Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1905-11-03
President ROOsevelt's Journey.

President ROOsevelt's Journey.
| The significance OF the president 5
visit to the South has been accepted
from the beginning Of the journey, as
is comprehensively shown in an edi-
torial by that veteran Southerner,
Henry Watterson. The very deter
mination by President Roosevelt to
go was Of a color to win applause
from Southern men. For the presi-
dent first determined on and first an
nounced the visit when the South
was in the throes of a yellow fever
epidemic, when the North was in the
panic of fear lest such an epidemic
should spread beyond the solid South,
There were those to tell Mr.. Roose'
velt that he was foolharly, that he
was yenturing his own lie, which
does not belong to him, that he
might imperil the lives Of Others
through contact with the epiderm.
All this the president brushed aside
with his customary Indifference to
personal peril, and with his innate
faith that the value of his life Is Us
much in daring as in e-taking.
And the other suggestions, that the
South would not meet him with any
enthusiasm, that the South had long
memories extending back through
two-score years and five, that its
memories had been unpleasantly and
perhaps dangerously logged through
certain executive acts-nOt all this
would deter President Roosevelt from
entering "the enemy's country" and
finding there friends.
He has through this journey recon
structed the South as 1t has not been
minded to be reconstructed. For it is
! the very first time In the history OF
these United States, from 1889 to
1905, that president has been seen
in New Orleans, which has been the
scene of some of the bravest aud Bit
terest efforts to preserve the nation
in more than one war. 1t Is signih-
can't that the heart Of the South was
most strongly touched at New Or
leans, for 1t was there that the bat
tie OF New Orleans became a contin-
uing OF war after peace. Jackson
fought that battle of 1916 after peace
had been declared. And the New
Orleans people have taken that bat
tie as significant; they have been
fighting the Civil war after peace.
But not on the final day Of the pre-
sident's visit. The enthusiasm which
surrounded Theodore Roosevelt when
he spoke in the city Of Lee, when he
stood in the Georgian home Of his
mother, climaxed in the progress
through the old Spanish-French-
American capital.
1t Is not too much to hope that a
true sense of the solidarity Of the
union, comprehensive conception Of
nationality, will result from this
visit. There will be differences, even
sectional differences. in the future.
No man, not even the maker of the
greatest peace, a peace which has
fired the hearts, South and North,
could obliterate sectional lines, could
overcome forever the natural differ
ences Of longitude and isotherm. The
South will be the South, whatever
comes, whoever is president. But
the nation is about to undertake GER
tain tasks which make for the inter-
ests of the South almost more than
of any other section. The Panama
canal should sink the separation of
the South from the North, should,
while separating the continents, bind
the sections. And the other great
project for which President Roosevelt
spoke at New Orleans, the enlarged
navy, is essential to the South, which
can furnish brave sailors and has
furnished brave admirals. The op-
portunity Of the immediate future is
the South's and nothing will succeed
in making for congeries of states,
one and inseparable in nationhood,
like the success of the South. 1t will
be not a little Of President Roose-
velt's making, both materially and in
sentiment.