The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-31
ROOSEVELT TALKS
TO OLD SOLDIERS
Monument Dedicated TO Gen
SIocum in Brooklyn
PRAISES THEM FOR VAL0R
He Says Congress VIII Build Up the
American Navy If He Can Per-
suade That Body to
Do So.
PRAISES THEM FOR VAL0R

Nav York. May s0.-President Roosevelt
todav IN the presence of large crowd in
Rrool<Iyn delivered the principal address
at the dedication of monument TO the
late General slocum. In the opening pray
err Bishop Frederick Burgess referred to
the Russian naval disaster in the Straits
Of Korea, and prayed that the contest
soon be ended. mot by exhaustion. but
in amity, by comfy of all nations"
A salute of thirteen guns was fired
when Miss Gertrude slocum, granddaugh-
ter of the man in whose memory the
monument was raised, drew aside the
flags which had concealed It.
President Roosevelt was loudly cheered
when he arose.
President Roosevelt Speaks.
''Mr Mayor, commissioner, and you,
my fellow citizens, and above all, you
who took part in the great war in which
the man whose statue is raised today,
who won for himself and his country
renown and honor (Applause): Day before
yesterday l listened to a sermon in which
the preacher dwelling upon the exercises
TO be held throughout the Union today,
preached on the text which comments on
the altar raised by the command of Moses
to commemorate the victory gained by the
children of Israel over the wild tribes
of the desert, who sought to bar their
march toward the promised land wherein
Amalek came out and Israel fought all
day and while Aaron and Hurup held the
hands of Moses until as night fell, the
sun went down on the Israelites, and
they raised an altar to Jehovah who stood
as the exponent of the principle for which
Israel warred; they raised it to the prin-
cipal of righteousness, which alone can
Justify any war or any struggle (applause)
and Mr.. Mayor, that is the thought that
you developed in the excellent address to
which we have just listened, that we
meet today to commemorate the great
victory, the triumph Of the Union and
liberty, not primarily, because 1t was
victory, but because 1t was a Victory for
righteousness and the peace and the liber-
ty and the eternal spiritual welfare of
mankind (Applause.)
Comrads of General SIocum.
IL see before me here men who won
high honor serving as comrades in arms
of General Slocum and I know there
exists In the Union men who will appre-
ciate more the fact that, forty years
after the war, the browning triumph of
what they did is to be found in the fact
we have a genuinely reunited country.
a country in which the man who wore
the blue stretches out the hand of loyal
friendship to his erstwhile foe, his now
devoted friend and fellow countratmans
the man who wore the gray. Applause)
"a short while ago l passed through
the great state of Texas. Wherever I
stopped in that great state 1 was greeted
by representatives of the grand army
marching side by side with the men clad
In the gray uniform that showed they
had fought in the army of the Confedera-
cy; men who had tested one anothers
worth on the stricken fields; men who
knew that each other had been ready
when the hour of supreme appeal came
to show his worth by his endeavors and
men who now leave to their children and