creditors of the nation and of the individual, for the widest freedom of
individual initiative where possible, and for the wisest control of
individual initiative where it is hostile to the welfare of the many.
But because we set our own household in order we are not thereby excused
from playing our part in the great affairs of the world. A man's first
duty is to his own home, but he is not thereby excused from doing his
duty to the State; for if he fails in this second duty, it is under the
penalty of ceasing to be a freeman. In the same way, while a nation's
first duty is within its own borders it is not thereby absolved from
facing its duties in the world as a whole; and if it refuses to do so,
it merely forfeits its right to struggle for a place among the peoples
that shape the destiny of mankind.


I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the
life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavor. The twentieth
century looms before us big with the fate of many nations. If we stand
idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if
we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their
lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and
stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the
domination of the world. Let us, therefore, boldly face the life of
strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold
righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave,
to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us
shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation,
provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only
through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall
ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.