And State Papers 229 



was very much interested in what was said by Mr. 

 Mott as to the meeting at Yale a few nights ago, 

 where the captain of the football team and the cap 

 tain of the crew of next season both were present. 

 I think that is typical of the whole movement. I 

 am certain that those who have had experience in 

 the army and navy have seen that in the long run 

 the man who is a decent man is apt to be the man 

 who is the best soldier. The work among the rail 

 road men always particularly appealed to me because 

 the railroad men are those who follow that modern 

 industry which more than any other modern indus 

 try makes demand upon its followers for the heroic 

 virtues, for the willingness to take risks, the willing 

 ness to accept responsibilities, the readiness to adopt 

 a standard of duty which will require at need the 

 sacrifice of life; those who follow it must possess 

 both the power to obey and the power to act on in 

 dividual initiative the power to take responsibility. 

 You can make men like that accept morality if you 

 can make them understand that it is not only com 

 patible with but is demanded by essential manliness. 

 The work of the Y. M. C. A. has grown so among 

 college students, for instance, because (I think I am 

 right in saying) it has tried, not to dwarf any of 

 the impulses of the young, vigorous men but to 

 guide them aright. It has sought not to make a 

 man's development one-sided, not to prevent his be 

 ing a man, but to see that he is in the fullest sense a 

 man, and a good man. We greet to-night with pe 

 culiar pleasure the men who served in the great war. 



