Arizona republican., 1903-04-05

The hall was crowded to the limit, and President Roosevelt spoke to the stu dents for four minutes in manner after his two speeches to the college students in Chicago. He was then driven to the armory, where he was introduced by President Northrup of the university.
 The president said:
 My Fellow Citizens: At the special session of the senate held in March the Cuban reciprocity treaty was ratified. When this treaty goes into effect, it will confer substantial economic bene- fits alike upon Cuba. because of the widening of her market in the United States, and upon the United States, because of the equal widening and the progressive control it will give to our people in the Cuban market. This treaty is beneficial to both parties and justifies itself on several grounds. In the first place we offer to Cuba her natural market. We can confer upon her a benefit which no other nation can confer; and for the very reason that we have started her as an inde- pendent republic and that we are rich, prosperous. and powerful, it behooves us to stretch out a helping hand to our fe bier younger sister. In the next place it widens the market for our products, both the products of the farm and certain of our manufactures: and it is therefore in the interests of cur farmers, manufacturers, merch- ants, and wage-workers. Finally, the treaty was not merely warranted but demanded, apart from all other con- alterations, by the enlightened consid- eration of our foreign policy. More and more in the future we must occupy a preponderant position in the waters : and along the coasts in the region south of us; not a position of control over the republics of the south, but of control of the military situation so az to avoid any possible complications in the future. Under the Platt amend ment Cuba agreed to give us certain naval stations on her coast. The navy department decided that we needed but two. and we have specified where these two are to be. President Palma has concluded an agreement giving them to us-an agreement which the Cuban legislative body will doubtless soon ratify. In other words, the republic of Cuba has assumed a special relation to our international political system under which she gives us outposts of defense, and we are morally bound to | extend to her in a degree the benefit ot our own economic system. From every standpoint of wise and enlightened home and foreign policy the ratif1ca- ton of the Cuban treaty marked a ster of substantial progress in the growth of our nation toward greatness al home and abroad.
 THE PHILIPPINES TARIFF. Equally important was the action or the tariff upon products of the Philip pines. We gave them a reduction oi twenty-five per cent, and would have given them a reduction of twenty-five per cent more had it not been for the opposition, in the hurried closing days of the last session, of certain gentle men who, by the way, have been rep resenting themselves both as peculiarly solicitous for the interests of the Phff- ippine people and as special champions of the lowering of tariff duties. There Is a distinctly humorous side to the I fact that the reduction of duties which would benefit Cuba and the Philippines as well as ourselves vas antagonizej chiefly by those who in theory have been fond of proclaiming themselves
 the advanced guardians of the op-
 pressed nationalities in the islands af- fected and the ardent advocates o1
 the reduction of duties generally, bu
 who instantly took violent ground -lc ircf |
 fish either purpose.
 Moreover, law was enacted putting
 anthracite coal on the free list anl
 completely removing the duties on al
 other kinds of coal for one year.
 We are now in condition of pros perity unparalleled not merely in oul own history but in the history of an5 other nation. This prosperity is dee;
 rooted and stands on a firm basis be
 cause it is due to the fact that tn,
 average American has in him the stuff l out of which victors are made in tn, great industrial contests of the presen l day, just as in the great military con | tests of the past; and because he f.
 now able to use and develop his quail ties to best advantage under our wei
 established economic system. We ar
 winning headship among the nation
 of the world because our people ar
 able to keep their high average of in
 dividual citizenship and to show thei
 mastery in the hard, complex, pushing
 life of the age. There will be flnctu
 ations from time to time in our pros iperity, but it will continue to grow jus
 so long as we keep up this high aver