200 Presidential Addresses 



social and industrial life has rendered inevitable the 

 intrusion of the State into spheres of work wherein 

 it formerly took no part, and when there is also 

 a growing tendency to demand the illegitimate and 

 unwise transfer to the government of much of the 

 work that should be done by private persons, singly 

 or associated together, it is a pleasure to address a 

 body whose members possess to an eminent degree 

 the traditional American self-reliance of spirit which 

 makes them scorn to ask from the government, 

 whether of State or of Nation, anything but a fair 

 field and no favor; who confide not in being helped 

 by others, but in their own skill, energy, and busi 

 ness capacity to achieve success. The first requisite 

 of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he 

 shall be able and willing tp pull his weight that 

 he shall not be a mere passenger, but shall do his 

 share in the work that each generation of us finds 

 ready to hand; and, furthermore, that in doing 

 his work he shall show not only the capacity for 

 sturdy self-help but also self-respecting regard for 

 the rights of others. 



The Chamber of Commerce, it is no idle boast 

 to say, stands in a preeminent degree for those 

 qualities which make the successful merchant, 

 the successful business man, whose success is 

 won in ways honorable to himself and beneficial 

 to his fellows. There are very different kinds 

 of success. There is the success that brings 

 with it the seared soul the' success which is 

 achieved by wolfish greed and vulpine cunning 



