The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-31
THE PRESIDENTS MEMORIAL-DAY
SPEECH.

1t may be safely predicted that no speech
which President Roosevelt has delivered
will attract moro attention than that deliv-
cred at Arlington yesterday. One need not
be surprised If it should provoke criticism.
At the outset the first man who has come to
the office of President who was not old
enough to be a soldier during the civil war
pays the highest tribute to the Union sol
der that words can express There were
other crises" said the President, lin which
to have gone wrong would have meant dis
aster; but this was the one crisis in which
to have gone wrong would have meant not
merely disaster, but humiliation" No
higher praise than to accord success to the
men who did 1.-The most necessary task"
in nations history can be bestowed upon
the men of 1S61-5 by a man of the succeed
ing generation. 1t is well that the first
President of the succeeding generation gives
the man of the Union armies so exalted
place.
What the President said Of the soldiers in
the Philippines will meet the cordial appro-
baton Of all patriotic and fair-minded men.
The few who have forgotten the civilization
and the religion which they have been
taught and are guilty of cruelty and law
lessness should be punished; but the mass
OF the soldiers who have upheld the flag
in the Philippines are entitled to the regard
Of the American people. They have not
disgraced the United States and the Amer
lean people by monstrous crimes, as such
men as Senators Rawlins. Carmack, Pat
terson and Hoar and q part of the press of
the country have been charging upon them
without the least evidence to sustain them.
Not content with this vindication Of the
American soldier in the Philippines, the
President calls attention to home atrocity
which has almost ceased to provoke criti-
cism. He declares, and truthfully, that
the worst offense charged upon the soldier
in the Philippines is infinitely less inhuman
than the lynchings which take place nearly
In all the revolving recitals of fiendishness
| in the annals of barbarism few parallels
can be found to those told of most of the
| lynchings. The President well declares that
these lynchings are worse to the victims
| and far more brutalizing to those guilty OF
them than those committed by our troops
in the Philippines"
| In calling attention TO these Infamous
| crimes in the way he has the President has
performed a public duty. 1t may be said
| that ii is an affair for the States to deal
with. and not for the President to rebuke
before the whole world. 1t may be said
| that his remarks upon this subject may
have a political bias and are rebuke tC
| certain localities. They are a rebuke tc
every community in which lynching is re-
| sorted to, whether II is I'm Indiana or Ken
| lucky, Kansas or Alabama. Mr.. RoOse-
| welt has called attention to a most shame
| full and brutal expression of lawlessness
and has practically said to the men who
| live in States in which lynchings are fire.
quent that it would be far better for them
to try to prevent the hideous crime OF
| lynching instead of slandering the Amer
| lean soldier In the Philippines. That por-
ton of the American people which believes
| in law and order and in justice to the
| American soldier will applaud the Presi.
| dents utterances. AS for those who may
| criticise, it will be we'll to wait and see what
they have to say.