I am reading a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, who served as Director of the FBI from 1924 until his death in 1972. The book mentions a supposed crisis among young men in the early 1900s. There was a concern that they were not developing to be manly enough.

Congress must have been concerned as well. Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana warned against the overeducation of young men and urged them to “avoid books and, in fact, avoid all artificial learning, for the forefathers put America on the right path by learning completely from natural experience.”

I became curious enough to find out why this was such a crisis. Here are several reasons I found.

1. 1. Feminization of Education: There was a perception that the increasing number of female teachers and the emphasis on learning in schools was “feminizing” boys. Critics argued that boys needed more outdoor activities and male role models to develop correctly.

1. 2. Changing Gender Roles: As women gained more rights and opportunities outside the home, it threatened traditional male dominance and gender roles. The women’s suffrage movement and women entering the workforce fueled fears about the erosion of masculinity.

1. 3. Urbanization and Industrialization: The shift from a rural to an urban, industrialized society was seen as diminishing opportunities for boys to engage in rugged outdoor activities and physical labor, which were considered essential for building masculine character.

1. 4. Anti-Intellectualism: A strain of thought emphasizing learning from “natural experience” over book learning.

I found two organizations that partly provided programs designed to cultivate masculinity by emphasizing fitness.

1. 1.  Boy Scouts of America: Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts aimed to instill traditional masculine values like self-reliance, outdoor skills, and physical fitness in boys through camping, hiking, and community service.

1. 2. Muscular Christianity: This movement combined religious piety with physical strength and athleticism, emphasizing the ideal of the “Christian gentleman.”

Masonic Brother and President Teddy Roosevelt, who served from 1901-1909, repeatedly warned men they were becoming too office-bound, too complacent, too comfortable with physical ease and moral laxity, and were failing in their duties to propagate the race and exhibit masculine vigor.

Roosevelt took up boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, polo, and horseback riding. He boxed several times a week with sparring partners and eventually lost sight in one eye from being repeatedly hit in the face.

In 1899, when Roosevelt was Governor of New York, he expressed his lifelong belief in the benefits of physical activity in a speech entitled The Strenuous Life. At the beginning of the speech, he said,

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

So, the culture at the time feared America was becoming weak, and the growing urbanization and the rise of the various women’s movements contributed to the trend — a perfect time for a President like Roosevelt to sing the praises of masculinity and hard work.

Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech entitled “Citizenship in a Republic” at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910. The speech is popularly known as “The Man in the Arena.”

In this speech, he explains that a citizen needs more than physical strength and presents his Masonic roots in this excerpt.

“There is need of a sound body, and even more of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character—the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man’s force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor. I believe in exercise for the body, always provided that we keep in mind that physical development is a means and not an end.

I believe, of course, in giving to all the people a good education. But the education must contain much besides book-learning in order to be really good.

We must ever remember that no keenness and subtleness of intellect, no polish, no cleverness, in any way make up for the lack of the great solid qualities. Self-restraint, self-mastery, common sense, the power of accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, courage, and resolution—these are the qualities which mark a masterful people. Without them, no people can control itself or save itself from being controlled from the outside.”

Brother Roosevelt says the qualities that “mark a masterful people” also mark a Mason. We need to continue to build and display those qualities.