Afoot in England | Page 2

Delivered at Christiania, Norway, on the Evening of May 5,
1910.
THE WORLD MOVEMENT
An Address Delivered at the University of Berlin, May 12, 1910.
THE CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS
An Address at the Cambridge Union, May 26, 1910.
BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA
Address Delivered at the Guildhall, London, May 31, 1910.
BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY[1]
Delivered at Oxford, June 7, 1910.
[1] The text of this lecture, which is the Romanes Lecture for 1910, is

included in the present volume under the courteous permission of the
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
APPENDIX

INTRODUCTION
Mr. Roosevelt as an Orator
In the tumult, on the one hand of admiration and praise and on the other
of denunciation and criticism, which Mr. Roosevelt's tour in Africa and
Europe excited throughout the civilized world, there was one--and I am
inclined to think only one--note of common agreement. Friends and
foes united in recognizing the surprising versatility of talents and of
ability which the activities of his tour displayed. Hunters and explorers,
archæologists and ethnologists, soldiers and sailors, scientists and
university doctors, statesmen and politicians, monarchs and diplomats,
essayists and historians, athletes and horsemen, orators and occasional
speakers, met him on equal terms. The purpose of the present volume is
to give to American readers, by collecting a group of his transatlantic
addresses and by relating some incidents and effects of their delivery,
some impression of one particular phase of Mr. Roosevelt's foreign
journey,--an impression of the influence on public thought which he
exerted as an orator.
No one would assert that Mr. Roosevelt possesses that persuasive grace
of oratory which made Mr. Gladstone one of the greatest public
speakers of modern times. For oratory as a fine art, he has no use
whatever; he is neither a stylist nor an elocutionist; what he has to say
he says with conviction and in the most direct and effective
phraseology that he can find through which to bring his hearers to his
way of thinking. Three passages from the Guildhall speech afford
typical illustrations of the incisiveness of his English and of its effect
on his audience.
Fortunately you have now in the Governor of East Africa, Sir Percy
Girouard, a man admirably fitted to deal wisely and firmly with the
many problems before him. He is on the ground and knows the needs
of the country and is zealously devoted to its interests. All that is
necessary is to follow his lead and to give him cordial support and
backing. The principle upon which I think it is wise to act in dealing
with far-away possessions is this: choose your man, change him if you

become discontented with him, but while you keep him, back him up.
* * * * *
I have met people who had some doubt whether the Sudan would pay.
Personally, I think it probably will. But I may add that, in my judgment,
this does not alter the duty of England to stay there. It is not worth
while belonging to a big nation unless the big nation is willing, when
the necessity arises, to undertake a big task. I feel about you in the
Sudan just as I felt about us in Panama. When we acquired the right to
build the Panama Canal, and entered on the task, there were worthy
people who came to me and said they wondered whether it would pay. I
always answered that it was one of the great world-works that had to be
done; that it was our business as a nation to do it, if we were ready to
make good our claim to be treated as a great World Power; and that as
we were unwilling to abandon the claim, no American worth his salt
ought to hesitate about performing the task. I feel just the same way
about you in the Sudan.
* * * * *
It was with this primary object of establishing order that you went into
Egypt twenty-eight years ago; and the chief and ample justification for
your presence in Egypt was this absolute necessity of order being
established from without, coupled with your ability and willingness to
establish it. Now, either you have the right to be in Egypt, or you have
not; either it is, or it is not your duty to establish and keep order. If you
feel that you have not the right to be in Egypt, if you do not wish to
establish and keep order there, why then by all means get out of Egypt.
If, as I hope, you feel that your duty to civilized mankind and your
fealty to your own great traditions alike bid you to stay, then make the
fact and the name agree, and show that you are ready to meet in very
deed