The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1901-08-09
DEEDS WE'RE HEROIC
TheOdors Roosevelt Praises Men
Who Made CODqusseOf the West
save Only the civil war. No other
Task Has Been So Important.
Declares the vice Pres
fdent

Colorado Springs, Col, Aug. 2-The
feature Of the quartO-centennial cele-
bratiOn Of CoIorado's admission as
state was the address by Vice Presi-
dent Roosevelt Friday afternoon In
part the vice president said.
You, the men OF Colorado. and above
all, the older among those whom I an
now addressing, have been engaged in
doing the great typical work Of our peo-
pie Save only the preservatiOn OF the
union Itself no other task has been 80
important as the conquest and settle
ment OF the west This conquest and
settlement has been the stupendous feat
o. our race for the century that has
just closed. IL stands supreme among all
such feats- The same kind OF thing has
been IN Australia and Canada, but upon
a less important SCALE while the Russian
advance IN Siberia has been fncompara-
bly, slower In all the history OF mankind
there IS nothing that quite parallels the
way IN which our people have filed a
vacant continent with self-governfng
commonwealth. knit into one nation
And OF ali this marvellous history per-
haps the most wonderful portion is that
which deals with the way in which the
Pacific coast and the Rocky mountains
were settled
The men who founded these eommunI-
ties showed practically by their life work
that IL Is indeed the spirit of adventure
which IS the maker OF connnonwealths
Their traits OF daring and hardihood and
iron endurance are not merely fndispen-
sable traits for successful pioneers: they
are also traits which must 20 10 the
makeup OF every mighty and successful
people You and your fathers who built
up the west did more even than you
thought, FOR you shaped thereby the des-
tiny OF the whole republic and as a nee
essary cOrOllary profoundly influence
the course OF events throughout the
world More and more as the years 20
by this republic VIII find its guidance in
the thought and action Of the west be
cause the conditions OF development in
the west have steadily tended to accen-
tuate the peculiarly American charac-
teristfcs OF its people
There was scsnt room for the coward
and the walking in the ranks OF the
adventurous frontiersman. the pioneer
Bsttlers who first broke up the wild prai-
RE soil, who first heWed their way
into the primeval forest; who guided
their White-tOpped wagons across the
endless leagues Of Indian-hunted desc
lation, and explored every remote noun
tain chain in the restless quest for metal
wealth Behind them came the men who
completed the work they had roughly
begun; who drove the great railroad sys-
TENS over plain and desert and mountain
pass; who stocked the teeming ranches.
and under irrigation saw the bright
green OF the alfalfa and the yellow OF the
golden stubble supplant the gray Of the
saBe-Dusn DESERT VINO nave built great
pOpulOus cities, cities in which every art
and science Of civilization are carried
to their highest point, on tracts which
when the nineteenth century had passed
its meridian were still known only to
the grim trappers and hunters and the
red lords Of the wilderness with whom
they Waged eternal war. Such is the
record Of which we are so proud. It is
a record OF men who greatly dared and
greatly did; a record Of wandering wider
and more dangerous than those Of the
Vikings; a record Of endles feats OF
arms, OF victory after victory in the
ceaseless strife waged against wild man
and wild nature The winning of the
west was the great epic feat I'm the his
tory Of our race.