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Show CHARACTER MUST flUTRANKJENIllS Roosevelt Talks on "What Constitutes Character" at University of Brazil. WHEN NATIONS DECAY Intellect a Useful Servant But Hard Master Hardships on New Continents. Sao Paulo, Ot. 28 What constl lines character? Theodore Roosevelt addre6ed himself him-self on this question today n a speech on Character and Civilization, delivered In the government university universi-ty here ' 'Tho sun of other qualities, distinct I from the purely Intellectual qualities, which arc essential to moral er flclency " was CoVne Roosevelt's defininion of rhnrncter. "Resolution, courage, enerpry. power of self-control I combined with fearlessness in taking tbe initiative and assenting- responsibility responsi-bility a just regard of the rights of others, together with unflinching determination de-termination to succeed no matter what obstacles and !arriers have to he beat-1 en down There is moreover, one quality too often wholly la. l.inq in men of high Intellectual ability, without with-out which real character cannot i Namely, the fundamental gift of com men sense " Character. Colonel Rosevolt said, must ever outrank genius aud Intel ! Bf lect. Intellect was a useful servant but an evil master unless itsolf mastered mas-tered by character This was true of individuals and In larger sense 1 rue of nations. Xnierleeii rer hlk north and south had s'ikw n in past again and twain, a curious for getfulness of this precept. A republic could prosper althovrh the average man were not hrilliant. a republic could not prosper if Us average man became unfirm of mind and BOttli if' he feared hard labor It" he sought lo i raise by ways thai represent wrong j to his weaker brethn n. History Writes Truth. History had written larfe he truth! that onh thp nation with character t endured, Colonel Roosevelt continued when moral fibre lecame BOfl when i the leaders led lives of self-Indulgence and vlcioWtiess, the nation decayed and declined When rltl7"n. of 'lie various com monwealths of the New World are en ; gazed in a double task." Colone'. Roosevelt said "We are endeavoring to retain without loss of cultural civil i.atlon inher'ted through our fore- I fathers who came hither from the Old j World Wp are ah?o endcavornc ?o to develop and adopt this Old World civilization as to purge It of whatever of evil Is mixed with the good there-; in. to bTlng forth new ood, and to fit and adjust, it to the peculiar need and 1 op-jort unities yielded by the western hemisphere Both sides of the task present grave difficulties. "The work of conquering the new t continent Is one of Incredible hard ship The men of greatest civlllza Hon are rareh fit for the task. Only men of rucged will and hold and ad 1 Tenturous temper can undertake li- 1 The strain of tho pioneer encaged in the feat Is srch that under it they tend j to lose something of the culture their, ancestors bevond the seas had through the long ages slowly acquired. It is therefore our duty to exercise an unceasing un-ceasing watchfulness in order not to lose any port of heritage- In world, civilization, and, If e do lose any- thing, promptly to recover It. Further-! inure, there Is a snuill amount of WTon which our forefather In the Old World handed down to us. and for' thlB It is our duty to devise remedies. New West Conditions. "Moreover the circumstances of our lives under the new- conditions yielded by life on new continents nr only offer sreat opportunities which our Old World kinsmen do not enjoy, but also expose us to temptations which our Old World kinsmen do not share, at least to anything like the same degree "Finally there Is peculiar needs of our own, which it is necessary thai ' i meet In a new fashion. These needs may often be of dlametrlcallv opjposjte character The need ol one class, or of one period, may be wholly differ end from the need of another class, or of all classes at another time. For Instance, In-stance, It 16 a curious fact that In our New World the strain of over-hard conditions during the pioneer days is apt to be succeeded by the even more dangerous strain of over-easy eondl lions when the pioneer days have beer; passed; the danger of the sons is the opposite of that which menaced tho fathers; and yet the one danger is almost as menacing as th other. "In the same fashion in every one I of our great modern Industrial om-m om-m unities the dangerous strain on the very poor Is In large part not merely totally dlferent from. but the oxnet i reverse of. the no less dangero strain on the very rich; the dangers 1 'are not exact opposite one of th other, and nevertheless each is a I danger so serious that if not grap pled with It may spell national ruin. Aaln, no Old World communities are i immune from all sense of outside danger to anything like the extent that la true here; and what Is true of danger from outside sources Is j true to an only less degree as re- ' garda risk and effort and toll within: and no student of history needs to bo told that Immunity from danger, however desirable, nlwavs means that