g men. Let us remember that we are met to celebrate the transfer of
a vast empire from one nation to another without the firing of a shot,
without the shedding of one drop of blood. If the press of the world
would adopt and persist in the high resolve that war should be no more,
the clangor of arms would cease from the rising of the sun to its going
down, and we could fancy that at last our ears, no longer stunned by the
din of armies, might hear the morning stars singing together and all the
sons of God shouting for joy.

FOOTNOTE:

[44] Address of the Secretary of State at the opening of the Press
Parliament of the World, at St. Louis, on the 19th of May, 1904. Used by
permission of Mrs. Hay.

THE MAN WITH THE MUCK-RAKE[45]

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

In Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" you may recall the description of the
Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward, with
the muck-rake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his
muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was
offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.

In "Pilgrim's Progress" the Man with the Muck-rake is set forth as the
example of him whose vision is fixed on carnal instead of on spiritual
things. Yet he also typifies the man who in this life consistently
refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn
intentness only on that which is vile and debasing. Now, it is very
necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and
debasing. There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with
the muck-rake; and there are times and places where this service is the
most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who
never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of
his feats with the muck-rake, speedily becomes, not a help to society,
not an incitement to good, but one of the most potent forces for evil.

There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave
evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them.
There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man,
whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in
politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every
writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine,
or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always
that he in