Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 3 (of 7)

by Theodore Roosevelt

ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATES OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, WASHINGTON, D. C., MARCH 25, 1905

Ladies and Gentlemen; and especially the Members of the Graduating Class:

I am glad to have the chance of saying a word of greeting to you this morning. You represent two professions, for you are members of the great medical body and you are also officers of the Navy of the United States, and therefore you have a double standard of honor up to which to live. I think that all of us laymen, men and women, have a peculiar appreciation of what a doctor means; for I do not suppose there is one of us who does not feel that the family doctor stands in a position of close intimacy with each of us, in a position of obligation to him under which one is happy to rest to an extent hardly possible with any one else; and those of us, I think most of us, who are fortunate enough to have a family doctor who is a beloved and intimate friend, realize that there can be few closer ties of intimacy and affection in the world. And while, of course, even the greatest and best doctors can not assume that very intimate relation with more than a certain number of people (though it is to be said that more than any other man, the doctor does commonly assume such a relation to many people)—while it is impossible this relation in its closest form shall obtain between a doctor and more than a certain number of people, still with every patient with whom the doctor is thrown at all intimately he has this peculiar relation to a greater or less extent. The effect that the doctor has upon the body of the patient is in very many cases no greater than the effect that he has upon the patient’s mind. Each one of you here has resting upon him not only a great responsibility for the care of the body of the officer or enlisted man who will be under his supervision, but a care—which ought not to be too consciously shown, but which should be unconsciously felt—for the man’s spirit. The morale of the entire ship’s company, of the entire body of men with which you are to be thrown, will be sensibly affected by the way in which each of you does his duty.

Just as the great doctor, the man who stands high in his profession in any city, counts as one of the most valuable assets in that city’s civic work, so in the Navy or the Army the effect of having thoroughly well-trained men with a high and sensitive standard of professional honor and professional duty is wellnigh incalculable upon the service itself. I want you now, as you graduate, to feel that on your shoulders rests a great weight of responsibility; that your position is one of high honor, and that it is impossible to hold a position of high honor and not hold it under penalty of incurring the severest reprobation if you fail to live up to its requirements.

I am not competent to speak save in the most general terms of your professional duties. I do want, however, to call your attention to one or two features connected with them. In the first place: In connection with the work you do for the service you have certain peculiar advantages in doing work that will be felt for the whole profession. For instance, it will fall to your lot to deal with certain types of tropical diseases. You will have to deal with them as no ordinary American doctor, no matter how great his experience, will have to deal with them, and you should fit yourselves by most careful study and preparation, so that you shall not only be able to grapple with the cases as they come up, but in grappling with them to make and record observations upon them that will be of permanent value to your fellows in civil life. You can there do what no civilian doctor can possibly do. There probably is not a branch of the profession into which, during your career, you will not have to go; no type of disease that you will not have to treat. But there are certain diseases you will have to treat that the ordinary man who stays at home, of course, does not; and it is of consequence to the entire medical profession that you should so fit yourself by study, by preparation, that you shall not only be able to deal with those cases, but to deal with them in a way that will be of advantage to your stay-at-home brethren.

There is one other point. Every effort should, of course, be made to provide you with ample means to do your work. Every effort ought to be made to persuade the National Legislature to take that view of the situation; to remember that in case of war it is out of the question to improvise a great medical service for the Army and the Navy. The need of the increase would be more keenly felt in the Army than in the Navy, because it is always the Army that undergoes the greatest expansion in time of war. But it is felt in both services. And when, as is perfectly certain to be the case if ever a war comes, and if we have made no greater preparation than at present, there is fever in the camps, there is sickness among the volunteer forces, it will be mere dishonest folly for the public men, and especially for the public press, to shriek against the people who happen to be in power at that time. Let them, if ever such occasion arises, solemnly think over and repent of the fact that they have not made their representatives provide adequately in advance for the medical system in its personnel and its material, for the organization, and for the physical instruments necessary to make that organization effective. Only adequate preparation in advance will obviate the trouble which otherwise is certain to come if we have a war. Let critics remember not to blame the people in power when such a breakdown comes, but to blame themselves, the people of the United States, because they have not had the forethought to take the steps in advance which would prevent such breakdown from occurring.

Means ought to be provided in advance. That is part of our duty. If we fail in it then it is our responsibility, not yours. But now for your duty. I want to impress, with all the strength that in me lies, upon every medical man in either the Army or the Navy, to remember always that in any time of crisis the chances are that you will have to work with imperfect implements. And your conduct will then afford a pretty good test of your worth. If you sit down and do nothing but say you could have done excellently if only you had had the right implements to work with, you will show your unfitness for your position. Your business will be to do the very best you can do, if you have nothing in the world but a jack-knife to do it with. Keep before your minds all the time that when the crisis occurs it is almost sure to be the case that you will have to do no small part of your work with make-shifts; to do it, as I myself saw at Santiago the Army physicians do their work, roughly and hastily, when worn out with fatigue and having but one-fourth or one-fifth of the appliances that they would expect normally to have. Make up your mind that while you will do all you can to get the best material together in advance, you will not put forward the lack of that material as an excuse for not doing the best work possible with imperfect tools. Make it a matter of pride to do your utmost, without regard to the inadequacy of your instruments.

I am sure that all of us outsiders here realize the weight of responsibility resting upon those who now join the great and honorable body of men who in the Navy and in the Army have by their actions upheld not only the standard of honor of the medical profession, but the standard of honor of the officers of the Army and the Navy of the United States.

I greet you on your entrance into the service. I welcome you as servants of the Nation, and I wish you every success in the great and honorable calling which you have chosen as yours.