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 President Roosevelt 
 
 T he a - 
 
 ON THE 
 
 AFRICA DIAMOND 
 JUBILEE 
 
 
 A part of an address delivered by 
 President Roosevelt at a mass meeting 
 inaugurating the Africa Diamond 
 Jubilee of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, January 18, 1909, at Metro¬ 
 politan Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
An extract from an editorial in the To¬ 
 peka (Kansas) Capital, January 19, 1909: 
 
 President Roosevelt’s speech at the celebra¬ 
 tion of the Africa Diamond Jubilee of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church at Washington is 
 one of the President’s greatest speeches, one of 
 his worthiest utterances, a speech which to 
 an extent beyond any that he has heretofore 
 made, brings out his remarkable versatility. 
 The President is said to be an “omnivorous 
 reader,” and to have an extraordinary faculty 
 of assimilating the essentials of what he reads. 
 Professor Ferrero, the Italian historian, in his 
 articles in the New York World, has been tell¬ 
 ing something of his own experience, as a 
 guest of Mr. Roosevelt, with the President’s 
 accurate knowledge of many things outside the 
 ordinary run of information. In thib address 
 to the Methodists on missions and the larger 
 work of civilized governments in behalf of 
 backward peoples and places the President 
 summarizes the historical facts and gives such 
 a justification of Christian missions and of 
 political missionary work by the colonizing 
 civilized nations of the world as has seldom, 
 if ever, been put together in as compact a 
 form. 
 
 # * * * * * 
 
 As a vindication of missions and a tribute 
 to the results of missionary effort, the Presi¬ 
 dent’s speech is one of the most powerful that 
 have ever been put forward. It is complimen¬ 
 tary to the Methodists and other church or¬ 
 ganizations, and it is a speech that will in¬ 
 crease the great admiration which has always 
 been expressed in the old world, among Eng¬ 
 lish, French, German, and other nations, 
 toward President Roosevelt. 
 
President Roosevelt’s 
 Address 
 
 After outlining the benefit which France 
 had brought to Algiers, Great Britain to 
 Egypt and India, and the United States to 
 the Philippines, President Roosevelt said: 
 
 In speaking tonight I wish to lay stress 
 upon the missionary side of the general work 
 in the foreign lands. America has for over a 
 century done its share of missionary work. 
 We who stay at home should as a matter of 
 duty give cordial support to those who in a 
 spirit of devotion to all that is highest in hu¬ 
 man nature spend the best part of their lives 
 in trying to carry civilization and Christianity 
 into lands which have hitherto known little or 
 nothing of either. The work is vast, and it is 
 done under many and widely varied condi¬ 
 tions. Personally I have always been particu¬ 
 larly interested, for instance, in the extra¬ 
 ordinary work done by the American schools 
 and colleges in the Turkish Empire, both Tur¬ 
 key in Europe and Turkey in Asia—a work 
 which has borne such wonderful fruit among 
 the Bulgarians, among Syrian and Armenian 
 Christians, and also among the Mohammedans ; 
 and this although among the Mohammedans 
 there has been no effort to convert them, sim¬ 
 ply an effort to make them good citizens, to 
 make them vie with their fellow citizens who 
 are Christians in showing those qualities which 
 it should be the pride of every creed to de-■ 
 velop; and the present movement to introduce 
 farreaching and genuine reforms, political and 
 social, in Turkey, an effort with which we 
 all keenly sympathize, is one in which these 
 young Moslems, educated at the American 
 schools and colleges, are especially fitted to 
 take part. 
 
WORK IN AFRICA 
 
 Bishop Hartzell’s work has been done in 
 Africa, the continent in which of all others 
 there has been the most need for Christian 
 work, and in which that work i hows signs of 
 reaching its widest development. It has been 
 indeed a Dark Continent, and some of the 
 white men who have gone thither have by their 
 acts deepened the gloom. Let us as a race be 
 thankful that so many other men have gone 
 thither to strive for the uplift of the people, to 
 strive for the betterment of conditions. Our 
 own country has in the past committed grave 
 wrong against Africa for which it should 
 amply atone, and no better atonement can be 
 made than that which is being made by the 
 American missionaries of every creed and 
 church, who are now doing so much in almost 
 every comer of Africa for the physical, the 
 intellectual and the moral betterment of the 
 people. I hope there will be the most hearty 
 support of these men who in far off regions are 
 fighting for progress in things of the spirit no 
 less than in things of the body. Let us help 
 them to make the missions centers of indus¬ 
 trial no less than of ethical teaching; for un¬ 
 less we raise the savage in industrial efficiency 
 we cannot permanently keep him on a high 
 plane of moral efficiency, nor yet can we render 
 him able to hold his own in the world. 
 
