The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-08-28
TALKS TO FARMERS.
Speech of President Roosevelt at the
Bangor Fair Grounds.


Bangor, Aug 2S.-Speaking at the fair
grounds in this -i;ttJ the president said
in part:
II am glad to greet the farmers of
Maine. During the century tnat mas
passed the growth of industriallsm has
necessarily meant that cities and towns
have increased in population more rap
idly than the country districts AND yet.
it remains true now it has always
been that in the last resort the country
districts are those in which we are
surest to find the old American spirit,
the old American habits of thought and
ways of living
Almost all of our great presidents
have been reared in the country and
most of them worked hard on the
farms in their youth and got their early
mental training in the healthy democ-
racy of farm life.
1.-The forces which made these farm
bred boys leaders of men when they
had come to their full manhood are
still at work in our country districts
Self-help and individual initiative re-
main to peculiar degree typical of life
in the country life on a farm. in a
numbering camp. on a ranch. Neither
the farmers nor their hired hands can
work through combinations as readily
as the capitalists or wage workers of
cities can work
1T must not be understood from this
that there has been no change in farm
ing and farm life. The contrary is the
case. There has been much change,
much progress. The grangers and SINH
lar organizations. the farmers fnstf-
tutes and alliances which promote in
telligent cooperation and give oppor-
tunity for social. mental and intellect
ual intercourse among the farmers.
have played a large part in raising the
level of life and work in the country
districts. In the domain of government
the department of agriculture since its
striking as those obtained under any
other branch of the national admins
tration;
can only be achieved, if to individual self
help we add the mutual self-help which
comes by combination, both of citizens in
.nieil inuiviuuaI capaclty ana OF citizens
working through the state instru-
ment.
But after all this has been said, it re-
mains true that the country man, the man
on the farm, more than any of our citi-
zens of today, is called upon continually
to exercise the qualities which we like to
think of typical of the United States
throughout it's history, the qualities of
rugged independence, masterful resolution
He works hard efor Wv, Which hsI no m man is
to be pitieD ana often he lives hard (Which
In healthy neutrality-suspicious.
which tend to develop a fine type of citi-
cendifions are me Hountly moreover the
low closer touch between man and man
than we too often find to be the case in
81 don't mean that there are not plenty
OF problems connected with life on the
farms farms There are many problems and
great wisdom and earnest diSintereSted
effort are needed for their solution
The problem of how to do these duties
| great cities. but it exists in the country,
too. "A man to be a good citizen must
| band, good father-I hope the father of
| many healthy children-just as a woman 8
| first duty is to be good housewife and
mother.
| 1.-The business duties, the home duties
the duties of ones family come first. The
children. who leave behind them ''I many
| sons and daughters fitted in their turn to
be good citizens,such couple emphati-
| cally deserves we'll of the state.
| Every one of us slips on some occasion
and shame to his fellow who then refuses
| be ready to help the man who stumbles
1t Is our duty to lift him up; but it is also
earthly use in trying to carry him. If a
man will submit to being carried that is
sufficient to show that he is not worth
| of help that really avails is the help which
teaches a man to help himself
1.-The other day picked up little book
called The Simple Life written by an
Alsatian, Charles Wagner, and he preached
such wholesome, sound doctrine that I
wish 1t could be used a tract through
| out the country. To him the whole prob
lem of our complex, somewhat feverish
4
men and women to lead better lives He
| sees that the permanence of liberty and
democracy depends upon majority, of the
morality which. a national attribute,
comes only as the result of the slow and
| painful labor of centuries and which can
be squandered in a generation by the
thoughtless and vicious He breaches the
doctpas Of the gpeI Of the
| material, but he insists. we of this ma
t ton should always insist ,upon the infln;,
| lite superiority of the moral and the sordid
| destruction which comes upon either the
| nation or individual if 1t or he becomes
| The true line of cleavage lies between the
| good citizen and the bad citizen and the
line Of cleavage may, and often does, run
| rich and poor The signs of virtue lie In
mans capacity to care for what is out
side himself. The man who gives himself
up to the service of his appetites. the man
| who the more goods he has the more he
| wants, has surrendered himself to destruc.
ton. 1t makes little difference with him
| whether he achieves his purpose or not
If mis- point OF. view is all wrong, he is a
\ 1t. is a small matter to the community
| whether in arrogance and insolence he has
| poor he is possessed by the mean ard
| fierce desire to seize a morsel. the biggest
p9ss asrtb OF onar prey Thich the f9rtu nat;
simply and justly and honorably. whether
rich or poor. is good citizen. The mis-
use OF property is one manifestation of thu
| same evil spirit which under changed cir
cumstances denies the right of property
because this right is in the hands of 9th
ers. In purely material civilization TIN
bitterness of attack on another's posses
sion is only additional proof of the extra
ordinary Importance of being regarded al
a valuable foundation on which happiness
may with wisdom be built is mistaken fo
happiness itself, so that material prosper
| ity becomes the standard then alilz
by those who enjoy such prosperity il
/ slothful OF criminal ease and by thos
| who in no less evil manner rail at env.
and long for it. The worth of a civiliza
ton is the worth of the man at its center
When this man lacks moral aptitude, ma
| terial progress only makes bad worse, an
social problems still darker and more com
pick"
Girls Steal from Churches.
Marinette, Wis, Aug. 28.-For severa