It also convinced him that those unable or unwilling to fight for themselves would perforce be ruled by others who were. “All the great masterful races have been fighting races,” he declared in his first public speech as assistant secretary. “The minute that a race loses the hard-fighting virtues,” he warned, “then, no matter what else it may retain, no matter how skilled in commerce and finance, in science or art, it has lost its proud right to stand as the equal of the best. Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is an unpardonable sin.”
