have, of course, your oath. You are bound by every tie of loyalty,
military and civil, to work to the end I have named. But, after all,
you are not bound any more than are you, you civilians. And, another
thing, do not think for a moment that when I say that you are bound to
uphold the Government I mean that you are bound to try to get an
office under it. On the contrary, I trust, Dr. Giffen, that the work
done here by you, done by the different educational institutions with
which you are connected or with which you are affiliated, will always
be done, bearing in mind the fact that the most useful citizen to the
Government may be a man who under no consideration would hold any
position connected with the Government. I do not want to see any
missionary college carry on its educational scheme primarily with a
view of turning out Government officials. On the contrary, I want to
see the average graduate prepared to do his work in some capacity in
civil life, without any regard to any aid whatever received from or
any salary drawn from the Government. If a man is a good engineer, a
good mechanic, a good agriculturist, if he is trained so that he
becomes a really good merchant, he is, in his place, the best type of
citizen. It is a misfortune in any country, American, European, or
African, to have the idea grow that the average educated man must find
his career only in the Government service. I hope to see good and
valuable servants of the Government in the military branch and in the
civil branch turned out by this and similar educational institutions;
but, if the conditions are healthy, those Government servants, civil
or military, will never be more than a small fraction of the
graduates, and the prime end and prime object of an educational
institution should be to turn out men who will be able to shift for
themselves, to help themselves, and to help others, fully independent
of all matters connected with the Government. I feel very strongly on
this subject, and I feel it just as strongly in America as I do here.
Another thing, gentlemen, and now I want to speak to you for a moment
from the religious standpoint, to speak to you in connection with the
work of this mission. I wish I could make every member of a Christian
church feel that just in so far as he spends his time in quarrelling
with other Christians of other churches he is helping to discredit
Christianity in the eyes of the world. Avoid as you would the plague
those who seek to embroil you in conflict, one Christian sect with
another. Not only does what I am about to say apply to the behavior of
Christians towards one another, but of all Christians towards their
non-Christian brethren, towards their fellow-citizens of another
creed. You can do most for the colleges from which you come, you can
do most for the creed which you profess, by doing your work in the
position to which you have been called in a way that brings the
respect of your fellow-men to you, and therefore to those for whom you
stand. Let it be a matter of pride with the Christian in the army
that in the time of danger no man is nearer that danger than he is.
Let it be a matter of pride to the officer whose duty it is to fight
that no man, when the country calls on him to fight, fights better
than he does. That is how you can do more for Christianity, for the
name of Christians, you who are in the army. Let the man in a civil
governmental position so bear himself that it shall be acceptable as
axiomatic that when you have a Christian, a graduate of a missionary
school, in a public office, the efficiency and honesty of that office
are guaranteed. That is the kind of Christianity that counts in a
public official, that counts in the military official--the
Christianity that makes him do his duty in war, or makes him do his
duty in peace. And you--who I hope will be the great majority--who are
not in Government service, can conduct yourselves so that your
neighbors shall have every respect for your courage, your honesty,
your good faith, shall have implicit trust that you will deal
religiously with your brother as man to man, whether it be in business
or whether it be in connection with your relations to the community as
a whole. The kind of graduate of a Christian school really worth
calling a Christian is the man who shows his creed practically by the
way he behaves towards his wife and towards his children, towards his
neighbor, towards those with whom he deals in the business world, and
towards the city and Government. In no way can he do as much for the
institution that trains him, in no way can he do as much to bring
respect and regard to the creed that he professes. And, remember, you
need more than one quality. I have spoken of courage; it is, of
course, the first virtue of the soldier, but every one of you who is
worth his salt must have it in him too. Do not forget that the good
man who is afraid is only a handicap to his fellows who are striving
for what is best. I want to see each Christian cultivate the manly
virtues; each to be able to hold his own in the country, but in a
broil not thrusting himself forward. Avoid quarrelling wherever you
can. Make it evident that the other man wants to avoid quarrelling
with you too.
One closing word. Do not make the mistake, those of you who are young
men, of thinking that when you get out of school or college your
education stops. On the contrary, it is only about half begun. Now, I
am fifty years old, and if I had stopped learning, if I felt now that
I had stopped learning, had stopped trying to better myself, I feel
that my usefulness to the community would be pretty nearly at an end.
And I want each of you, as he leaves college, not to feel, "Now I have
had my education, I can afford to vegetate." I want you to feel, "I
have been given a great opportunity of laying deep the foundations for
a ripe education, and while going on with my work I am going to keep
training myself, educating myself, so that year by year, decade by
decade, instead of standing still I shall go forward, and grow
constantly fitter, and do good work and better work."
