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Show I LIFE" II Roosevelt Introduces II Rev. Wagner. II Pays a High Tribute io Au-mm Au-mm thor in a Speech at HI Only Timo During1 His Presidency Hjff That Ho Will Introduce a IB WASHINGTON, Nov. 22. President Hfff Roosevelt Introduced "Rev. Charles HlW Wagner, tho author, to a large audi- Hffi o,1cc at the Lafayette opera-house this III afternoon, where he delivered a lecture IK on "Thc SlmPc Life." The President Iff? presented Mr. Wagner to the audience III m the followin5 words: I III "This Is thc first and will he thc only HU timo during my Presidency that I shall HO; ov'" Introduce a spcuker to an audience, Hlid untl 1 am more than glad to do it, in this 111 Instance, becauso If there Is one book H i which 1 should llko to have read as a Hffyf tract and al30, which is not Invariably Hill truo r tracts, as an interesting tract, by IV all our people, it Is 'The Simple Life,' Huff I written by Mr. Wagner. There arc other I books which ho has written of which we lift oan BDjl1 'Tcat Erood, but I know of no flnfl other book written of recent years, Hfljl whether horo or abroad, which con-lilu con-lilu tains so much that we of America ought Ifrn 0 lake to our hearts a.s Is contained In Mil "Ihe s'niPlo Life.' I like the book belli! be-lli! cause it does not merely preach to the Hi! ricn ani does not merely preach to the lira! poor. It is a very easy thing to address 111 I n section of thc community in rcproba-Mfftl rcproba-Mfftl tion of tho forms of vice to which it Is 111 not prone. What wo need to have llUr impressed upon us is that It Is IKtt not usually thc root principle of lEIls Vice that varies with variation Iti'S ln 50claI conditions, but that it is thc llul manifestation of the vice that varies; and Uii Wagner has well brought out the mWn great fundamental truth that the brutal Iftif itrrogancc of a rich man looks down upon HHf a poor man becouse ho is poor, and the III brutal envy and hatred felt by a poor lie man toward a rich man merely because Mr he Is rich are at the bottom tho mani-H1 mani-H1 festatlon of thc same vice. The arro-HHi arro-HHi gancc that looks down ln one case, thc Eli envy that hates in nnother, are really cx-E1I cx-E1I hlbitions of the same base and unlovely H spirit that happens to bo in one caso In EMI different surroundngs from what It is In IK another case. The same kind of man who Emm would bo arrogant ln one casc is pre-rml pre-rml rlsely tho kind of man who would bo en-till en-till vlous and filled with hatred in tho other. Mfl The ideal should bo Just and generous, III) tho broad-minded man who Is incapable fin )f arrogance if rich as he Is of mallg-EnU mallg-EnU nant envy nnd hatred if poor. IBl No Republic of Clnsses. D "No republic can permanently exist H when it becomes a republic of classes, M J where tho man feels not the Interest of I the whole people, but tho Interest of the B particular class to which he belongs, or fancies that he belongs, as being of prime importance. In antiquity republics failed M is" they did because they tended to become Mm either a republic of tho few or exploited mm the many, or a republic of the many who H plundered theIcw. and ln either case tho mm nd of the republic was never In doubt. Mm Just so ln one case as in the other and H no more so in one than in tho other. Wo MM fan keep this republic truo to the prlncl-Mm prlncl-Mm .pies of those who founded and of those Mm who afterward preserved It; wo can keep MM It a republic only by remembering that Mm we muBt live up to the theory of its foun-Mm foun-Mm ders, to tho theory of treating each man MM on his worth as a man, neither holding it MM for or against him that he occupies any Mm . particular station in life, so long as ha MM does his duty fairly and well by his feN fl lows and by tho nation as a whole. I "So much for tho general phllosophv taught so admirably in M"r Wagner's book I might say, books; but I am H thinking especially of 'The Simple Life,' V because that has been thc book that has MM appealed to me. I "Now, a word with special reference to his address to this audience, to tho Young Men's Christian association: The pro-Hi pro-Hi found regard which I havo always felt for thoae responsible for the work of the V Young Men's Christian associations and MMM the Young "Women's Christian associa-tfons associa-tfons Is largely becauso they havo prac-tlcally prac-tlcally realized or at least have striven W-W practically to realize the Ideal or adher-MM adher-MM fnce to thc text which runs: 'Bo ye doers of the word and not hearers only.' If you MMM conic here with only thc Idea of passing a MM pleasant afternoon and then go homo and MM do not actually practice some of Mr. MM Wagner's preachings, then small Is thc IB "so of your coming. It Is not the sllght-M sllght-M est use to hear tho word If you don't try to put it into effect afterward. -The wtm Young Men's Christian associations have J accomplished so much because those who MMM have managed them have tried practical-MmM practical-MmM ly to do their part In bringing about what MMM Is expressed In thc phrase Tho fathcr-hood fathcr-hood of God and brotherhood of men. Wc IB9 can act individually or by associations. HH I intend to illustrate by a couple of cx-IfHJ cx-IfHJ nmples what I mean by a man acting In-IMfl In-IMfl dlvldually, and what T mean by a man MMt acting ln associations with his fellows. I MJK hesitated whothcr I would use, as I shall WmM use, tho names of tho people whom I HH meant, but I came to tho conclusion that MMM J would, because tho worth of an cxam-MgM cxam-MgM pic consists very largely in an under-Mmm under-Mmm standing that the cxamplo is a real one. Civic Club of New York. H "I have been interested for a number MMM of years In the working of thc civic club MMM ln Nov, York, which has been started and MMM superintended by Norton