The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-05
The Presidents Speech.

lows:
Mr.. Mayor, and you, my fellow-citizens,
my fellow-Americans. men and women OF
western Pennsylvania:
You have just listened to the reading of
the great document which signaled our
entry into the field of nations l26 years ago.
TO be made good by the performance of
those men and their children and their
children'S children.
words are good if they are backed up
by deeds, and only so. The Declaration
continues to be read with pride by us year
after year, and stands as a symbol of hope
for the people of all the world because its
promise was made good, because its words
were supplemented by deeds; because. after
the men who signed it and upheld 1t had
done their work, the men who came again
after them. generation after generation, did
their work in turn.
THE Declaration of independence has to
be supplemented in the first place by that
great instrument of constructive and ad-
ministrative statesmanship-the Constitu-
ton under which we now live. The docu-
ment promulgated in 17SS, under which
Washington became our first President,
supplemented, necessarily supplemented,
the Declaration of 1776. We showed in the
revolution that We had a right 10 be free;
we showed when we constructed the more
perfect union of the old confederacy that
we knew how to use ira right as it needed
to be used. And tfso seventy years and
more passed, and ths9- came again upon the
Nation the days of i1ch need. There came
again the days that demanded, all that was
best, the life itself OF the bravest and the
trueSt of the Nations sons. And when
Sumter's guns awakened our people and
America, until then the incarnate nation
or peace. sprang. TO her feet with sword
and shield, a helmeted queen among ma
tons; when the thunder of the guns called
the Nations children they sprang forward
10 do the mighty deeds which, If left UNI
done. would have meant that the words TO
which we have listened to to-day would
have rung as meaningless platitudes.
Those were the two great epochs In the
Nations history-the epoch of the found
ing of the Union and the epoch of It's pres
e~rvation-the epoch Of Washington and
the epoch of Abraham Lincoln. Those two
generations had the greatest tasks TO do,
put each generation has its tasks, and woe
10 the generation which regards the deeds
of the mighty men of the past as an eX-
cuse for failing to do in its turn the work
that IL finds ready 10 hand. The great
deeds of those who have gone before us
must ever serve, not as a reason for mac
ton on our part, but as the keenest of
spurs TO drive us forward on the path OF
national greatness and justice. lApplause.J
RECENT TASKS.
I'VE have had our tasks to do in the
last four years-or. rather. we have had.
as every generation must have. many tasks
to do-tasks affecting US abroad-and one
of those tasks, being done, has signaled
our entry into a larger world. [~Applause.l
And it is most appropriate that on this
Fourth of July. this anniversary of the
birth of the Nation, it should be our good
fortune to have promulgated the declara-
ton establishing peace in the Philippines
and the acknowledgment to the army of
the praise so richly due our fellow-Amer-
leans who wear the uniform OF the United
states, for all that they have done in the
tropic islands during the past four years.
Continued applause and cheers.l
we said Cuba should become a free re-
public, and we have kept our word. To
have turned Cuba over TO the hands Of
Its own people Immediately after the with
drawal OF the Spanish flag would have
meant ruin and chaos. We established "A
government in the islands; we established
peace and order; we began to provide for
the payment of the Cuban troops who had
fought against the misruIe OF their op-
pressors; we instituted a public school sys-
tenn nodded upon that which has been so
potent a factor in our own national prog
ress; we cleaned the cities In Cuba for the
first time in their history; we changed
them from being the most unhealthy TO be
ing among the healthiest cities of the civ
ilized world; we introduced a system of
orderly justice to succeed one of irrespon-
sible and arbitrative despotism, so that
any. man, rich or poor, weak or strong,
could appeal TO the courts and know that
he would receive his rights.
And then when, in the fullness of time,
we felt they could walk alone we turned
over the government TO them, and now the
beautiful Queen of the Antilles has started
on her course as a free republic among
the nations of the earth. lApplause.l But
there is one thing-our policy toward Cuba
has not yet met with it's entire %fruition.
1t will meet with it. [Applause.J
The course of the last few years has
made more evident than ever before that
this Nation must in time TO come have
pecunlary interests in the isthmus connect
ing the two Americas and in the waters
and among the islands adjacent thereto.
Nationally we cannot occupy the position
toward these regions that we did toward
others where our interests are far less, and
this is doubly true now that Congress, with
great wisdom, has provided for the build
ing of an interoceanic canal. Cuba must
occupy a peculiar relation TO us in the field
OF international politics. She must in the
larger sense be a part of the general 20
itlcal system in international affairs in
which this Republic stands as the head
She has assented TO that view, and in re-
turn this Nation is bound TO give her spe-
cial economic privileges not given 10 other
nations. Loud applause.l
CUBAN RELIEF SURE.
II regret that a measure Of reciprocity
with Cuba is not already embodied in a
statute or in treaty, but it will be just as
sure as fate. Loud applause.I
And now a word els TO the Philippines.
There are yet troubles in the Moro coun-
try. the country of the Mohammedan
tribes, but in the Philippines among the
Filipinos. among the people who have been
in instruction peace now reigns. 1t may
be, 1 think, unlikely, but it is not impossi-
Bile that here and there some seeming dead
coal of instruction may be for the moment
ann into a live piece Of ember and burst
into a ftful flame. If so, that flame will
be stamped out. Loud applause.l
But, speaking broadly and generally.
peace has come. Our army has received its
award. ~(Applause.l And what was the re-
ward of our army? The reward OF the con-
/ sciousness of duty we'll done. Our soldiers
have fought, have toiled, have struggled
so that when victory came they might turn
over the government 10 the civil authori-
ties. Victory came. To-day the proclama-
ton OF peace and amnesty has been pro-
mulgated and at the same time our gener-
ais have been notified that the civil gov
eminent is supreme I'm the islands. lap
plause.l
Does not that speak well. my brethren,
for our army. for our troops that the troops
OF this people should war hoping for a
triumph which is but 10 put the power into
the hands of the civil authorities?
BY law we are allowed al army at g
maximum of 100000 men and a minimum OF
60, 900 men. While this war has gone or
we have steadily reduced that army unit
now, by orders promulgated, its limit is
5000. and as a matter or fact we have 200
or 5000 fewer actually under arms. Thai
speaks well for our Institutions. 1t speaks
well for the triumphs OF the policies with
which we. as a nation, have been Identified
during the past four years, and, men anC
women OF the United States. II shows how
slight was the warrant for the fears ex.
pressed by those OF little faith as TO what
would follow authorizing even the small
army that was used. IApplause1
mo body of our citizens deserves frankel
and more generous recognition at the hands
of the country than the officers and en-.