 You must sit. You are taking up my time. And I tend to speak long. I don't know if you know this story. But in 1912, I stood for an unprecedented third term as president. Now I know I had said that I wouldn't stand for a third term, but there was an interim of four years, and I regarded that as changing the conditions a little bit. And Taft, my hand-picked successor, proved to be weak and ineffectual, and he betrayed the progressive movement. So I stood for a third term, and I was widely denounced as a betrayer of the Republican Party. I am happy to tell you that when the election results occurred, I received the largest third party vote in this nation's history. But I didn't win. In fact, I elected that professor, Woodrow Wilson. But as the campaign neared its climax, I went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and there I was to give a great address. And my secret servicemen, my protectors, urged me not to tarry. But the local people wanted me to come in to supper at a hotel, and I said, if it's important to the campaign, I will do it. So in I went and had supper, just as you have done. And then I was on my way to the speech, and I got in a jalopy, and a man came up, blank range. He shot me. He was a filthy anarchist. And later, when he was asked why he shot me, he said he was against third terms. I'm an old hunter. And so when I noticed that there was blood pouring from my shirt, I coughed into my hand, because there was no blood in my spittle. I knew that I was by no means mortally wounded. I said, he pinked me. Well, my handler said, we must get you, Colonel Roosevelt, as soon as possible to the hospital. Do you know what I said? I said, I am going to give this speech tonight if it kills me. And off we went, and we got to the center, and I gave an 84 minute speech. I began by saying, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if you know what has happened, but I have been shot. And because of that, I ask you to pay special attention, and I may not be able to speak as forcefully as usual. You see, I happen to have in my pocket, when the shot rang out, a steel spectacles case, and my 50 page speech folded up. And together they slowed the bullet. It didn't hit the lungs, it lodged in a rib, and I was going to be just fine. And then I said to the audience, and I'm saying it to you now. You know that I'm sincere tonight because nobody is insincere who has just been shot. So whatever I say you know is the gospel of the progressive movement in this country. This is a kind of opportunity. I spoke for more than an hour, showed at times my speech with bullet holes in it, and then I grew a little weak, and my handlers took me off to hospital. When I got to the hospital, they wanted to carry me in. I was gravely tired now, but you know what I said? I said I'm going to walk into that hospital if it's the last walk that I ever take, and I did. My point is that I tend to speak long, and I have the disadvantage of not having You know Edith, my wife, had dinners at the White House when I was holding forth and giving a monologue here and a soliloquy there and an opinion about this or that and really getting warmed up. I would look over and there she'd be looking at me. She'd be giving me the look. You know the look. And then I would say oh Edie, I was just saying one or two more sentences and then I'll stop. Then I'd get wound up again and go off. I don't want to do that. In fact, I'm told that I am to take some questions, but before that I want to say just a few things to you, and I want you to listen very carefully indeed. I am not here to speak the doctrine of ignoble ease, but rather of the strenuous life. All great nations have been warring nations, and all great men have been soldiers. And when a nation becomes sedentary, when it begins to love peace more than honor, and its men settle into desk jobs, and effeminacy enters the culture and it weakens it. I am a social Darwinist. Life belongs to the fittest, and sedentary men are not fit. Now when I look out on some of you men in this room, I see office pencil, bushes, desk men. And frankly, some of you have shoulders that resemble nothing so much as a champagne bottle. I do not like this. And I am here to call you to a higher order of adventure and strain. To the men in this room I say get up and do something, build something, climb something, shoot something. Yes, it is not altogether clear to me that anyone should be an American citizen and entitled to vote who is not willing to kill a quadruped, and preferably one that might turn upon him and maim or kill him. Now that's what. And so I'm asking the men in this room to be more strenuous, because it's not just about your life, it's about the life of the community and the life of the nation. And to the women in this room, at least those of a certain age, I ask you to consider bearing more children. Yes, I have no respect for the childless marriage unless it's medically required for the marriage of one or two children. That is race suicide. The best thing women can do is cheer their men on and their adventures and bear children for the republic. I'm quite serious. And I regard a woman's labor as every bit as heroic as a man's participation in battle. They have equal stye eyes. While we say I am in favor of women's rights up to a certain point, by which I mean women should vote, women should hold public office if they can be elected. And frankly, let me say that a woman should be able to do anything that a man can do if she can hack it and be paid equally with that man if she can do the work. Not all women want that. But we mustn't hold back any person of gumption in this society. What we want is a square deal. Some of you are rich and some of you are poor. Some of you are highly educated and some of you not. Some of you are born in privilege and some of you are born in indents. We don't want to level all of this. That's filthy socialism. What we want is that each of you has a square deal that you know if you work hard, save money, show thrift, watch the economy with care and even cleverness that you can make something of yourself in this country. And if there is a square deal, if the average man knows that the system is not rigged against him, he won't particularly object to poverty. He won't envy the wealth, but if he feels that the system is designed to help the privileged and the wealthy and the powerful, that it's rigged against the average man, then even if he prospers, he will be bitter.