The Minneapolis journal., 1901-08-02
PAEAN TO PIONEERS
Vice President Roosevelt Discusses
the Growth of the West.
IRON QUALITIES STILL NEEDED
Those Celebrating Colorado State
hood Hear a Warming to
American Citizenship.

Colrado Springs, Col, Aug. AT the
Colorado quarto-centennial celebration In
this city to-day Theodore Roosevelt, vice
president of the United States, spoke on
The Growth of the West During the
last Quarter of Century" He was well
coined on arriving in the city by Governor
Orman and staff, veterans, Rough Riders,
school children and many others. At 10
o'clock he was escorted to North Pork,
where he spoke in the open air to an as
semblage of 10000 persons. He was given
an enthusiastic reception and frequently
interrupted with applause. Colonel
Roosevelt said in his address:
We have found the federal constitution a
nearly perfect instrument The system of a
closely knit and indestructible union of free
commonwealths has enabled us to do what
neither Greek nor Roman in their greatest
days could do. We have preserved the COM
plete unity of an expanding race without i'm
pairing in the slightest degree the liberty Of
the individual. Save only the preservation of
the union ITSELF no other task has been so
important as the conquest and settlement Of
the west. This conquest and settlement has
been the stupendous feat of our race for the
century that has just closed. It stands su-
preme among all such feats.
There was scant room for the coward and
the weakling in the ranks of the adventurous
frontiersman. It is a record of men who
greatly dared and greatly did; a record of
wanderings- wider and more dangerous than
those of the vikings; a record of endless feats
of arms, Of victory after victory in the cease
less strife waged against wild man and wilder
nature. The winning of the west was the
great epic feat in the history of our race
We have right to meet to-day in a spirit
of just pride in the past. But when we pay
homage to the hardy, grim, resolute men who
lQcre0ihl1 rSlr oil he
foundations Of the civilization that we inherit,
let US steadily remember that the only hom-
age that counts is the homage Of deeds not
words. 1t is well to gether here to show that
we remember what has been done in the past
by the western pioneers of our people and
that we glory in the greatness for which they
prepared the way. But lip loyalty by Itself
avails very little, whether it is expressed con-
cerntng a nation or an ideal. 1t would be a
sad and evil thing for this country if ever
the day came when we considered the great
deeds of our forefathers as an excuse for oYr
resting slothfully satisfied with what has
been already done. On the contrary they
should be an inspiration and appeal, summon
ing US to show that we too have courage and
strength; that we too are ready to dare
greatly If the need arises; and above ALL that
we are firmly bent upon that steady per-
formance Of everyday duty which in the long
UA - VI SUSA luCIeulDl0 worm III the lorna
tion Of national character.
The old iron days have gone - the days
when the weakling died as the penalty of in
ability to hold his own in the rough warfare
against his surroundings. We live in softer
times. Let US see to it that, while we take
advantage Of every gentler and more human
lz1ng tendency of the age, we yet preserve
the iron quality which made our forefathers
and predecessors fit to do the deeds they did.
IN the abounding energy and intensity of ex-
1stence in our mighty democratic republic
there is small space indeed for the idler for
the luxury-loVing man who prizes ease more
than hard triumph-crowned effort
Each man must choose, so far as the con-
ditlons allow him, the path to which he is
hidden by his own peculiar powers and in
cilnauons. But if he is man he must in
some way or shape, do mans work. If.
after making all the efforts that his strength
OF body and mind permit, he yet honorably
fails, why, he is still entitled to a certain
snare OF respect because he has made the
effort. But if he does not make the effort.
or If he makes it half-heartedly and recoils
from the labor, the risk or the mere irksome
monotony of his task, why, he has forfeited
all right to our respect and has shown him
self mere cumberer of the earth's surface.
1t is not given to us all to succeed, but it
is given to us all to strive manfully to de-
serve success