Making Life Worth While by Douglas Fairbanks

Author:Douglas Fairbanks [Fairbanks, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oregan Publishing
Published: 2018-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

10

The Big Four

I’m for that hard-hitting type of manhood which stands adamant for the square deal and no surrender under all circumstances. It is one thing to wish for justice—quite another to stand up and fight for it.

Probably not one man in a thousand is geared with sufficient heart action to run counter to a false public opinion. It takes moral courage to do this, even on a small scale, whereas to ride a bucking broncho one needs physical prowess which is quite another kind of bravery. We’ve all known men who would fight their weight in wild cats but would run like a frightened rabbit at the sight of a pretty woman. To get up and make a speech would have been out of the question for them.

I heard of a case where a fine, quiet fellow who had been elected as a delegate to a small county convention, was instructed to arise to his feet at the moment of a certain nomination and shout “I second the nomination!” Instead of following instructions he fainted. This so excited the delegate who was to “move that the nominations be closed” that he forgot his part, with the result that an opposition candidate was quickly proposed, carried the convention, and, in due course, was elected by the vote of the people.

Men of the type of President Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, each distinctly different in personality, are about as scarce as hen’s teeth. There are just two such men in our hundred and odd millions today. They stand unique in the courage of their convictions, and their ability to reach the boundary lines of public opinion over the world. Lloyd George belongs in the same corral.

Speaking of President Wilson, one is amazed at his perspicuity. In procedure directly opposite from Roosevelt or Lloyd George, he has no counterpart either in pattern or turn of mind. Everything yields before him—he appears to be indomitable.

The need of such a man at this hour is apparent. He asserts the rights of the nation as a whole in such a way that the individual trails in behind him without a quaver of fear or a compunction of conscience. The President seems to know the road and results bear testimony to the fact. In the shortest possible time he has mobilized the greatest nation in the world to a war basis of such magnitude that its martial tread extends around the world. This being the first globe-girdling war in all history, who can say that any other man would have done better—or even so well?

Fortunately, this country has another man who, in the absence of our present leader, could have stirred the American nation into action in behalf of its own security. Hardly need it be said that this man is Theodore Roosevelt. His distinguished services in the past would have proclaimed him the leader in such a vast enterprise had the emergency existed. Taking things as they are, his influence has been of tremendous importance in effecting a united effort.

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