Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1905-02-24
THE PRESIDENT ON
THE NEGRO PROBLEM
Notable Address on Lincoln
Day Is Made Before a
New York Club.
WORDS A TEXT
Urges that the White People, Espec'
tally Those OF the South, Must
Help the Negro learn TO
Help Himself.

'~F
Help Himself.
New York, Feb. 14.-Before the New
York club last night President Roose-
Welt spoke on the negro problem. as
follows:
The Formal Address.
In his second inaugural. in a speech
which will be read as Ions as the memory
OF this nation erdures, Abraham Lincoln
g,oSed by YIN
with malice toward nome; with charity
for all; with nrmness In the right, as God
gives us TO see the right, let us strive on 10
finish the work we are In. TO 90
all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace among ourselves.
and with all nations"
Immediately after his recollection he had
already spoken thus.
'The strife of the election is but human
nature practically applied TO the facts or
the case. What has occurred In this case
must ever recur in similar cases. Human
nature will not change. In any future
great national trial. compared with the
men Of this. we shall have as weak and as
strong, AS silly and as wise, as bad and
as good. Let US, therefore. study the IN
cidents OF this as philosophy TO learn wis
dom from, and none OF them as wrongs 10
be reyenged. . May not all having
a common interest reunite In a common
effort TO (serve) our common country For
my own part. \ Haft StfAfcH dilu oidii
strive 70 avoid placing any obstacle In
the way. So long as / have been here L
have not willingly planted a thorn IN n
mans bosom. While I am deeply sensible
ito the high compliment OF a reelection
and duly grateful, as 1 trust, to Almighty
God for having directed my countrymen
to a right conclusion, as / think. for their
own good, IL adds nothing to my sa tisfac-
ton that any other man may be disap-
pointed or panied by the result.
May ! ask those who have not differed
with me to join with me n this same spirit
toward those who havey"
The Spirit of Lincoln.
This Is the spirit in which mighty Linz
coin sought TO bind up the nations wounds
when It's soul was yet seething with fierce
hatreds, with wrath. with rancor, with all
The evil and Dreadful passions provoked by
civil war. Surely this Is the spirit which
all Americans should snow now, when
there is so little excuse for malice or
rancor or hatred, when there IS so little
of vital consequence 10 divide brother
from brother.
Lincoln, himself a man OF southern
birth, did not hesitate TO appeal TO the
sword when ne became satisfied hat In no
other way could the union be saved, for
high though he put peace he put right
eousness still higher. He warred for the
union: he warred to free the slave; and
when he warred he warred in earnest for
il is a sign of weakness to be half hearted
when blows must be struck. But he felt
only love, a love as deep as the tenderness
OF his great and sad heart, for all his
countrymen alike in the north and in the
south, and he ionged above everything for
the day when they should once more be
knit together in the unbreakable bonds OF
eternal friendship.
We OF today. in dealing with all our
fellow citizens, white or colored, north or
south, should strive TO show just the quail
ties that Lincoln showed. his steadfast-
ness in striving after the right. and his
infinite patience and forbearance with
who saw that right less clearly than
ba did HE earnest anda1N0p. RI do what
was best, and yet his readiness to accept
the best that was practicable when the
ideal best was unattainable: his unceasing
effort to cure what was evil. coupled with
his refusal TO make a bad situation worse
by an Ill judged or Ill timed effort 10
make II better.
What the War Bequeathed.
The great ctvil war. in which Lincoln
lowered as the loftiest figure, left us not
only a reunited country, but a country
which has the proud right to claim as its
own the glory won alike by those who
wore the blue and by those who wore the
gray, by those who followed Grant and by
those who foilowed Lee. for both fought
with equal bravery and with equal sim
certify OF conviction, each striving for the
light as 1t was given him to see the nght;
though It Is now clear TO all that the tri-
umph of the cause of freedom and Of the
union was essential to the welfare of man
kind. We are now one people, a people
with fallings which we must not blink.
but a people with great qualities In which
we have the right to feel just pride.
All good Americans who dwell In the
north must, because they are good Ameri-
cans. feel the most earnest friendship for
their fellow countrymen who dwell in the
south. a friendship all the greater because
IL is in the south that we find In its most
sSutS &c 1ac~ te nrahlens
before our people; the problem of so deal
ing with the man OF one color as 10 secure
him the rights that no one would grudge
him IL he were OF another color. To solve
this problem 1t Is, of course, necessary 70
educate him to perform the duties a fall
ure TO perform which will render him a
The Great Problem.
Most certainly all clear sighted and gem
erous men In the north appreciate the DIFF
ficulty and pe~rplexity of this problem,
~sympathizc with the south in. the embaf.-
,rassment of conditions for which she IS
not alone responsible: feel an honest wish
to help her where help is practicable. and
have. the beaTtiest respect for those brave
and earnest men of the south who, IN the
face of fearful diffcultiess are doing al
that men can 90 for the betterment alike
of white and of black. The attitude OF
the north toward the negro is far from
what it should be and there Is need that
the north also should act in good faltn
upon the principle OF giving TO each man
what Is justly due him. of treating him on
his worth as a man, granting MIN no
opportunity for labor and the reward OF
labor. But the peculiar circumstances OF
the south render the problem there far
greater and far more acute.
Neither I nor any other man can say
that any given way of approaching that
problem will present In our time even an
approximately perfect solution. but we can
safely say that there can never be such
solution at all unless we approach IL with
the effort 70 do fair n equal justice
among all men, and TO demand from them
In return just and fair treatment for 9TH
ers Our effort should be TO secure to
each man, whatever his color. equality or
opportunity, equality OF treatment before
the law. As a pRople striving to shape
actions in accordance With the great law
OF righteousness we cannot afford to take
part in or be indifferent 10 the oppression
or maltraatment of any man who, against
crushing disadvantages has. by his own
industry energy. self respect and perse-
verance struggled upward 10 a position
which would entitle him to the respect OF
his fellows, II only his skin were OF a
different hue.
Every generous impulse In us revolts
Advance of the Telephone.
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