Mr. Roosevelt received the honorary degree of LL.D. at Cam-
bridge on Thursday. In the course of his speech at the Union he said some very excellent things about University athletics. Among the things he wished very much that American Univer- sities would learn from the English was how to make football a less homicidal game. He did not wish to speak as a mere senti- mentalist, but he did not think killing should be the normal accompaniment of football. Very sound too was his protest against making athletics anything like a profession. In a pleasant vein of personal reminiscence Mr. Roosevelt pointed out that he never was an athlete, though he was very fond of sport, and had always had an enormous amount of outdoor life. In soldiering and in public life what was wanted was character rather than genius. In other words, there was need of the ordinary qualities, but exercised in more than an ordinary degree. Great crises made great men. If Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would know his name now.
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