Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-29
Inc West and Roosevelt.

unless he has something to say worthy
of attention, and in this instance he is
particularly well qualified to discuss
his subject. He accompanied the Presi-
dent during nearly all of the trip and
speoks wholly from his own observa-
ton. He is one of the clearest-headed
of our educators. with views uncolored
by political partisanship, and his en-
phatic statements of the Presidents
great popularity in the West will be
read with much interest i'm the Eastern
states. In his interview President But
Ter said:
."rhe West is solid for President
Roosevelt The business men, large and
small, the wage workers and agricul-
turists all seem to have implicit con-
fidence in him. They look to him and
to his administration to keep public
matters on an even keel, both at home
and abroad. Any one who tries to get
up an agitation in the West on the
lines of so-called anti-imperialsm or
of indiScriminate tariff smashing or of
attacking the army will have his
trouble for his pains. The silver ques-
ton is so dead that it is almost i'm
possible to believe that it was so very
much alive only seven years ago.
Wherever we went the President was
received with marks of the most cordial
regard. The enthusiasm evoked every
where by his presence was one of the
most impressive facts of the trip. Men
of all types and classes Joined in eX-
tending to him the most cordial of
greetings, and his utterances were re-
ceived by them with every mark of APP
probation and agreement. Bankers and
railroad men, wage workers. politicians
and men innocent of politics, Demo-
Gratis. labor men and Republicans We'd
with each other in assuring the Presi-
dent of their confidence and esteem
and of their support of his policies.
Governor Sparks, the Democratic
governor of Nevada, pointedly intro
duced the President at Carson as sec
ond Andrew jackson, a President of the
people. Mayor Schmitz, the labor union
mayor of San Francisco, took pains to
be equally complimentary. The Far
West and the Pacific Slope feel that for
the first time there is a President who
enters whole heartedly into their life
and who understands and appreciates
their needs and their problems, and
they are correspondence elated over
having him as their guest.
THE eagerncss of the people to see
and to hear him was so great, and their
demands for his presence were 50 i'm
perative. that the enthusiastic local
committees piled up program upon pro-
gram for him until the weight was al
most too heavy to be borne. On pass
ing west through Kansas, for example,
land again in going north from Los
Angeles the President was compelled
to make fully twice as many stops and
speeches as were scheduled, simply be-
cause of the number and size of the
crowds gathered at the railway sta
ltions. Many persons in the Far west
rode or drove over forty miles to greet
him. and some rode four hundred miles
and were week on the road just to
catch a brief glimpse of him at the
rear platform of his train. Towns of a
few hundred inhabitants had their
population increased tenfold in antici-
patton of the day when the President
would pass through, and these towns,
some of them, were fifty miles away
from any settlement or ranch. The
enthusiasm was unboundcd and the
crowds. especially in San Francisco, re-
minded me forcibly of the streets of
New York on some gala occasion.
The President spoke about two hun
|dred and fifty times, six of his speeches
having been carefully prepared adj
dresses. written before leaving Wash
ington Most of his speeches were of
course impromptu, and dealt with sub
jects- suggested by the place itself.
These speeches taken together. pre-
scented to the people a consistent body
of political doctrine, very little of
which had any partisan reference or
bearing. They We're listened to with
the closest attention. and obviously
made a deep impression.
The Presidents urgent appeals for
high and noble standard of citizenship,
for the preservation of the forests and
the natural beauties of the West for
the careful and scientific development
of a national policy of irrigation of the
arid lands. for the upbuilding of the
y
tenn ard one better adapted to the
needs of the business of today, were
most cordially received and heartily
approved.
He lost no opportunity to lay strong
emphasis upon individual intelligence
and character. rather than upon gov
eminent aid or artificial means as the
condition precedent of prosperity and
happiness. He explained and upheld
the rights of the individual citizen to
be protected by the law in working out
| his life task in his own way, provided
lonly that he does no wrong to his fell
| lows. He insisted that the tariff should
be treated as a business rather than as
d party question, and that the revision
of existing schedules should be under
taken with the needs of the nations
trade and commerce in mind, and not
| in any partisan interest"
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