Cleanliness stands paramount in its importance to success.  Perhaps no other one thing has so vital a hold upon the individual who succeeds.  The general of an army first looks to the morale of his troops.  He knows that with clean minds and bodies his soldiers are capable of doing big things.  The battleship, that efficient and highly-developed instrument of war, is so immaculate that one could eat his meals on its very decks.  Its officers are wholesome, athletic fellows; its crew consists of hardy men who live sanely and vigorously and who have plenty to occupy their minds.  And if cleanliness is fundamental in their case why not in our own?

When we come to analyze ourselves we find that we are like a great institution of some kind.  Here is the brain, the heart, the lungs, the stomach, the nerves and the muscles.  Each department acts separately and yet is connected absolutely with all the others.  The entire system is under one supreme department ... the mind.  Now if this ruling department is kept clean and full, of kindly, beautiful thoughts does it not seem natural that the rest will follow its lead being so completely in its power?  We realize this and the mere realization is something done towards the accomplishment of an ideal life in a world of cleanliness and beauty.

System is one of the finest tools in existence with which to build one’s life into something worth while.  The body must be run on a system as well as the mind.  The stomach must not be overloaded with unnecessary food.  The lungs must not be filled with impure air.  The nerves must not be worn threadbare in riotous and ridiculous living.  The muscles must be kept in trim with consistent exercise of the proper sort.  We must recognize the wants, the needs of the physical system and see that they are supplied.

Roosevelt, perhaps more than any other living man today, has given vitality to the supreme necessity of cleanliness of mind and body.  He has, by reason of his great prominence, been able to emphasize these two vital essentials.  He called a spade a spade and his message went far.  From those who knew the value of his words came nods of approval—­others took heed.  From boyhood he has systematized his life, taking the exercise needed, filling his mind with the learning of the world, winning when others would have failed, profiting by experience allotted to him through fate’s kindly offices and association with the healthy, true men.  What has been the result?  He has risen to the very pinnacle of human endeavor ... no honors await him.  He has lived consistently and cleanly and he can look any man in the eye and say honestly:  “I have lived as I have believed.”

It is not necessary to become President in order to live sanely, to gain from circumstances the fruits that are ours for the asking and which have fallen into Roosevelt’s hands with such profusion.  We cannot all become Presidents but we can all emulate a shining example of mental and bodily morale.