The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-06
Terse EpigramS by
The0. Roosevelt

Extracts from Ills recent western SpceChCs'
Wherever the Tag is as long there is an
armed foe against it, the flag stays there.
Fundamentally, you have got to have the
same qualities for success in public life as you
have in private life
As | have said before, ours was not a great
war; because it did not have to be, but we
were all ready to make it just as big as ncces.
sary.
You can stop prosperity by legislation, but
you cannot do more by law for prosperity than
to give every American chance to show his
own thrift.
The American people rise and fall together;
if one falls all fall. if one prospers all prosper.
For good good or for evil bound together
for all time.
Injustice and wrong.doing ruin the nation
that does it, and another thing docs it even
quickcr-cowardice, crngng and finching from
the work Of the world when the worlds work
has got to he done.
Don't think because a man is smart he can
prohtably be dishonest An honest but timid
man is not much good. A natural born fool
who is honest is not worth knocking on the
head. Have horse sense with your honesty.
No nation. no matter how glorious its rec.
ord, can exist unless it practicos-practiccs.
mind YOU, not merely preachcs-civic honesty,
civic righteousness. No Lation can perma-
ncntly prosper unless the decaloguc and the
private life. Don't get into that most foolish
of attitudes of admiring mems smartness un
accompanied by moral purpose.
The lesson TO be learned If We are going to
make this republic what it ought to be is the
lesson of insisting that a public mans deeds
must square with his words. public servant
must make good his promises, or he has no
right to appeal to you for confidence or for sup
port And when we have learned that lesson,
u,haD NAL YDdpr fbnt no
no capacity, nothing shall atone for the lack
of elementary decency in public life, then we
will put this nation where it should be, the
greatest nation on which the sun has ever
shone.
| have a right tc appeal to you, for I fought
with q regiment from the west containing many
| men from the cast-men whose fathers Wore
| the blue, others whose fathers wore the gray
a regiment in which we knew neither eastorncr
nor westerner, nor northcrner, nor southerner;
| no distinction Of creed or race or origin or
| occupation, but in which we treated each man
| on his worth a man. And we could get
| good work out Of that regiment because every
man in il knew that if he did his duty We
would stand by him, and II he did not do his
| duty all the politicians in the land could not
save him.
We of the Rough Riders are proud Of our
! colonel, our present general, Leonard Wood;
| proud OF him not only because we remember
| how he formed us, not only because we re-
member how he led us in the fight at Guasimas,
when most Of us had not any idea exactly how
! it felt to be in a fight Out We found OUT, but
we are proud Of him because he has been an
| able and upright civic administrator in Cuba
| because feel that regiment has taken
| the lead in furnishing the sort of men who
| must be sent to the trOpc isles that have be
| come ours, If we are going to do as we want to,
| to make our rule a blessing indeed to those
| islands.
| We are not to he excused II we shirk our
| work because it is hard Look here you OF
| the big war from '6l to Go, did you have an
! easy time? No. not a bit Of it. Do you
! recollcct marching until the blanket was too
| heavy, and the following right when the blan-
| ket was too lght2 Those were the hardest
| years you ever had, but those four years are
| the years Of your lives that you are proudcst
| Of As it is with the individual, so il is with
| the nation, You Of Oklahoma founded this
| territory, this state that is to be, because YOU
| came here not seeking a life Of ease, but anx,
| ious to grappe with difficulties, and out of toll
and labor and peril to achieve the splendid ulti-
mate triumph. So it must be with the nations
| Of the earth, with the nation that is fit to play
its part among the great peoples.
Look at China! China has not expanded and
never will expand. II is not that kind Of a
| country, nation that does not wish TO be-
| come the Nhlha OF thc present Gay mas got to
| face and do its work among the great peoples
Of the world. We can't shrink from it. We
can only decide whether we will>do it well or
! i'll. And | appeal to the people Of the great
west ! appeal to the men who fought in the
civil war, and to their sons who came forward
so gladly to offer all that they had when the
nation called again. Whatever their party--I
care nothing for their party-I appeal to them
to see to it that the nation does not shrink
| froD hat tbp urb Ia,
| been horne to honor shall be upheld forcyermore
as the flag Of the greatest, mirhticst nation
Of mankind, a nation that shrinks from no duty
| when duty calls.