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Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7) cover

Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 4 (of 7)

Chapter 48: TO THE STUDENTS OF THE MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, AT THE WHITE HOUSE, FEBRUARY 14, 1906
By Theodore Roosevelt
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About This Book

A collection of addresses and official papers presented across a series of public appearances, offering speeches to civic clubs, universities, professional associations, veterans' groups, and ceremonial audiences. Themes range from advocacy for naval preparedness and deliberate foreign policy to reflections on civic duty, public service, and educational advancement, alongside local dedications and commemorative remarks. The pieces blend practical policy argument and administrative detail with rhetorical appeals to national character, urging measured conduct by officials and private citizens while connecting specific institutional concerns to broader questions of governance and responsibility.

TO THE STUDENTS OF THE MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, AT THE WHITE HOUSE, FEBRUARY 14, 1906

Mr. Hale; Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a peculiar pleasure to me to greet you to-day; and no body of our fellow-citizens can have a greater claim to being received at the White House than a body like this, which stands for the fundamental duty of American citizenship—the duty of self-education. I am, of course, as we all must be, peculiarly interested in the kind of development of which, I am glad to say, I think we can accept this school as typical—not as exceptional, but as typical. There are a great many very, very excellent charitable people in the country, but some of them tend to forget at times that the only charity that does permanent good is that kind of charity that is not a charity at all, that teaches some one how to help himself or herself. The only way in which any section of our citizens, of no matter what color, can be permanently benefited is by teaching them to pull their own weight, to do their own duty, their duty to themselves, their duty to their neighbors, their duty to the State at large. I have felt about the schools of which this is a type as I feel, for instance, about Mr. Washington’s school at Tuskegee, that one of the reasons they are so good is that they can serve as an example of schools of which we should try to develop as many as we can for the white people as well as for the colored people. The white man needs just as much as the colored man to learn that for the average man the education that fits him to do work in life is industrial. Other things shall be added to it, or ought to be added to it, but that must remain as the basis.

Of course, Miss Dean, the good that comes with any such school as this is increased tenfold when the school is founded, as you founded this, and as Mr. Washington founded Tuskegee, by a colored man or colored woman to help the colored boys and colored girls of to-day to make the best type of self-respecting, self-supporting American citizens of the future. I esteem it an honor to welcome you here this afternoon, and it is a very fitting thing that you should be introduced by the American citizen whom every good American delights to honor—Rev. Edward Everett Hale.