292 Presidential Addresses 



bound itself only to do easy things ever yet amount 

 ed to anything, ever yet came to anything through 

 out the ages. We have become a great people. At 

 the threshold of this twentieth century we stand 

 with the future looming large before us. We face 

 great problems within and great problems without. 

 We can not if we would refuse to face those .prob 

 lems. All we can decide is whether we will do them 

 well or ill ; for the refusal to face them would itself 

 mean that we were doing them ill. We are in the 

 arena into which great nations must come. We 

 must play our part. It rests with us to decide that 

 we shall not play it ignobly ; that we shall not flinch 

 from the great problems that there are to do, but that 

 we shall take our place in the forefront of the great 

 nations and face each problem of the day with con 

 fident and resolute hope. 



IN THE CHAPEL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 



MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., 



APRIL 4, 1903 



Mr. President; Ladies and Gentlemen: 



I am glad to have the chance of greeting you this 

 evening, but I regret that the engagements for me 

 have been so numerous that it will be only a greet 

 ing. I wish I could be here to see your beautiful 

 grounds and buildings by daylight, and to see a 

 little of the life of the university. 



There are plenty of tendencies for good, and, I 

 am sorry to . say, plenty of tendencies for evil in 

 our modern life, and high among the former must 



