The Average American

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN

I have felt that the events of the last five or six years have been steadily hastening the day when the Pacific will loom in the world's commerce as the Atlantic now looms, and I have wished greatly to see the marvelous communities growing up on the Pacific slope.

The thing that strikes me most as I go through this land and meet the men and women of the country is the essential unity of all Americans. Down at bottom we are the same people all through. This is not merely a unity of section, it's a unity of class. For my good fortune I have been thrown into intimate relationship, into personal friendship with many men of many different occupations, and my faith is firm that we shall come unscathed out of all our difficulties here in America, because I think that the average American is a decent fellow and the prime thing in getting him to get on well with the other average American is to have each remember that the other is a decent fellow and try to look at the problems a little from the other's standpoint.

It is the average type of manhood that makes the state great in the end. The individual - nothing can take the place of his own qualities in the community; nothing can take the place of the qualities of the average citizen. The law can do something, but the law never yet made a fool wise or a coward brave or a weakling strong.

The law can endeavor to secure a fair show for every man so far as it is in the wit of man to secure such a fair show, but it must remain for the man himself to show the stuff there is in him, and if the stuff is not in him you can not get it out of him. I believe in the future of this country because I believe in the men and women whom we are developing in the country. - President Roosevelt.