4TG COLONEL ROOSEVELT'S PARIS SPEECH. 



man a hard worker, a good husband and father, a good soldier at need, stand 

 at the bottom of character. 



" Good citizenship is not good citizenship only in the home. There remain 

 the duties of the individual in relation to the State, and these duties are none 

 too easy under the conditions which exist where the effort is made to carry on 

 free government in a complex, industrial civilization. Perhaps the most im- 

 portant thing the ordinary citizen, and, above all, the leader of ordinary citizens, 

 has to remember in political life is that he must not be a sheer doctrinaire. 



" Woe to the empty phrase-maker, to the empty Idealist, who, instead of 

 making ready the ground for the man of action turns against him when he 

 appears and hampers him as he does the work ! We should abhor the so-called 

 ' practical ' men whose practicality assumes the shape of that peculiar baseness 

 which finds its expression in disbelief in morality and decency, in disregard of 

 high standards of living and conduct. 



" But only less desirable as a citizen is his nominal opponent and real ally, 

 the man of fantastic vision who makes the impossible better forever the enemy 

 of the possible good. 



" Individual initiative, so far from being discouraged, should be stimu- 

 lated ; and yet we should remember that, as society develops and grows more 

 complex, we continually find that things which once it was desirable to leave 

 to individual initiative can, under the changed conditions, be performed with 

 better results by common effort. 



" Much of the discussion about socialism and individualism is entirely 

 pointless, because of failure to agree on terminology. I am a strong indivi- 

 dualist by personal habit, inheritance, and conviction ; but it is mere common 

 sense to recognize that the State, the community, the citizens acting together, 

 can do a number of things better than if they were left to individual action. 



JUSTICE AND EQUALITY FOR ALL. 



" We ought to go with any man in the effort to bring about justice and 

 the equality of opportunity, to turn the tool user more and more into the tool 

 owner, to shift burdens so that they can be more equitably borne. The dead- 

 ening effect on any race of the adoption of a logical and extreme socialistic 

 system could not be overstated ; it would spell sheer destruction. 



" But we should not take part in acting a lie any more than in telling a lie. 

 We should not say that men are equal where they are not equal, nor proceed 

 upon the assumption that there is an equality where it does not exist ; but we 

 should strive to bring about a measurable equality, at least to the extent of 

 preventing the inequality which is due to force or fraud. 



" There should, so far as possible, be equality of opportunity to render 

 service ; but just so long as there is inequality of service there should and must 

 be inequality of reward. The reward must go to the man w^ho does his work 

 well. 



" Let us try to level up, but let us beware of the evil of leveling down. If 

 a man stumbles, it is a good thing to help him to his feet. But if a man lies 

 down, it is a waste of time to try to carry him. 



" There are plenty of men calling themselves Socialists with whom, up to 

 a time point, it is quite possible to work. If the next step is one which both 



