1 88 Presidential Addresses 



cities. We believe that the American business man 

 is of a peculiar type; and probably the qualities of 

 energy, daring, and resourcefulness which have 

 given him his prominence in the international in 

 dustrial world find their highest development here 

 in the West. It is the merest truism to say that in the 

 modern world industrialism is the great factor in the 

 growth of nations. Material prosperity is the foun 

 dation upon which every mighty national structure 

 must be built. Of course there must be more than 

 this. There must be a high moral purpose, a life 

 of the spirit which finds its expression in many dif 

 ferent ways; but unless material prosperity exists 

 also there is scant room in which to develop the 

 higher life. The productive activity of our vast 

 army of workers, of those who work with head or 

 hands, is the prime cause of the giant growth of 

 this nation. We have great natural resources, but 

 such resources are never more than opportunities, 

 and they count for nothing if the men in possession 

 have not the power to take advantage of them. You 

 have built up in the West these cities of the Missis 

 sippi Valley and the Great Lakes; as all the region 

 round about them has been built up that is, because 

 you had the qualities of heart and brain, the quali 

 ties of moral and physical fibre, which enabled you 

 to use to the utmost advantage whatever you found 

 ready to your hands. You win, not by shirking 

 difficulties, but by facing and overcoming them. 



In such development laws play a certain part, but 

 individual characteristics a still greater part. A 