I visited, many years ago, the college at Beirut. I have known at
first hand what excellent work was being done there. Unfortunately,
owing to my very limited time, it is not going to be possible for me
to stop at the college at Assiut, which has done such admirable work
in Egypt and here in the Sudan, whose graduates I meet in all kinds of
occupations wherever I stop. I am proud, as an American, Dr. Giffen,
of what has been done by men like you, like Mr. Young, like the other
Americans who have been here, and, I want to say still further, by the
women who have come with them. I always thought that the American was
a pretty good fellow. I think his wife is still better, and, great
though my respect for the man from America has been, my respect for
the woman has been greater.
I stopped a few days ago at the little mission at the Sobat. One of
the things that struck me there was what was being accomplished by the
medical side of that mission. From one hundred and twenty-five miles
around there were patients who had come in to be attended to by the
doctors in the mission. There were about thirty patients who were
under the charge of the surgeon, the doctor, at that mission. I do not
know a better type of missionary than the doctor who comes out here
and does his work well and gives his whole heart to it. He is doing
practical work of the most valuable type for civilization, and for
bringing the people of the country up to a realization of the
standards that you are trying to set. If you make it evident to a man
that you are sincerely concerned in bettering his body, he will be
much more ready to believe that you are trying to better his soul.
Now, gentlemen, it has been a great pleasure to see you. When I get
back to the United States, this meeting is one of the things I shall
have to tell to my people at home, so that I may give them an idea of
what is being done in this country. I wish you well with all my heart,
and I thank you for having received me to-day.
* * * * *
LAW AND ORDER IN EGYPT
An Address before the National University in Cairo, March 28, 1910
It is to me a peculiar pleasure to speak to-day under such
distinguished auspices as yours, Prince Fouad,[4] before this National
University, and it is of good augury for the great cause of higher
education in Egypt that it should have enlisted the special interest
of so distinguished and eminent a man. The Arabic-speaking world
produced the great University of Cordova, which flourished a thousand
years ago, and was a source of light and learning when the rest of
Europe was either in twilight or darkness; in the centuries following
the creation of that Spanish Moslem university, Arabic men of science,
travellers, and geographers--such as the noteworthy African traveller
Ibn Batutu, a copy of whose book, by the way, I saw yesterday in the
library of the Alhazar[5]--were teachers whose works are still to be
eagerly studied; and I trust that here we shall see the revival, and
more than the revival, of the conditions that made possible such
contributions to the growth of civilization.
[4] Prince Fouad is the uncle of the Khedive, a Mohammedan
gentleman of education and enlightened views.--L.F.A.
[5] The great Moslem University of Cairo, in which 9000 students
study chiefly the Koran in mediæval fashion.--L.F.A.
This scheme of a National University is fraught with literally untold
possibilities for good to your country. You have many rocks ahead of
which you must steer clear; and because I am your earnest friend and
well-wisher, I desire to point out one or two of these which it is
necessary especially to avoid. In the first place, there is one point
upon which I always lay stress in my own country, in your country, in
all countries--the need of entire honesty as the only foundation on
which it is safe to build. It is a prime essential that all who are in
any way responsible for the beginnings of the University shall make it
evident to every one that the management of the University, financial
and otherwise, will be conducted with absolute honesty. Very much
money will have to be raised and expended for this University in order
to make it what it can and ought to be made; for, if properly managed,
I firmly believe that it will become one of the greatest influences,
and perhaps the very greatest influence, for good in all that part of
the world where Mohammedanism is the leading religion; that is, in all
those regions of the Orient, including North Africa and Southwestern
Asia, which stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the farther confines of
India and to the hither provinces of China. This University should
have a profound influence in all things educational, social, economic,
industrial, throughout this whole region, because of the very fact of
Egypt's immense strategic importance, so to speak, in the world of the
Orient; an importance due partly to her geographical position, partly
to other causes. Moreover, it is most fortunate that Egypt's present
position is such that this University will enjoy a freedom hitherto
unparalleled in the investigation and testing out of all problems
vital to the future of the peoples of the Orient.
Nor will the importance of this University be confined to the Orient.
Egypt must necessarily from now on always occupy a similar strategic
position as regards the peoples of the Occident, for she sits on one
of the highways of the commerce that will flow in ever-increasing
volume from Europe to the East. Those responsible for the management
of this University should set before themselves a very high ideal. Not
merely should it stand for the uplifting of all Mohammedan peoples and
of all Christians and peoples of other religions who live in
Mohammedan lands, but it should also carry its teaching and practice
to such perfection as in the end to make it a factor in instructing
the Occident. When a scholar is sufficiently apt, sufficiently sincere
and intelligent, he always has before him the opportunity of
eventually himself giving aid to the teachers from whom he has
received aid.
