Evening journal., 1905-03-04
me PRESIDENTS ABLE
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
NO PEOPLE ON EARTH, He SAID, HAVE MORE
CAUSE TO BE THANKFUL THAa OURS.
WE HAVE BECOME A GREAT
NATION

the world are important; bur still more
important are our relations among our
selves. Such growth in wealth, in popu-
lation, and i'm power as this nation has
seen during the century and quarter
Of ITS national life is inevitably accom-
panied by a like growth in the problems
which are ever before every nation that
rises to greatness. Power invariably
means both responsibility and danger.
Our forefathers faced certain perils which
we have outgrown. We now face other
perils the very existence Of which it was
impossible that they should foresee. Mod
ern l.fe is both complex and intense. and
the tremendous changes wrought by the
extraordinary Industrial development of
the last half century are felt in every
fiber of our social and political being.
Nevor before have men tried so vast and
/ formidable an experiment as that Of adj
minlstering the affairs of a continent un-
der the forms of a democratic republic.
The conditions which have told for our
marvellous material well-beng, which
have developed to very high degree our
energy. self-reliance, and individual in
itiative, have also brought the care and
anxiety inseparable from the accumula-
ttion Of great wealth in industrial centers.
] Upon the success of our experiment much
depends; not only as regards our own
/ welfare. but as regards the welfare of
mankind. If we fail the cause of free
| self government throughout the world
will rock TO its foundations; and there
I fore our responsibility is heavy, to our
selves TO the world as it is to-day. 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 prob
lens before us nor fearing to approach
these problems with the unbending, un-
Hinching purpose to solve them Alright
Seif-eoVernment is Difficult
Yet, after all. though the problems are
new. though the tasks set before us diff
fer from tho tasks set before our fathers
who rounded and preserved this Republic
the spirit in which these tasks must be
| undertaken anu litet plbbltluS l0cG0t II
our duty is TO be well done, remains es.
sentially unchanged We know that self.
government is difficult. We know that nc
people needs such high traits of character
{ as that people which seeks to govern it.
affairs Alright through the freely ex-
pressed VIII, Of the freemen who eompos,
II. But VIC have faith that we shall moi
prove false to the memories Of the mer
2 Of the mighty past. They did their work
! they left us the splendid heritage We
now enjoy We in orr turn have an as
sured confidence that we shall be abll
to leave this heritage unwasted and en-
larged to our children and our childrenl
children. To do so we must show. no
merely ir great crises, but in the every
day affairs Of life, the qualities Of practi
1 cal intelligence. Of courage, Of hardihoo,
b and endurance, and above all the powe
OF devotion TO a lofty ideal, which mad
great the men who founded this Republi
In the days Of Washington. which mad
great the men who preserved this Re
I public in the days Of Abraham Lincoln