there Is need of guarding against the j risk of softening the fibre. "In consequence, it Is true that, not ! withstanding all the advantages and opportunities, there is at least as much danger, not of crushing disaster, hut of glow decay of Allure to advance, no far as concerns our peoples here In the two Americas as Is the case among the nations of the Old World : We cannot afford to vein glorlo i spirit to be blind to this patently ominous om-inous act. If we are true to ourselves, If we possess the wisdom and the verile strength to make the most of j our opportunities. we have before us. In our several nations, a future which I cannot be generally paralleled among Old World nations whove opportunities opportuni-ties are necessarily leas. But If wo are untrue to ourselves. If we sink into slothful ease or make our Ideals fhose of vapid or vicious excitement, ; then there Is a chance that we shall make a future all tho more lementa-hie lementa-hie because of the fact that great success suc-cess might have been ours. To avert I this failure, and to achieve the suc-icoss suc-icoss which Is ours If we only have th power to grasp It, many things are necessary ; but one thing above all In then?, character. Power of People Collectively 'No other trait, in our nation, can 'take the place of hLch average of per jsonnl character among the individuals, tho men and women, who make up that nation 1 am a firm believer In : using the power ol the people In their eollectlve capacity that is through tbe government to the fullest extent to further the common interest, and I hold that the abllltv thus to co-operate in effective action Is one of the greatest great-est tasks of the strength of individual character in a nation. But such combined com-bined action, such use of powers o? government In the Interest of all clti zens can never succeed unless It la based on the high average of character charac-ter In the individual citizen Governmental Govern-mental action can supplement, and 'thereby Immensely increase the productive pro-ductive efficiency of such Individual character, but It can never be a substitute sub-stitute for it; and If the averaro citizen citi-zen is lacking in character, the gov ernmental system in which he is tho any honorable fashion, who is thor oi'ghh itblo to guard himself from any wrong doing by others, but who scorns himself to do wrons to any man, and who realizes that each of us owes a dutv to others as well as to himself. Thse are the ordinary, homely commonplace, com-monplace, workaday virtues, but they are the all-essential virtues; for they are the virtues that in their sum make character "The state cannol prosper unless the average man can take care of him elf; and neither can It prosper rnless the average man realizes that, in ad d it ion to taking care of himself, he must work with his fellows, with good Sense and honesty and practical ac-l ac-l .in i ledgi ni' nr of ol'licatkm to the community a- a v iiole, for the thine' that are vital lo the interest to the community as a whole "There must be lilealism and there must also he practical eficiency, or the Idealism w ill he wasted We need j sound bodies, we need sound minds in our bodies, but more than either mind or body is character character. I into which many elements enter bill three aboe all others courage, hon : estv and common sense if the ordinary ordin-ary men and women of the republic have character, the future of the re public Is assured and if in its citizenship citizen-ship rugged strength and fealty to the common well fare are lacking, then the brilliant ! Intc-Hett and no piled up material prosperity will avail to save the nation from destruction "By character I mean the sum of! these qualities, distinct from the pure h Intellectual qualities, which are essential es-sential to moral eficiency Among , (hem are resolutions, courage, energy, i power ot self control combined with fearlessness in taking the Initiative and assumins responsii-illt v. and a just regard of the right of others, together to-gether with unflinching determination to one-self lo St creed no matter what obstacles or harriers have to be beaten down these qualities and qualities such .'is these, are what raise to OUT minds when we speak of a man or a woman of having character. In cii-tradist cii-tradist inction to one who ios-esvrs Only Intellect. There Is. moreover, one qualiiv which perhaps Strictlj speaking is as much intellectual as moral, but which is too often wholly lacking in men ot high intellectual ability, and without which real harac-ten harac-ten cannot exist namely, the fundamental funda-mental gift of common sense. Admire Intellect. "1 am far from decrying Intellect I loin with the world in admiring it and paving bomace to m Without it, above all without Its highest expression, ex-pression, genius, tbe world world move forward but slowly, and the purple patches in the era.' garment nf our actual lives would be sadly shorn of their glory. Nevertheless, exactly as strength comes before beauty, so character must ever stand above intellect, in-tellect, above genius Intellect Is fit to be the most useful of servants; but It Is an evil muster, unless itself thai tered by character This Is true of the individual man It is far more true of the nation, of the aggregate of individuals. 