The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

SPEECHES OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 365
of the work itself. The man or woman in public or private life who ever works only
for the sake of the reward that comes outside of the work, will in the long run do poor
work. The man or woman who does work worth doing is the man or woman
who lives, who breathes that work; with whom it is ever present in his or her
soul ; whose
ambition is to do well and to feel rewarded by the thought of having
done it well. That man, that woman, puts the whole country under an obligation.
As a body all those connected with the education of our people are entitled to the
heartiest praise from all lovers of their country, because as a body they are devoting
heart and soul to the welfare of those under them.
WE NEED HEALTHY BODIES
It is a poor type of school nowadays that has not a good playground attached.
It is not so long since, in my own city at least, this was held as revolutionary doc-
trine, especially in the crowded quarters where playgrounds were most needed.
People said they didn't need playgrounds. It was a new-fangled idea. They
expected to make good citizens of the boys and girls who, when they were not in
school, were put upon the streets in the crowded quarters of New York to play
at the kind of games alone that they could play at in the streets. We have
passed that stage. I think we realize what a good healthy playground means
to children. I think we understand not only the effects for good upon their
bodies, but for good upon their minds. We need healthy bodies. We need to
have schools physically developed.
LESS BY PRECEPT THAN PRACTICE
Sometimes you can develop character by the direct inculcation of moral pre-
cept; a good deal more often you cannot. You develop it less by your precept than
by your practice. Let it come as an incident of the association with you; as an
incident to the general tone of the whole body, the tone which in the aggregate we
all create. Is not that the experience of all of you, in dealing with these children in
the schools, in dealing with them in the family, in dealing with them in bodies any-
where? They are quick to take the tone of those to whom they look up, and if the)-
do not look up to you, then you can preach virtue all you wish, but the effect will be
small.
I have not come here to try to make any extended speech to you, but I should
hold myself a poor citizen if I did not welcome the chance to wish you Godspeed in
your work for yourselves and to wi.sh you Godspeed in your work as representatives
of that great body of public school teachers, upon the success of whose efforts
to train aright the children of to-day depends the safety of our institutions of
to-morrow.