The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-05-21
SPLENDID GRAFTON BY ROOSEVELT
Strong Plea for Greater Unity Among Republics Of
Western Hemisphere Advice to
His Own Country.

cuous places in the ranks of distin-
guished guests.
Today we formally open this great
exposition, by the shores of the
mighty inland seas of the north,
where all the peoples of the western
hemisphere have joined to show
what they have done in art, science
and Industrial invention, what they
have been able to accomplish with
their manifold resources and their
infinitely varied individual and nation
al qualities. Such an exposition, held
at the opening of this new century,
inevitably suggests two trains of
thought. 1t should make us think
seriously and solemnly of our sew
eral duties to one another as citizens
of the different nations of this west
ern hemisphere; and also of our
duties each to the nation to which he
personally belongs. ..
The century upon which we have
just entered must inevitably be one
of tremendous triumph or of tremen-
dous failure for the human race; be-
cause to an infinitely greater extent
than ever before humanity is knit
together in all its parts, for veal
or for woe. All about us there are
innumerable tendencies that tell for
good and innumerable tendencies
that tell for evil. 1t is, OF course, a
mere truism to say that our own acts
must determine which set of tenden-
cies shall overcome the other. In
order to act wisely we must first see
clearly. There is no place among us
for the mere pessimist; no man who
locks at life with vision that sees
ali things black or gray can do aught
healthful in moulding the destiny of
mighty and vigorous people,. But
there is just as little use for the
foolish optimist who refuses to face
the many and real evils that exist
and who fails to see that the only way
to insure the triumph of righteous
ness in the future is to war against
all that is base, weak and unlovely
in the present.
There are certain things SO obvious
as to seem commonplace which never
theless must be kept constantly be-
fore us if we are to preserve our just
sense Of proportion. This twentieth
century is big with the fate Of the
nations of mankind, because the fate
Of each is now interviewer with the
fate of all to a degree never even
approached in any previous stage of
history. No better proof conld he
given than by this very exposition.
A century ago NO such exposition
could have been thought Of. The
l;rger part Of the territory represent
ed here today by SO many free ma
tions was not even mapped, and very
much of it was unknown to the hard
lest explorer. The influence of Amer
lea upon old world affairs was i'm
ponderable. World politics still
meant European politics.
All that is now changed; not merely
by what has happened here in Amer
lea, but by what has happened else
where. 1t is not necessary for us
here to consider the giant changes
which have come elsewhere in the
globe; to treat of the rise in the
south seas of the great free
commonwealth of Australia and
New Zealand; of the way in which
Japan has been rejuvenated and has
advanced by leaps and bounds to a
position among the leading civilized
powers; of the problems affecting the
the major portion of mankind, which
call imperously for solution in parts
of the old world which century ago
were barely known to Europe even
by rumor. Our present concern is
not with the old world, but with our
own western hemisphere, America
We meet today, representing the peo-
pies of this continent from the Domin-
ion of Canada in the north to Chile
and the Argentine in the south; rep
resenting peoples who have travelled
far and fast in the past century, be-
cause in them has been practically
shown that it Is the spirit of adven-
ture which is the maker of common
wealths; peoples who are learning
and STRIVING to put in practice the
vital truth that freedom is the neces-
sary first step, but only the first step,
in successful free government.
During the last century we have
on the whole made long strides in
the right direction; but we have very
much yet to learn. We all look for
ward to the day when there shall be
nearer approximation than there
has ever been to the brotherhood of
of man, and the peace of the world.
More and more we are learning that
to love ones country above an others
is in no way incompatible with re-
specting and wishing well to all
others, and that, as between