The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-04
They Are Practical
ButDecent, He Says,
In Speech.
DON'T TRUST REVOLUTIONS
Politicians Reflect Virtue,
Vices and Indifference
of Voters.

Ocean Grove, N. j., Aug. 3.-Gov.
Theodore Roosevelt of New York, was
the guest of honor at the Ocean Grove
summer school tonight, when he deliv-
cred an address upon Practical, pol
itics and decent politics" before large
audience. Gov. Roosevelt was well
coined as he crossed the line between
states to Jersey City by a delegation
of prominent citizens in New Jersey.
At Red Bank, Elberon, Allen Hurst
and West End, Gov. Roosevelt was
heartily cheered. On his arrival al
Ocean Grove. many holiday seekers
from points along the coast had gath
cred in the vicinity of the station. Il
was with difficulty the governor made
his way to the carriage through the
cheering crowd. The governor stood UP
in the carriage, bowling right and
left.
Governor Roosevelt and his party
were driven to the home of A. H. De-
Haven, where the governor was met by
Bishop James N. Fitzgerald, president
of the Ocean Grove summer school
of theology. Outside of Mr. De Haven's
home, a company of boys in rough
Rider uniforms was drawn up, and as
Gov. Roosevelt alighted, he was greet
ed by a roll of drums and the boys
presented arms.
Mr.. and Mrs. DeHaven entertained
Gov. Roosevelt at dinner. The guests
included Bishop Fitzgerald and Con-
gresham Howell.
During the dinner a crowd again
gathered in the vicinity of the DeHaven
cottage, and when the governor APP
peared to go to the auditorium the
crush was still greater 1t was esti-
mated that 10000 persons assembled in
the auditorium to hear the orator.
Gov. Roosevelt, in part, spoke as fol-
lows
1T is idle for the mass of good citi-
zens to try to set themselves apart as
not responsible for our political short
comings In the end the politicians
must be exactly what the people allow
them to be. They must represent the
people-perhaps the vice, perhaps the
virtue, perhaps the indifference of the
people. Do not let US fall into the mis-
take of thinking that we shall ever
make politics by Mysteries in any shape
or form. Wild denunciation of all poll
tieians, good and bad, is the very thing
most advantageous to the bad politi-
clans.
Your highest duty to the state is
to see that you do all that within you
lies to elevate the standard of public
life, to demand honesty and efficiency
in your public men and to frown on the
system of Islander which would teach
that there is no good and no bad nc
black and no white; that everything is
gray, and every man a time server who
will do as much i'll as he dares.
EfT1n frt1 n III
to sudden instructions of virtue Dc
not get into the habit of permitting
things to drift from bad to worse with
the belief that you can always apply a
revolutionary remedy Revolutions are
sometimes necessary but government
by revolution is not a success. We
have right to demand of good
citizens that they apply themselves
steadily to our public duties and keep
politics at constantly high level
Now this is decent politics, and
therefore it is practical politics. But
II is by no means all that there is of
politics. 1t is not enough for you to do
what is honest yourself and to insist
upon honesty in others. You have also
got to possess courage and finally. you
have got to possess common sense. In
New York l firmly believe that the de-
cent people could combine to over
throw the civic corruption if they only
We're united, but they are so apt to
tight one another. so apt to quarrel as
to exactly how the high ideal of their
government shall be; that too often
throw the victory into the hands of
those who have no ideal at all and
who, in addition to a cynical belief in
the power of corruption and in mere
demagogy also set about their work
with practical common sense.
Practical politics must be the politics
OF decency, but also the politics of cour-
age, of common sense, of hard work.
You must have high ideals, but you
must not follow them with your heads
in the air, blind to the political meth
DDS by which alone they can be even
partially realized. The call for great
heroism in an individual or in a nation
does not often rise. If you wait for he
roic days before you exert yourself, you
will simply be drone. Still the need
for heroism does now and then arise.
Just at this moment the nation is
fact to face with a duty that calls for
heroism. l mean our attitude in the
Philippines. We shall be guilty of a
terrible wrong to humanity if, in the
Philippines, we retreat before armed
savagery instead Of organizing a suit
able government, which shall guarantee
justice to everyone and an ever-in-
creasing measure of liberty to those
who show themselves worthy of it. The
Whole history of the world shows that
the wrong done by the mere sentiment
talist is often of larger proportions and
more elastic than any other kind of
wrong; and of this wrong shall we be
guilty If we fail to do our task thor
oughly and we'll"