Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-09-23

The last carefully prepared public
utterance made by Vice President
Roosevelt on questions of national i'm
port was his speech at the forty-sec-
ond annual state fair at Minneapolis
on Monday, September 2, three days
before President Mckinley made his
ever-to- aforementioned address at
Buffalo. In view of the fact that Mr.
Roosevelt is now president Of the
casion is of special interest and the
most important parts of it are here re-
printed. Mr. Roosevelt said:
"Our country has been populated by
pioneers, and therefore it has in it
more energy, more enterprise, more
expansive power than any other in the
wide world You whom l am now ad-
dressing stand for the most part but
one generation removed from these
pioneers. You are typical Americans,
for you have done the great, the
characteristic, the typical work of our
American life. In making homes and
carving out careers for yourselves and
your children you have built up this
state; throughout our history the sue
cess of the home-maker has been but
another name for the upbuilding of
the nation.
THE vast Individual and corporate
fortunes, the vast combinations of
capital which have marked the de-
velopment of our industrial system,
create new conditions, and necessitate
a change from the old attitude of the
state and the nation toward property.
1t is probably true that the large ma
jority of the fortunes that now exist
in this country have been amassed
not by injuring our people, but as an
incident to the comforting of great
benefits upon the community; and this,
no matter what may have been the
conscious purpose of those amassing
them. There is but the scantiest justi.
fication for most of the oitcry against
the men of wealth as such and it
ought to be unnecessary to state that
any appeal which directly or indirectly
leads to suspicion and hatred among
ourselves, which tends to limit OPP
portunity, and therefore to shut the
door of success against poor men of
talent, and finally which entails the
possibility of la'wlessness and violence,
is an attack upon the fundamental
properties of American citizenship.
Our interests are at bottom com
mon; in the long run we go up or go
.6nWt1 tnonfhnr Vnt nd III
is evident that the state and, if neces-
sary, the nation has got to possess the
right of supervision and control as re-
CARDS the great corporations which are
it's creatures; particularly as regards
the great business combinations which
derive portion of their Importance
from the existence of some monopolis-
tic tendency. The right should be ex-
ercised with caution and self-restraint;
but it should exist, SO that it may be
invoked if the need arises.
But our country as it strides for
ward with ever-increasing rapidity to
foremost place among the world
powers, must necessarily find, more
and more, that it has world duties
also There are excellent people who
believe That we can shirk these duties
and yet retain our self-respect; but
these good people are in error.
Right here let me make as vigorous
plea as [ know how in favor of say
ing nothing that we do not mean and
Of acting without hesitation up to
whatever we say. In private life
there are few beings more obnoxious
than the man who is always loudly
boasting, and if the boaster is not
prepared to back up his words his
position becomes absolutely contempt
ible. So it is with the nation. 1t is
both foolish and undignified to indulge
in undue self-glorification land, above
ALL in loose-tongued denunciation of
other peoples. Whenever on any point
we come in contact with a foreign
power, hope that we shall always
strive to speak courteously and re-
specially to that foreign power. Let
us make it evident that we intend to
do justice. Then let us make it equal.
ly evident that we will not tolerate in
justice being done to us in return.
Let us further make it evident that
we use no words which we are not pre-
pared to back up with deeds, and that
while our speech is always moderate
we are ready and willing to make it
good. Such an attitude will be the
surest possible guarantee of that self
respecting peace the attainment of
which is and must ever be the prime
aim of selfgoverning people.
This is the attitude we should take
as regards the Monroe doctrine. There
is not the least need of clustering
about it. Still less should it be used
as a pretext for our own aggrandize-
ment at the expense of any other
American state. But, most emphat-
ically, we must make it evident that
we intend on this point ever to main
tain the old American position In.
deed, it is hard to understand how any
man can take any other position, now
!