Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1902-12-05
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
FULL TExTO FAVERY IMPORTANT
STATE PAPER.

WASHINGTON, Dec. president
Roosevelt's annual address to Con
gress was read in both houses to-
day. The full text of the document
follows:
To the Senate and House of Repre-.
sentativeS:
We still continue in a period of I'M
bounded prosperity. This prosperity
is not the creature of the law, but
undoubtedly the laws under which we
work have been instrumental in Great
ing the conditions which made it pos
sible, and by unwise legislation ii
would be easy enough to destroy it.
There will undoubtedly be periods of
depression. The wave will recede;
but the tide will advance. This Ma
ton is seated on a continent fianked
by two great oceans. 1t is composed
of men the defendants of pioneers, or
in a sense, pioneers themselves; of
nations of the Old World by the energy,
boldness and love of adventure found
in their own eager hearts. Such a
Nation, SO placed, will surely wrest
success from fortune.
AS people We have played large
part in the world, and We are bent
upon making our future even larger
than the past. In particular, the
events of the last four years have
definitely decided that, for woe or for
veal. our place must be great among
the nations. We may either fail great
ly or succeed greatly; but We comet
avoid the endeavOr from which either
great failure or great success must
come. Even if we would We cannot
play a small part. If we should try,
all that would follow would be that
we should play large part ignobly
and shamefully.
But our people, the sons of the men
of the Civil War, the sons of the men
who had iron in their blood, rejoice In
the present and face the future high
of heart and resOlute of will. Ours
is not the creed of the weakling and
the coward; ours is the gospel of hope
and of triumphant endeavor. We do
not shrink from the struggle before
us. There are many problems for us
to face at the outset of the goth
century-grave problems abroad and
still graver at home; but We know
that we can solve them and solve
them well. provided only that we bring
to the solution the qualities Of head
and heart which were shown by the
men who, in the days of Washington,
founded this Government, and, in the
days of Lincoln, preserved it.
No country has ever occupied a
higher plane of material well-being
than ours at the present moment.
This well-being is due to no sudden or
accidental causes; but to the play of
the economic forces in this country
for over a century; to our laws, our
sustained and continuous policies;
above all. to the high individual aver
age of our citizenship. Great fortunes
have been won by those who have
taken the lead in the phenomenal in
dustrial development, and most of
these fortunes have been won not by
doing evil, but as an incident to action
which has benefited the community as
whole. Never before has material
well-being been SO widely diffused
among our people. Great fortunes
have been accumulated, and yet in the
aggregate these fortunes are small in
deed when compared to the wealth of
the people as q whole. The plain peo-
pie are better OF than they have ever
been before. The insurance com
panies. which are practically mutual
benefit societies-especially helpful to
men of moderate means-represent
accumulations of capital which are
among the largest in this country.
There are more deposits In the saw.
ings banks, more owners of farms,
more well-paid wageworkers in this
country now than ever before in our
history