Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-09-24
RoosEvELTs SPEECH.

While the public has been speculate
Ing on the kind of President MI
Roosevelt will make, It seems perti-
nent and appropriate to refer to the
speech made by him on September End.
at Minneapolis. In that speech he
said many things on the very questions
with which as President he will he
called upon to deal. In the course
of his address Mr.. Roosevelt said:
"No hard and fast rule can be LAID
down in interfering between man
man. between interest and interest
"All that can be SAID is that it is high
ly desirable on the one hand not to
weaken individual initiative, and on
the other hand, that in constantly
increasing number of cases we shall
find it necessary in the future to
shackle cunning as in the past we have
shackled force.
ut is not highly desirable, but nec-
essary, that there should be legisla-
ton which shall carefully shield the
interests of wage workers, and which
shall discriminate in. favor of the hon
est and humane employer by removing g
stands when compared with unscrup-
ulous competitors who have no con-
sciences, and will do right only under
fear of punishment. Nor can legis-
lation stop what are termed labor
questions. The vast individual and
corporate fortunes, the vast combina-
tions OF capital which have marked
the development of our industrial sys-
TEN, create new conditions and make
necessary a change from the old at
titude of the state and nation toward
property.
There is only the scantest justiti-
cation for the most of the outcry
against men of wealth, as such; and it
ought to be unnecessary to state that
any appeals which finally entails the
possibility of lawlessness and violence
is an attack upon the fundamental
properties of American citizenship.
Our interests are at bottom common.
In the long run we go up or down
together. Yet more and more it is
evident that the state, and, if neces-
sary, the nation, has got to possess
the right of supervision and control
as regards the great corporations,
which are it's creatures; particularly
as regards the great business combi-
nations, which derive a portion OF
their importance from the existence
of some monopolistic tendency.
GAS to our relations with foreign
powers: Our nation, while first of all
seeing to it's own domestic well being
must not shrink from playing its
part among the great nations without.
"Our duty may take many forms in
the future, as it has taken many
forms in the past. Nor is it possible
to lay down hard and fast rule fol
all cases. We must ever face the fact
of our shifting national needs, of the
always changing opportunities that
present themselves. But we may be
certain of one thing, whether we wish
it or not, we cannot avoid hereafter
having duties to do in the face of 9TH
er nations. All that we can do is to
settle whether we shall perform these
duties well or i'll.
Let us make it evident that we in
tend to do justice. Then let us make
it equally evident that we will not
tolerate injustices being done to us in
return. Let us further make it evi-
dent that we use no words which we
are not prepared to back up with deeds
and thai WhileSoup 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 self-governing people. This is
the attitude we must take as regards
the Monroe doctrine.
I'VE co not Dy this doctrine intend
to sanction any policy of aggression
by one American Commonwealth at
the expense of any other, nor any pol
icy of commercial discrimination
against any foreign power whatsoever.
Commercially, as far as this doctrine
is concerned, all we wish Is fair field
and no favor, but if we are wise we
shall strenuously insist that under no
preteXt whatsoever shall there be any
territorial aggrandizement on Ameri-
can soil by any European power and
this is no matter what form the ter
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