Goddard It Is MMM a club on tho East Side of New York WMM City, the rango of whoso membership ln- MMM eludes a big district extending from Lex- MMM Ington avenue to the East river. Mr. V Goddard realized that such work can be V done to tho best advantage only uuon J condition of there being hearty sympathy among those doing It. There aro a great many people so made ln this world (I think most of us come under thc category.) cate-gory.) that they would resent being patronized about as much as bolng wronged Great good can never be done If It Is attempted in a patronizing spirit, Mr. Goddard realized that thc work could be done efficiently only on condition of getting into close and hearty touch with the people through whom and with whom he was to work In consequence this civic club found, and it has gradually extended Its operations until now the entire club membership of three or four thousand men practically form a committee of betterment bet-terment in social and civic, life; a committee com-mittee spread throughout that district, each member keeping a sharp lookout over tho fortunes of nil his immediate neighbors. Therefore, any case of destitution desti-tution or gTeat suffering In the district comes to thc attention of some member of tho club, who then reports it at headquarters, head-quarters, so that steps can be taken to alleviate al-leviate thc misery, and I have reason to believe that there has been in consequence a very general uplifting, a general increase in-crease of happiness throughout the district. dis-trict. If we had a sufficient number of clubs oX this kind throughout our great cities, while we would not by any means havo solved all of the terrible problems that press upon us for solution ln connection connec-tion with municipal misgovcrnmcnt and thc overcrowding, misery, vice, disease and poverty of great cities, yet we would havo taken a long strike forward In the right direction toward their solution. So much for the example that I uso to Illustrate Illus-trate what I mean by work In combination. combina-tion. Individual Case Cited. "As an example of what can be done and should be done by tho Individual, I shall mention something that recently occurred oc-curred in thJs city of Washington, a thing that doubtless many of you know about, but which was unknown to me until recently. re-cently. A few weeks ago, when I was walking back from church one Sunday, I .noticed a great fire, nnd -found that it was Downey's livery stable you recollect It three or four weeks ago. Through a train of circumstances that I will not mention my attention was particularly called to the case and I looked into It, I had long known of tho very admlrablo work done with singular modesty and self-effacement by Mr. Downey in trying try-ing io give alms and to be himself a friend of thoso ln a sense friendless ln this community, and I. by accident, found out what happened In connection with this particular Incident. It appears that last spring Mr. Downey started to build a new stable. His stablo Is next door to a colored Baptist church. Mr. Downey is a white man and a Catholic, and these nolghbors of his aro colored, and Baptists, Bap-tists, and their kinship was simply tho kinship of thnt broau humanity that should underlie all our feelings toward one another. Mr. Downey Btarted to build his stable and naturally enough wanted to havcMt as big a stable as poa. slblo and build It right up to tho limits of his land. That brought tho wall close up against the back of tho colored Bap-tist Bap-tist church, cutting out tho light and air. Gave Them the, Land. "Tho preacher" called upon him and told him that they would like to purchase a strip six feet broad of tho ground of Mr. Downey upon which ho was Intending Intend-ing to bullU, as it would be a gTeat ln-convenlenco ln-convenlenco to them to lose the light and air; that they were aware it was asking a good deal of him to cramp tho building but of which he Intended to make his living, but that they hoped he would do It because of their need. After a good deal of thought Mr. Downey came to the conclusion that ho ought to grant the request, re-quest, and so he notified them that ho would change his plans, make a somewhat some-what smaller building and sell them thc six feet of land in tho strip adjoining their church. After a llttlo while tho preacher camo around with tho trustees of his church and said they very much appreciated Mr. Downey's courtesy and wero sorry thoy had bothered him aa they had, because on looking Into thc affairs af-fairs of the church they found that, aa they were already In debt, they did not feci warranted ln Incurring any further obligations, and so they had, to withdraw their request. They thanked him for his kindly purpose and said good-bye. "But Mr. Downey found he could not get to sleop that night until flnnlly he made up his mind that ao they could not "buy It he vould give It to them anyway, which he did But unfortunately, wo know that tho tower of Siloam often falls upon tho Just, and thc unjust alike, and Mr. Downey's llx-ory stable caught llro and burned down. It was said that that morning the Baptist church was ln session next door to him. and thc clergyman cler-gyman stopped and said: 'Now, you women, stay here and pray, and you men go straight out and help our bone-factor, bone-factor, Mr. Downey.' And go out they did, and got his horses all out. so that none of them was burned, although ho suffered otherwise a total loss. Now I call thnt a practical application of Mr Wagner's teachings. Hero in Washington Washing-ton wo have a right to be proud of a citizen like Mr. Downey and If only we can develop enough such citizens wo shall turn out Just the kind of community commu-nity that docs not need to, but will always al-ways bo glad to study 'Tho Slmplo Lire,' the author of which I now Introduce Intro-duce to you " |