A PRESIDENT'S OBITER DICTA

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 7917, 14 June 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

A PRESIDENT'S OBITER DICTA

The appended lesbracfc from Theodore Roosevelt's "The Strenuous Life," lately issued by Grant Richards, will be read with interefst: — "Wie do not admlire the man of wmia peace We admire tihe iman wiho embodies victorious efforb; the man wiho never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help Si friend, but tflio has those qualities neCessarv to win in tihe stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail, but itis w-orse never to have tried to succeed. "It is a base unt-rutlh. to say that happy is the nation that has no faisbory. Thrice happv is the nation that- has a .glorious his. boiy." Far toebber it is to- dare -mighty things, to wiim glorious ftriumpiis, <eiven though checked by faitlurej itih&o. t/o take rank with those poor spirits, who neither € njoy much l nor suffer much, because tlhey live in ibbe gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." "This country cannot afford to have its sons less itihan miem; but neither can it afford to have them otihiT than good men. If courage and strength aaid in-tellecft axe unaccompanied bv the imioi'al purpose, the .mora! semse, they becoimie merely forms of expression for unscrupulous force and unscrupulous cunning. If tihe strong man has nob in Mm iSv» lift towards lofty things, his strength makes Mm only a curse to himself anid to his neighbors." "Our country calls not for the life of ease, but for tihe life, of strenuous endeavor. The t/wsnbiebh century looms before us big with the fate of atamy nations. If w« stand idly by, if wie seek merely swiollen slothful ease and ignoble peace, if TVTe frcxm the hard com tests where men ntusb win ab hazard of tihedr' lives and ait -the risk of all they hold! dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, -and -will win for themselves 'the domination of tihe world."

"The great blob upon European international morality in tthe closing decade of this century has-been not a -wax, bait the peaoe kept by the jodnt action of the nr-eat Powers, while Tnrkey inflicted thie last honrors of butchery, torture, and outrage upon the amen, women, and children of despairing Armiemia." "Every expansion of civilisation miakes for peace. -In ofiber words, eviery expansion of a great civilised Power .means a victory for la-w, -order, and righteousness." "It is >anly the -warlike power of a civilieed peioplo itlhat can girve peace to the world. The Araib wrecked the civilisation of tihe Mediterranean coasts, the Turk wrecked' it'he civilisation of south-eastern Europe, and the Tartar desolated from China to 'Russia amd to Persia, setting back the progress of the world for centuries, solely because itlh>er civilised nalttfons opposed to th-eoa (had: lost ths great fighting qualities, and, in becoming overpeaceful, had lost tihe power of beeping peaoe with a strong hand." "We need absolute honesty in public life; and TV® shall- mot get it until <wie remember that truth-telling must go hand in h-aind ■with it, aaidl that it as quite as important not ..to- tell an un-truth about a decant man as it ie to tell the truth about one -who is not decent. "lit is. of course, not enough; that a public official should be honest. No amount of honesty will avail is he is* not also brave amd wise. The weakling and the coward cannot be.saved by honesty alone; but without honesty .the brave and able man is merely a civic ■wild beast who should be hunted down by every lover, of righteousness." "It is a melancholy fact that many of the wionst laws put upon the Statute Books hav© been put there with tlfe best of intentions by (thoroughly . wieU-anleoning people. Mare desire to do right can ind m-ore by itself aniakie.a good, statesman than it can make a good general." "My fellw-couiibrynnen, baicfc laws axe evil things, good laws a-re necessary; and a clean, fearless, common-sense administration of tihe laws is eyen mone necessary; 'but what wie need most of aM is bo look bo our own selves to see that our consciences as individuals, that out collective national conscience, may respond instantly to every appeal for high action, for lofty and generous endeavor. There imuat and shall, be no. falling-off -in :th» noftdonal -traitsi of hardihood and irtaaxliniess; and we must beep ever bright the 10-v-e of justice, tihe spirit of - strong , brotherly friendship for one's fellows, which wo hope and believe will hereafter stomd aa typicalof the mea who make up this, the' knagbtaesfc republic upon which bhe sun,has ever shone."