 Bishop Hartzell, I greet you; and I extend 
 my heartiest good wishes to the great Metho¬ 
 dist body on this diamond jubilee of its far- 
 reaching work in Africa. No denomination 
 has done more zealous and effective mission¬ 
 ary work than the Methodists. They were in 
 many large regions west of the Alleghenies the 
 pioneers of missionary work in our own land; 
 and their missionaries are now to be found in 
 every continent and under every clime. 
 
 FIRST FOREIGN MISSION OF METHODISM 
 
 In Africa, on the West Coast, the foreign 
 missionary work of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church was begun seventy-five years ago. 
 
 From that beginning a world-wide mission¬ 
 ary movement has developed which now in- 
 
volves the annual expenditure of $3,000,000 
 from America, besides large amounts raised on 
 the various foreign fields. This great work 
 includes the establishment and maintenance, in 
 several foreign countries, of churches and hos¬ 
 pitals, schools of various grades and kinds and 
 farreaching evangelistic effort. In recent 
 years, with the opening of that continent to 
 civilization, the work in Africa has grown to 
 large proportions, and the Church is face to 
 face with unparalleled opportunities and re¬ 
 sponsibilities in the strengthening of the cen¬ 
 ters it now occupies and in answering the calls 
 for enlargement. 
 
 DIAMOND JUBILEE 
 
 The missionary authorities of the Church, 
 with the cordial approval of the Board of 
 Bishops, have designated the year 1909 as 
 Africa Diamond Jubilee year. The nearly 
 twenty thousand pastors of the Church will 
 present to their people the claims of Africa 
 as a mission field and ask for jubilee offerings. 
 The amount asked for from America is $300,- 
 000. Suitable literature is being published 
 for wide distribution. In addition to the con¬ 
 tributions in money it is fully expected that a 
 large number of well prepared young men and 
 women will consecrate their lives to service in 
 different parts of the Dark Continent. 
 
 A NEW AyBICA 
 
 The twentieth century will see and is now 
 seeing the transformation of Africa into a new 
 world. Within a few years its vast domain 
 has been partitioned among various European 
 nations. Tht-.^ nations are expending enor¬ 
 mous sums of money and utilizing their best 
 statesmanship and colonizing abilities in the 
 development of colonial empires of wide extent 
 and extraordinary material possibilities. 
 Steamship lines encircle the continent. A 
 continental system of railways and of lake and 
 river steamboats will soon extend northward 
 from Cape Town six thousand miles to Cairo, 
 while branch lines will unite the east and west 
 coasts at several points. The latest results 
 
of science are being utilized in mining and 
 agriculture, while scholarly experts in differ¬ 
 ent centers of Europe are studying the ques¬ 
 tions of native languages and religions, as well 
 as the best methods of advancing civilization 
 among the many millions of native peoples. 
 The wealth of the commerce which will be de¬ 
 veloped cannot be estimated. The white man 
 rules; but there is only one white man on the 
 continent to one hundred others, who are 
 either barbaric black heathen or fanatical Mo¬ 
 hammedans. 
 
 Self-interest and competition will, I believe, 
 unite in making the governments fair to the 
 people, and the indomitable energy of the ad¬ 
 venturous settlers and the wealth of the na¬ 
 tions behind them will result in exploiting the 
 vast commercial resources of the continent. 
 But there is a question that is larger than 
 either government or trade, and that is the 
 moral well-being of these vast millions who 
 have come under the protection of modern 
 governments. The representative of the Chris¬ 
 tian religion must have his place side by side 
 with the man of government and trade, and 
 for generations that representative must be 
 supplied in the person of the foreign mission¬ 
 ary from America and Europe. Civilization 
 can only be permanent and continue a blessing 
 to any people if, in addition to promoting their 
 material well-being it also stands for an or¬ 
 derly individual liberty, for the growth of in¬ 
 telligence, and for equal justice in the admin¬ 
 istration of law. Christianity alone meets these 
 fundamental requirements. 
 