'Yet Is a t r . th of which men trend constantly to dose sight; and the American republics, north and south, have in the past shown apaln and again the curious forgetfulness of it In mv own country we trend to lay far too much emphasis on that in dispensable but one-sided type of Intellectual In-tellectual vtcor which shows Itself onlv In commercialism. In business ; achievement : a kind of intellectual ! pow er which is absolutely necessary 'in eithet Individual or national sue jcess under present-day conditions, and indeed under all proper conditions bui which becomes a curve instead of a blessing If treated as in itself an end Instead of the carefully regulated means to an end. "In some other countries the Intellectual Intel-lectual manifestations. Instead of baling ba-ling subordinated to masterlalistic i achievement, are turned almost wholly 1 into artistic, lit rarr, or philosophical, channels Here again there nuii-t be Isuch Intellectual development if thf jnatlon Is to make a high and lasting Impress in history, and yet there must be also be far more such devel ' oprnent if the nation is to accam pllsb all that Its intellects warrant Pom the standpoint nf national great nf?s neither the Intellect which finds I Its expression in commercialism, ! nor the Intellect which finds Its ex prosslon In artistic achles ement, can permanently avail unless based ou a foundation of character. Lesson of Antiquity. "This is the. lesson taught by the careers of three of the most famors people of antiquity In the third ceu tury before our era the civilized world was under the divided sway of! I tho Romans, the Greeks, and the: Phoenician dwellers in Carthage The Greeks w ere beyond question the I most brilliant people that ever lived, iand from that day to this poets, artists, ar-tists, philosophers and historians have .bowed to them as masters Thev !. 'veloped to the highest point in which lit has ever been developed the cul-J cul-J tured side of the Intellect. On th (other hand, the totally dlffereut form I of Intellect which fiuds Its ex-pression I in purely commercial success has 'ever been more highly developed than In the rich mercantile oligarchy which ruled Oartate as similar oligarchies had once ruled Sldon and Ty re. "Michael Angclo. Rafael, Dante.Cer-vantea Dante.Cer-vantea and Camoens. and all the j scholars of philosophers of the most famous medieval universities, were 'the spiritual heirs of the Hellenic re- publics mid Hellenistic Unsdoms; aud all tbe achievements ol the modem lords ot finance and captains ol Industry, In-dustry, when we consider the relative rela-tive means "itu which the ancients worked, do not Burpass those oi Lhfi Imarvelpxe maetert or commerce whose Ueels furrowed th; water of unknown opeans lo order to swell th princely wealth oi the Medlter Iranean merchani citlea Yet the iGrecU and tlic- Gaithaglqlan iillkc I wore Htruck down by Hie Iron Roman I because, although tho Roman had .cither ntithor the fine culture or the oue nor the commercial geniud of I lie-other lie-other he ppsSesSsd what both of tlu-m lacked, the jy'm strength of character which showed Itself In scorn of more luxury, in aenee of dutv tb the com-jmonwealth, com-jmonwealth, a power to command :md obey, and in the unshaken foitltud and endurance which enabled him to WTesI ultimate triumpli out ol immedi-;ite- disaster Present Day Conditions. 'Under present-day conditions, character needs to show Itself in dlf- I fercnt fashion Nevertheless, is Is vitally necessary as ever to the W'dl-being W'dl-being of the nation. If ihe men of I wealth and social -landing grow Idle and luxuiioiiH. if the) shirk the per-formance per-formance bl the duty to the while people which their position ought tc eutall, it they lose their sense of patriotism and. whether at home or m asme alien citv, lead lives deot ed to -oft or vicious self Indulgence why, If such Is the ca-. no cultlva tion of mind, no adroitness In financial finan-cial transections, will avail to save L l them from the contempt of all those Iwhoae respect Is best worth having "Of course corruption in any form whether in the world of politics Or I in the world of business, represents an offense sgaihai the cbmmunltj efsb grave a character that the olieml.-r should be hunted down as a criminal, land the create! his ablMtj ami sulci sul-ci IS the greater Is the wrong lm lie I committed, and the heavjei sho 'd be j ; hi.- punishment. The sneering indif-I indif-I faience to or conhivance at cornip tlon is almost as bad as corruption Honest rigid honesty, i- a tool virtue; and If not present no other virtue can atone ioc its lci E ' Bin we iannot afrord to be satisfied 1, with a negative virtue of not being ! corrupt! We need the Verile; pesitlvij latut Tht all-. " iiiial irtut a ; loilgbl not to re. and in D thoroughly I health) DO Sim Uillt) are not. of e$ ccptional type. ! j |