Now, to make a good beginning towards the definite achievement of
these high ends, it is essential that you should command respect and
should be absolutely trusted. Make it felt that you will not tolerate
the least little particle of financial crookedness in the raising or
expenditure of any money, so that those who wish to give money to this
deserving cause may feel entire confidence that their piasters will be
well and honestly applied.
In the next place, show the same good faith, wisdom, and sincerity in
your educational plans that you do in the financial management of the
institution. Avoid sham and hollow pretence just as you avoid
religious, racial, or political bigotry. You have much to learn from
the universities of Europe and of my own land, but there is also in
them not a little which it is well to avoid. Copy what is good in
them, but test in a critical spirit whatever you take, so as to be
sure that you take only what is wisest and best for yourselves. More
important even than avoiding any mere educational shortcoming is the
avoidance of moral shortcoming. Students are already being sent to
Europe to prepare themselves to return as professors. Such preparation
is now essential, for it is of prime importance that the University
should be familiar with what is being done in the best universities of
Europe and America. But let the men who are sent be careful to bring
back what is fine and good, what is essential to the highest kind of
modern progress, and let them avoid what are the mere non-essentials
of the present-day civilization, and, above all, the vices of modern
civilized nations. Let these men keep open minds. It would be a
capital blunder to refuse to copy, and thereafter to adapt to your own
needs, what has raised the Occident in the scale of power and justice
and clean living. But it would be a no less capital blunder to copy
what is cheap or trivial or vicious, or even what is merely
wrongheaded. Let the men who go to Europe feel that they have much to
learn and much also to avoid and reject; let them bring back the good
and leave behind the discarded evil.
Remember that character is far more important than intellect, and that
a really great university should strive to develop the qualities that
go to make up character even more than the qualities that go to make
up a highly trained mind. No man can reach the front rank if he is not
intelligent and if he is not trained with intelligence; but mere
intelligence by itself is worse than useless unless it is guided
by an upright heart, unless there are also strength and courage
behind it. Morality, decency, clean living, courage, manliness,
self-respect--these qualities are more important in the make-up of a
people than any mental subtlety. Shape this University's course so
that it shall help in the production of a constantly upward trend for
all your people.
You should be always on your guard against one defect in Western
education. There has been altogether too great a tendency in the
higher schools of learning in the West to train men merely for
literary, professional, and official positions; altogether too great a
tendency to act as if a literary education were the only real
education. I am exceedingly glad that you have already started
industrial and agricultural schools in Egypt. A literary education is
simply one of many different kinds of education, and it is not wise
that more than a small percentage of the people of any country should
have an exclusively literary education. The average man must either
supplement it by another education, or else as soon as he has left an
institution of learning, even though he has benefited by it, he must
at once begin to train himself to do work along totally different
lines. His Highness the Khedive, in the midst of his activities
touching many phases of Egyptian life, has shown conspicuous wisdom,
great foresight, and keen understanding of the needs of the country in
the way in which he has devoted himself to its agricultural
betterment, in the interest which he has taken in the improvement of
cattle, crops, etc. You need in this country, as is the case in every
other country, a certain number of men whose education shall fit them
for the life of scholarship, or to become teachers or public
officials. But it is a very unhealthy thing for any country for more
than a small proportion of the strongest and best minds of the country
to turn into such channels. It is essential also to develop
industrialism, to train people so that they can be cultivators of the
soil in the largest sense on as successful a scale as the most
successful lawyer or public man, to train them so that they shall be
engineers, merchants--in short, men able to take the lead in all the
various functions indispensable in a great modern civilized state. An
honest, courageous, and far-sighted politician is a good thing in any
country. But his usefulness will depend chiefly upon his being able to
express the wishes of a population wherein the politician forms but a
fragment of the leadership, where the business man and the landowner,
the engineer and the man of technical knowledge, the men of a hundred
different pursuits, represent the average type of leadership. No
people has ever permanently amounted to anything if its only public
leaders were clerks, politicians, and lawyers. The base, the
foundation, of healthy life in any country, in any society, is
necessarily composed of the men who do the actual productive work of
the country, whether in tilling the soil, in the handicrafts, or in
business; and it matters little whether they work with hands or head,
although more and more we are growing to realize that it is a good
thing to have the same man work with both head and hands. These men,
in many different careers, do the work which is most important to the
community's life; although, of course, it must be supplemented by the
work of the other men whose education and activities are literary and
scholastic, of the men who work in politics or law, or in literary and
clerical positions.
