The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-27
William Allen Whites Estimate
Of the President.
SSRoOseVeIt the Nan and Candi-
date" His Subject.
HAS AMERICAN SPIRIT.
He Worked for the People and
With Them.
Above Everything Else He Is q
Fair Man.

The following is William Allen
Whites Roosevelt the Man and the
Candidate" which appeared in the
Chicago Tribune:
The political and industrial prob
lens which the American people have
solved have been chiefly problems re-
lating to the production of wealth;
problems concerning the equitable dis
frtbution of wealth have not appealed
strongly to Americans. The tariff,
which has been really the paramount
issue in every campaign since Grant s
time. is essentially a problem concern
Ing the production of wealth, the
theory of the protectfonists being that
IL a few Americans make money out of
protection II is every mans lookout to
get his share. We are prone to settle
our currency problems in favor of the
man who is amaSSing wealth, and have
said frankly that if capital is hedged
about and protected prosperity will
rest and abide with the nation-pros-
perity meaning the ability to pile up
wealth in the hands of the owners of
capital, and giving other people a
chance to get as much of the wealth
as they can beg. wheedle. or gouge
from capital. Our national creed is
the devil take the hindermost. and a
liberal translation of e pluribus unum
IS that a sucker is born every minute.
Slavery, which at first appears to be a
problem concerned only with the dis
tribution of wealth, failed as a system
for the production of wealth before 1t
became a moral issue. American rail-
roads were built, factories installed,
furnaces lighted. mines opened, banks
established, cities built, and commerce
promoted at home and abroad with an
eye single to the production of wealth,
and as an incident of that production
to furnish work at such wages as
might be agreed upon to the man with
one talent, and also to keep the man
with five talents busy multiplying
r-sa1xr <1-rTk hat
TO him who hath has been given,
though it is not true, except compare
lively. that from him who hath not
has been taken even that which he
had. For the American people as a
whole are tolerably well to do.
Rich Are Richer but Poor Are Not
Poorer.
The rich have been growing richer
I'm too many cases. but the poor have
not been growing poorer, though in
the poor-the day laborers. mechan-
1cs, artisans. and tradesmen-have
done they have not shared the bene-
fits of the national prosperity on an
equality with those who have trodden
the primrose path of high finance.
Equity in the distribution of wealth
has not kept pace with facility in the
production of wealth in this country.
In, a large measure the laws of the
American government, both national
and state, have smoothed the path of
progress for the production of wealth.
These lawS-the protective tariff, ma
tional and state banking laws, federal,
state and local railroad subsidy laws,
franchise grants, currency enactments,
and many similar statutes-have
made the whole people partners in the
wealth that has piled up in this coun
fry. Nature has done much; there
have been traffics and discoveries and
many inventions, but other lands nat
urally as rich as this have not been
developed to the same degree by mod
ern mechanical appliances that have
prospered this nation; and the con-
clusion is irrefutable that Americas
wonderful growth and the riches that
have come after it spring from the
American people, their peculiar genius
for. commerce, as expressed in their
laws and traditions and customs. The
wealth of this nation is the accretion
of the whole social body And until
the whole social body shares this
wealth more equitably than it shares
this wealth now, until the hours of
work are shortened for the multitude, !
until the benefits of civilization are
within the easy reach of every hard
working. honest, intelligent man or
woman. the obvious common sense
problems of this government will not
be solved These problems of govern !
ment concerning the equitable diStri- |
button of the wealth of this nation. |
which is clearly the product of the
national genius for trade and industry,
are not day dreams. Men who desire
TO see laws relating to the just dis
tribution of wealth as well as laws re-
lating to the easy production of wealth
are not mere chair warming dreamerS
waiting for a division of property and
the advent of a voorhees, day. They
are not socialists. nor bomb throwers,
nor calamity howlers. They are
everyday business men, demanding
fair railroad laws; merchants who
really believe what the political plat
forms promise in the way of laws to
regulate the so-called trusts; farmers
and laboring men who object to the
survival of the feudal classification of
grade labor and the consequent low
grade pay for it.
Rise of Clean Men in Practical Politics.
All Americans believe this is the best
government earth; but only those
who have society's license to steal by
making something out of nothing in the
upper circles of high finance believe it
the best possible world, and desire to
shut the door of progress and throw the
keys out of the window. But they are
mere flies on the wheel. With all the
power of STANDARD OIL with all the
control on American affairs that the
railroad syndicate has through its in
Huence on legislatures and courts. with
all the force of dishonesty organized
capital in this country, it cannot stand
a day against the clearly defined inten-
ton of the American people to go ahead
solving the problems of the distribution
of wealth as they have gone forward
with the problems OF production Inc
most potent thing on this continent is
the American spirit. manifesting itself
IN changing institutions, in innumerable
newspapers voicing the soul of progress
I'm the sudden rise of the clean man in
practical politics, and the contempor-
aneous decline of the demagogic shyster.
in the appearance of magazines new
element in political life-devoting them
selves to civic decency. and in a hun
bred ways making itself felt like a
dominant consciousness, like sentient
thing commanding the race to move on.
And all that is good in this spirit of in
dustrial and economic progress is found |
iacaEnate in Theodore Roosevelt. He |
is the man who is the living soul to
speak and act for his times. His face |
Is forward His hands are united: his |