The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-04
PRESIDENT OF ALL THE PEOPLE
ROOSEVELT |NAUCURATED TODAY
The Oath Is Administered By Chief Justice Fuller Of the
Supreme Court--The President Makes a Ringing Ad-
dress--One Of the Greatest Days in the
History Of the Nation

and the success which we have had in
IDENTIFY believe the future will bring,
should cause in us no feeling of vain
glory, but rather a deep and abiding
realization of all which life has Of
fered us; a full acknowledgment OF
the responsibility which is ours; and
a fixed determination to show that un
der a free government mighty peo-
pie can thrive best, alike as regards
the things of the body and the things
of the soul.
Become Great Nation.
Much has been given to us, and
much will rightfully be expected from
us. We have duties to others. and
duties to ourselves; and we can shirk
neither. We have become a great ma
ton, forced by the fact of it's great
ness into relations with the other ma
tions Of the earth; and we must be-
have as beseems people with such
responsibilities. Toward all other ma
tions, large and small, our attitude
must be one of cordial and sincere
friendship. We must show not only in
our words but in our deeds that we
are earnestly desirous of securing their
good will by acting toward them in a
spirit of just and generous recogni-
ton of all their rights But justice
and generosity IN a nation, as in an
individual, count most when shown
not by the weak but by the strong.
While ever careful to refrain from
wronging others, we must be no less
ft,c tc,tn
ourselves. We wish peace; but we
wish the peace of justice, the peace of
righteousness. We wish it because we
think it is right and not because we
are afraid. No weak nation that acts
manfully and justly should ever have
cause to fear U.s. and 30 strong power
should ever be able to single us out
as subject for insolent aggression.
Face Other PeriIs.
Our relations with the other powers
of the world are important; but still
more important are our relations
among ourselves. Such growth in
wealth, in population, and in power
as this nation has seen during the CEN
tury and quarter of it's national life
is inevitably accompanied by a like
growth in the problems which are ever
before every nation that rises to great
ness. Power invariably means both
responsibility and danger Our fore
fathers faced certain perils which we
have outgrown. We now face other
perils the very existence of which it
was impossible that they should fore
see. Modern life is both complex and
intense, and the tremendous changes
wrought by the extraordinary develop
ment of the last half century are felt
in every fiber of our social and polit-
1cal being. Never before have men
tried so vast and formidable an ex-
pertinent as that of administering the
affairs of continent under the forms
Of democratic republic. The conii-
tions which have told for our marvel
Gus material well-being, which have
developed to a very high degree our
energy, .self-reliance, and individual
Initiative, have also brought the care
and anxiety inseparable from the ac-
cumulation of great wealth in indus
trial centers. Upon the success of our
experiment much depends; not only as
regards our own welfare, but as re-
CARDS the welfare of mankind If we
fail, the cause of free self government
throughout the world will rock to it's
foundations; and therefore, our re-
sponsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to
the world as it is today, and to the
generations yet unborn. There is no
good reason why we should fear the
future but there is every reason why
we should face it seriously, neither
hiding from ourselves the gravity of
the problems before us nor fearing to
approach these problems with the un-
bending, unflinching purpose to solve
them Alright.
Self Government Difficult.
Yet, after all, though the prob
lens are new, though the tasks set
before our fathers who founded and
preserved this republic, the spirit in
which these tasks must be undertaken
and these problems faced, if our duty
is to be we'll done, remains essentially
unchanged. We know that self-gov-
ernment is difficult. We know that no
people needs such high traits of char
acter as that people which seeks to
govern its affairs Alright through the
freely expressed VII of the freemen
who compose it. But we have faith
that We shall not prove false to the
memories of the men of the mighty
past. They did tneir work, they left
us the splendid heritage we now en-
joy. We in our turn have an assured
confidence that we shall be able to
leave this heritage unwasted and en-
larged to our children and our chill
dren's children. To do so We must
show, not merely in great crises, but in
the everyday affairs of life, the quail
ties of practical intelligence. of cour-
age, of hardihood and endurance, and
above all the power of devotion to a
lofty ideal. which made great the men
who founded this republic in the days
of Washington, which made great the
men who preserved this republic in
the days of Abraham Lincoln"