Never forget that in any country the most important activities are the
activities of the man who works with head or hands in the ordinary
life of the community, whether he be handicraftsman, farmer, or
business man--no matter what his occupation, so long as it is useful
and no matter what his position, from the guiding intelligence at the
top down all the way through, just as long as his work is good. I
preach this to you here by the banks of the Nile, and it is the
identical doctrine I preach no less earnestly by the banks of the
Hudson, the Mississippi, and the Columbia.
Remember always that the securing of a substantial education, whether
by the individual or by a people, is attained only by a process, not
by an act. You can no more make a man really educated by giving him a
certain curriculum of studies than you can make a people fit for
self-government by giving it a paper constitution. The training of an
individual so as to fit him to do good work in the world is a matter
of years; just as the training of a nation to fit it successfully to
fulfil the duties of self-government is a matter, not of a decade or
two, but of generations. There are foolish empiricists who believe
that the granting of a paper constitution, prefaced by some
high-sounding declaration, of itself confers the power of
self-government upon a people. This is never so. Nobody can "give" a
people "self-government," any more than it is possible to "give" an
individual "self-help." You know that the Arab proverb runs, "God
helps those who help themselves." In the long run, the only permanent
way by which an individual can be helped is to help him to help
himself, and this is one of the things your University should
inculcate. But it must be his own slow growth in character that is
the final and determining factor in the problem. So it is with a
people. In the two Americas we have seen certain commonwealths rise
and prosper greatly. We have also seen other commonwealths start under
identically the same conditions, with the same freedom and the same
rights, the same guarantees, and yet have seen them fail miserably and
lamentably, and sink into corruption and anarchy and tyranny, simply
because the people for whom the constitution was made did not develop
the qualities which alone would enable them to take advantage of it.
With any people the essential quality to show is, not haste in
grasping after a power which it is only too easy to misuse, but a
slow, steady, resolute development of those substantial qualities,
such as the love of justice, the love of fair play, the spirit of
self-reliance, of moderation, which alone enable a people to govern
themselves. In this long and even tedious but absolutely essential
process, I believe your University will take an important part. When I
was recently in the Sudan I heard a vernacular proverb, based on a
text in the Koran, which is so apt that, although not an Arabic
scholar, I shall attempt to repeat it in Arabic: "_Allah ma el
saberin, izza sabaru_"--God is with the patient, _if they know how to
wait_.[6]
[6] This bit of Arabic, admirably pronounced by Mr. Roosevelt,
surprised and pleased the audience as much as his acquaintance
with the life and works of Ibn Batutu surprised and pleased the
sheiks at the Moslem University two days before. Both Mr.
Roosevelt's use of the Arabic tongue and his application of the
proverb were greeted with prolonged applause.--L.F.A.
One essential feature of this process must be a spirit which will
condemn every form of lawless evil, every form of envy and hatred,
and, above all, hatred based upon religion or race. All good men, all
the men of every nation whose respect is worth having, have been
inexpressibly shocked by the recent assassination of Boutros Pasha. It
was an even greater calamity for Egypt than it was a wrong to the
individual himself. The type of man which turns out an assassin is a
type possessing all the qualities most alien to good citizenship; the
type which produces poor soldiers in time of war and worse citizens in
time of peace. Such a man stands on a pinnacle of evil infamy; and
those who apologize for or condone his act, those who, by word or
deed, directly or indirectly, encourage such an act in advance, or
defend it afterwards, occupy the same bad eminence. It is of no
consequence whether the assassin be a Moslem or a Christian or a man
of no creed; whether the crime be committed in political strife or
industrial warfare; whether it be an act hired by a rich man or
performed by a poor man; whether it be committed under the pretence of
preserving order or the pretence of obtaining liberty. It is equally
abhorrent in the eyes of all decent men, and, in the long run, equally
damaging to the very cause to which the assassin professes to be
devoted.
Your University is a National University, and as such knows no creed.
This is as it should be. When I speak of equality between Moslem and
Christian, I speak as one who believes that where the Christian is
more powerful he should be scrupulous in doing justice to the Moslem,
exactly as under reverse conditions justice should be done by the
Moslem to the Christian. In my own country we have in the Philippines
Moslems as well as Christians. We do not tolerate for one moment any
oppression by the one or by the other, any discrimination by the
Government between them or failure to mete out the same justice to
each, treating each man on his worth as a man, and behaving towards
him as his conduct demands and deserves.
In short, gentlemen, I earnestly hope that all responsible for the
beginnings of the University, which I trust will become one of the
greatest and most powerful educational influences throughout the whole
world, will feel it incumbent upon themselves to frown on every form
of wrong-doing, whether in the shape of injustice or corruption or
lawlessness, and to stand with firmness, with good sense, and with
courage, for those immutable principles of justice and merciful
dealing as between man and man, without which there can never be the
slightest growth towards a really fine and high civilization.
* * * * *
CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC
An Address Delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910