It is
in the power of public spirit to say whether men or money shall control.
If public spirit is in the saddle, the fundamental purpose of all the
people, which is good, will govern. If not, the bosses and the great
private interests will have their way. Without the backing of the public
spirit of good men, even the President himself loses by far the greater
portion of his power. For the power to do what we hope to see
accomplished, we must look most of all to the public spirit of the young
men.
But some one will say that great service is beyond his individual power.
I do not believe that great service is beyond the power of any young
man. This is not a matter in which obstacles decide. The man for whom
all the barriers to success have been broken down is not, as a rule, the
man who succeeds. On the contrary, conflict is the condition of
success. The quality of the man himself decides. The more I study men,
which is the daily occupation of every man in affairs, the more firmly I
am assured that the great fundamental difference between men, the reason
why some fail and some succeed, is not a difference in ability or
opportunity, but a difference in vision and in relentless loyalty to
ideals--vision to see the great object, and relentless, unwavering,
uninterrupted loyalty in its service.
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