Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-03-09


man of the hour. Suddenly the crowd
on the stand began to cheer. This
was taken up by those Immediately in
front of the platform. The military
presented arms, the committee un-
covered, and soon the great sea of peo-
pie was waving hats and flags and
shouting itself hoarse.
President Roosevelt was escorted by
Chief Justice Fuller. With measured
tread in harmony with the dignified
step of the chief justice the president
advanced in state down the aisle.
At a sign from Chief Justice Fuller
the clerk of the supreme court stepped
forward holding a Bible hush fell
over the crowd. The president raised
his right hand and the oath to support
the laws and constitution of the Uni
ted States was taken amid deep
silence. When this had been concluded
there was practically no demonstra-
tion and the president began his in
augural address, as follows:
My Fellow Citizens: No people on
earth have more cause to be thankful
than ours, and this is said reverently,
in no spirit of boastfulness in our own
strength, but with gratitude to the Giyer
of Good Who has blessed us with the
conditions which have enabled us to
achieve so large a measure of well being
and of happiness. To us as people it
has been granted to lay the foundation
Of our national life in new continent.
We are the heirs of the ages, and yet
we have had to pay few of the penalties
which in old countries are eXacted by
the dead hand of a bygone civilization.
We have not been Obliged to fight for
our existence against any alien race;
and yet our life has called for the vigor
and effort without which the manlier
and harder virtues wither away. I'm
der such conditions it would be our own
fault if we failed; and the success which
we have had in the past. the success
which we confidently believe the future
will bring should cause in us no feel
ing of vain glory, but rather deep and
abiding realization of all which life has
offered us; full acknowledgement of
the responsibility which is ours and
| fixed determination to show that under
a free government a mighty people can
thrive best, alike as regards the things
OF the body and the things of the soul.
| Much has been given to us and much
will rightfully be expected from us. We
have duties to others and duties to our
selves and we can shirk neither. We
| have become a great nation, forced by
| the fact or its greatness into relations
with the other nations of the earth;
and we must behave as beseems a peo-
pie with such responsibilities. Toward
all other nations, large and small. our
attitude must be one of cordial and sin
cere 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 recognition
of all their rights. But justice and gen
erOsity in a nation, as in an individual
count most when shown not u the
weak. but by the strong. While ever
careful to refrain from wrOnging Others
we must be no less insistent that we are
not wTonged ourselves. We wish peace;
but we wish the peace of justice, the
/ peace of righteousness. We wish it be-
/ cause we think it is right, and not be-
| cause we are afraid. No weak nation
that acts manfully and justly should
/ ever have cause to fear us, and no strong
/ power should ever be able to single us
out as a subject for insolent aggression
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 powers as this nation
has seen during the century and quar-
ter of its national life is inevitably ac-
| companied by like growth in the prob
| lens which are ever before every ma
| tion that rises to greatness. Power in
variably 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. Modern life is both com
| pleX and intense, and the tremendous
| changes wrought by the extraordinary
| induatrial development of the last half
century are felt in every fiber of our
social and political being.
The conditions which have told for
| our marvellous material well-being,
which have developed to a very high de-
! gree our energy, self-reliance and indi-
vidual initiative. have also brought the
/ care and anxiety inseparable from the
/ accumulation of great wealth in indus
/ trial 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 government through
out the world will rock to it's founda-
tions; and therefore. our responsibility
is heavy, to ourselves. to the world as it
is to-day, and to the generations yet
unborn.
Yet, after ALL though the problems are
new, though the tasks set before us differ
from the tasks set before our fathers
| W ho fpuDdad and pracarvad tbic