Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-05-29

PeoPiO vi Wis CtdLe Auu 10 tnank you
for their greeting to me. Let me say
word first to those whom YOU have
paced first, to the men of the Grand
Army, to the men who, coming from
many States, fought in one uniform,
and for one flag, for the country that
belongs to us all to the men to whom
we owe it that now a man can travel
throughout the length and breadth of
this land and be at homo everywhere.
because he is among his fellow Ameri-
cans everywhere.
Furthermore, let me speak a word
of special greeting to those among the
early pioneers who happen to be pres
ent, the men who showed fundamen-
tally the same qualities that were
shown by you of the great Civil war.
They too, had to go out to dare, to do,
to accomplish feats OF difficulty that
required hardihood and firm resolu-
tion. They, too, cast aside the life OF
mere ease, the life OF effortless pleasure
jnst to take hold of q noble life of diff.
ticulty rewarded by triumph in the
end.
have come here to the capital of a
commonwealth still in its youth, grow
ing by leaps and bounds, and with a
future even greater than its people
themselves now believe. l doubt if
any of us entirely realize what the fu.
ture of Washington is bound to be be.
cause Of the wonderful resources which
you have within your State limits, and
indeed the privilege of belonging to a
young State and living in a locality
where what has been done and is be-
ing done at the present moment. Com.
ing on the cars and stopping off at
your cities in Washington and down in
Oregon yesterday, as l have met the
older men who have seen this progres.
sive State rise under them l have felt
that if we had a choice of all the ages
to live in it is the last half of the pres
ent century and the best place to live
in is the American republic.
This is true because it has been a
century or half a century of work, OF
effort, OF strife, strife with man aud
strife with nature. l pity no man be
cause he has had to strive, because he
has had to work hard endowed as he is
with the privilege of being able to
show himself man doing a mans
work. Greatness in all things in life
is the chance Of having a great work
to do and then doing it.
think each one of you will remem-
Der among his or her friends father
who said: "My boys shall enjoy
themselves. They shall have plenty
of money and not have to work." You
have also seen where the mother
slaves that the daughter may be idle.
Is that right? l leave that to your
self. That is not showing affection
for the children. That's showing folly
1t is not affection. 1t is foolishness.
Laughter.
1t is as foolish if a man and woman
are very rich as if they were poor, il
the parent, who really loves the child
will train him to shun difficulties and
not to meet and overcome them. And
if the child is turned out, the boy OF
girl, from a home in which everything
has been made soft, and no faithful
performance of difficult or irksome
duties has been required, then that
child is turned out with the certainty
that it will be a curse to itself and
those around it and unable to do its
part in our American life.
"You men of '61 and '65! There
were others at that time who during
those four years led lives that were
easier than the life you lead, there
were Others who stayed at home and
worked directly into the softer places.
They slept warm and had shelter when
you slept on ragged blankets in the
frozen mud. While you we're under
the southern sun, when you fought
and lost or won (but if you lost you
came back to fight again), they stayed
in ease, we'll fed, we'll clothed and we'll
sheltered. Which is the life worth
having lived, theirs or yoursi
[Shouts OF tours" from the Grand
Army men.]
Yes, replied the President, yours.
Are you to be pitied because you
toiled, because you sweat and bled, be-
cause you knew hunger and grinding
need, because you faced risks, because
YOU saw around you the bravest and
best die on the battlefield or in the
fever cots of hospital?
"You are everlastingly to be envied,
but not to be pitied.
1t is so in life. 1t is given to but
few generations to have the chance
that you men have had in your gener-
alton. Honor, thrice honor, to those
who take advantage of the chance
when it comes.
We at this time have not the oppor-
tunities to do what the men of the
Civil war did. We have not the Op-
portunity to do the hard, the rough,
the infinitely valuable work of the
early pioneers but we have our own
problems and we must approach them
in the spirit shown by the pioneers, in