have avoided all this suffering
simply by shrinking from strife. And if we had thus avoided it, we
would have shown that we were weaklings, and that we were unfit to
stand among the great nations of the earth. Thank God for the iron in
the blood of our fathers, the men who upheld the wisdom of Lincoln,
and bore sword or rifle in the armies of Grant! Let us, the children
of the men who proved themselves equal to the mighty days, let us, the
children of the men who carried the great Civil War to a triumphant
conclusion, praise the God of our fathers that the ignoble counsels
of peace were rejected; that the suffering and loss, the blackness of
sorrow and despair, were unflinchingly faced, and the years of strife
endured; for in the end the slave was freed, the Union restored, and
the mighty American Republic placed once more as a helmeted queen among
nations.
Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
The immense majority of
Americans who are in whole or in part of German blood are as stanch
Americans as are to be found in the land. They are serving in our
armies precisely as other Americans serve. They are exactly as fit as
any other American to fill the highest positions anywhere in our armies
or in civil life. Any discrimination against them, active or passive,
military or political, social or industrial, is an intolerable outrage.
Moreover, such a discrimination is itself profoundly anti-American in
its effects, for it not only cruelly wounds brave and upright and loyal
Americans, but tends to drive them back into segregation, away from the
mass of American citizenship.
America is a Nation and not a mosaic of nationalities. The various
nationalities that come here are not to remain separate, but to blend
into the one American nationality--the nationality of Washington and
Lincoln, of Muhlenberg and Sheridan. Therefore, we must have but one
language, the English language. Every immigrant who comes here should
be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country,
for hereafter every immigrant should be treated as a future fellow
citizen and not merely as a labor unit. English should be the only
language taught or used in the primary schools. We should provide by
law so that after a reasonable interval every newspaper in this country
should be published in English.
A square deal for all Americans means relentless attack on all men
in this country who are not straight-out Americans and nothing else.
It just as emphatically means to stand by every good American of
German blood exactly as much as by every other good American. In
every loyalty organization a special effort should be made to see
that in the leadership and in the ranks the Americans of German
blood come in on precisely the same basis as every one else. And the
straight-out Americans, in whole or in part of German blood, should
themselves insist on this, not as a favor which they request, but
as a right which they demand, a right predicated on their fervid
and militant Americanism.
“The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it”
“There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head”
“There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.”
“Whether you think that you can, or that you cant, you are usually right.”
“I have often been afraid, but I wouldnt give in to it. I made myself act as though I was not afraid, and gradually my fear disappeared.”
