The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-07
REVIEWED BY
The PRESIDENT.
Labor Has a Great Day at Syra-
cuse, N. Y.
Ranks Are Swelled by National
Letter Carriers.
MET BIZ COMMITTEE.
The President Was Escorted to
Stand by Band
And the FOrty-flrst Separate
Military Company.
Delivers Address to $4,000
People at Fair Grounds.

bands of music, the local military COM
pany. an unprecedented display of flags
and patriotic decoration and the un-
bounded enthusiasm of a vast thronE
greeted President Roosevelt at $50 this
morning when his special train rolled
into the station. The president came to
open the state fair and to review the
labor parade and the parade of the Ma
tional Association of Letter Carriers.
With him on the train were his secre-
tary, William Loeb. jr., Jacob A. Riis.
Of New York, newspaper representa-
tives. secret service men. and the heads
of the operating departments of the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
road. The run from New York was
without incident. The president was
met at the train by a reception COM
mittee.
The forty-first separate company pre-
sented arms as the president appeared
and then headed By the New York let
ter carriers band escorted the president
and committee, who were in carriages,
to the reviewing stand. The president
on the march received an ovation from
| the densely packed throng.
In the square about the reviewing
stand there were fully $4,000 persons.
Upon the stand beside the president
were Senator Depew, Bishop Ludden of
| Syracuse, and influential citizens There
was never before such a demons ration
by organized labor in this city. Fully
1900 men and women were in line.
The Labor day committee, as 1t reach
ed the stand, sent its chairman to greet
the president and to pin a badge upon
ms coat. He expressed his pleasure in a
few words ana the line began to move.
Union after union uncovered as il
reached the stand.
Now and again the president shouted
n Ave
men, From start to finish his attention
was never diverted from the working
men, In the parade were few floats
| with placards. One read:
THE trust fights us; let us fight the
trust by not using their goods
At 11:30 O'Clock the line had passed
and the party was driven to the train
and departed for the state fair.
When the president reached the fair
grounds a crowd estimated by state fair
officers at $4,000 had arrived and crowds
| were pouring through the gates
A citizens committee of 100 occupied
| the speakers stand. Promptly upon ar
| rival the president was introduced by
Lieutenant Governor Higgins, president
of the state fair commission. After
cheering had subsided the president
spoke as follows:
THE PRESIDENTS SPEECH.
In speaking on Labor Day at the an
nual fair of the New York State Agri-
cultural association, it is natural to keep
especially in mind the two bodies who
| compose the majority of our people and
/ upon whose welfare depends the welfare
! Of the entire state. If circumstances are
such that thrift, energy, industry, and
| forethought enable the farmer, the iller
| of the soil, the one hand, and the
| wage worker. on the other to keep
| themselves, their wives and their chill
dren in reasonable comfort, then the
state is well off. and we can be assured
that the other classes in the community
will likewise prosper. On the other hand,
perity among the two classes named.
then all other prosperity is sure to be
more seeming than real. 1t has been our
profound good fortune as a nation that
hitherto disregarding exceptional per-
iods of depression and the normal and
inevitable fluctuations, there has been
on the whole from the beginning of our
government to the present day a pro-
gressive betterment alike in the condi-
ton of the tiller of the soil and in the
condition of the man who, by his man
ual skill and labor, supports himself and
his family, and endeavors to bring up
his children so that they may be at least
as well off as, and if possible better off
than, he himself has been. There are,
of course, exceptions, but as whole the
standard of living among the farmers of
our country has risen from generation
to generation, and the wealth represent
ed on the farms has steadily increased,
while the wages of labor have likewise
risen, both as regards the actual money
Da1d and as regards the purchasing
power which that money represents.
Side by side with this increase in the
prosperity of the Wage-WOrker and the
tiller of the soil has gone on a great in
crease in the prosperity among the busi-
ness men and among certain classes of
professional men; and the prosperity of
these men has been partly the cause and
partly the consequence of the prosperity
of farmer and Wage-worker- 1t can not
be too often repeated that in this coun-
try, in the long run, we all of US tend
to go up or go down together If the
average of well-being is high, it means
that the average wage-worker, the aver
age farmer, and the average business
man are all alike well off. If the average
shrinks, there is not one OF these classes
which will not feel the shrinkage. OF
course there are always some men who
are not affected by good times, Just as
there are some men who are not affected
by bad times But speaking broadly, it
is true that if prosperity comes all of us
tend to share more or less therein. and
that if adversely comes each of us. to a
greater or less extent, feels the tension
Unfortunately, in this world the innO-
cent frequently find themselves obliged
to pay some of the penalty for the mis-
deeds of the guilty; and so if hard times
| come whether they be due to our own
fault or to our misfortune, whether they
he due to some burst of speculative
frenzy that has caused portion Of the
business world to lose its head-a loss