 CHANGE OF SENTIMENT REMARKABLE 
 
 The change of sentiment in mvor of the for¬ 
 eign missionary in a single generation has been 
 remarkable. The whole world, which is rapid¬ 
 ly coming into neighborhood relations, is recog¬ 
 nizing as never before the real needs of man¬ 
 kind, and is ready to approve and strengthen 
 all the moral forces which stand for the uplift 
 of humanity. There must be government for 
 the orderly and permanent development of so¬ 
 ciety. There must be intercourse among peo¬ 
 ples in the interests of commerce and growth. 
 
But, above all, there must be moral power, 
 established and maintained under the leader¬ 
 ship of good men and women. The upright 
 and farseeing statesman, the honest and capa¬ 
 ble trader, the devoted Christian missionary 
 represent the combined forces which are to 
 change the Africa of today into the greater 
 and better Africa of the future. 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY OF AMERICA 
 
 The responsibility of America for the moral 
 well-being of the people of Africa is manifest. 
 Our wealth and power have given us a place 
 of influence among the nations of the world. 
 But world-wide influence and power mean 
 more than dollars or social, intellectual or in¬ 
 dustrial supremacy. They involve a responsi¬ 
 bility for the moral welfare of others which 
 cannot be evaded. 
 
 The United States has no territorial inter¬ 
 ests in Africa, and may never have. The Re¬ 
 public of Liberia was the outgrowth of immi¬ 
 gration movements from our colored popula¬ 
 tions. But beyond a paternal interest the 
 United States has no organic relation with or 
 responsibility to that government. We are 
 friendly to all governments on the continent, 
 and stand with them, to the extent of our in¬ 
 fluence, for righteous rule, especially as ap¬ 
 plied to the vast native populations. Our 
 commercial relations, already large, will grow 
 to vast proportions in coming years. But be¬ 
 yond questions of rule or traffic are the re¬ 
 sponsibilities of America as to the moral 
 uplift of the people of Africa. This respon¬ 
 sibility is to be met in co-operation with the 
 Christian forces of other nations. So vast is 
 this problem of redeeming a continent which 
 has lain for thousands of years in darkness 
 that all sections of the Christian Church must 
 have a hand in this great work. The few 
 score of missionaries who are now on the field 
 from America should be multiplied in the near 
 future, and the money contributed to Africa 
 should be doubled over and over again year 
 after year. It is a joy to learn that among 
 the missionary forces in Africa, from different 
 lands and representing different branches of 
 
the Church, there are fraternal and mutually 
 helpful relations. 
 
 The responsibility of America toward Africa 
 is 'emphasized because of our past history, and 
 because of the number of our citizens who are 
 of African descent. As a result of the African 
 slave trade, that crime of the ages, and of two 
 and a half centuries of slavery in America, the 
 United States has nearly 10,000,000 of colored 
 people as a part of its citizenship. No other 
 country outside of Africa has so large a Negro 
 population; and, what is more, there are no 
 other 10,000,000 Negroes in the world who 
 own as much property and have as large a per¬ 
 centage who are intelligent, moral and thrifty. 
 The education and uplift of the American 
 Negro now going forward should be accom¬ 
 panied by the increase of the missionary and 
 Christian forces on the continent from which 
 his ancestors came. The number of those who 
 go as missionaries to Africa will increase; and 
 it is not unreasonable to suppose that a large 
 share of the leadership for the evangelization 
 of the continent will be furnished from among 
 our own colored leaders in America. 
 
 In the redemption of Africa, all sections of 
 the Christian Church must be united, but 
 Methodism, because of the vast number it 
 represents and the spirit and methods of its 
 movements, should have a share of especial 
 note. The spirit of Methodism is the spirit 
 of expansion and of world-wide conquests in 
 the kingdom of righteousness. John Wesley’s 
 motto was: “The world is my parish.” I hope 
 the Methodists of today will make this state¬ 
 ment good. 
 
 For further information or for literature, address Africa 
 Diamond Jubilee Commission, 150 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. All 
 gifts should be sent to Dr. A. B. Leonard, 150 Fifth Aoe., 
 N. Y., made payable to Homer Eaton, Treasurer, and marked 
 “Special Gift for Africa."