The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-05

Saturday, 9:45 a. m.-Arrives Fort Worth
Tex, where public part of trip ends.
Saturday, 10:45 a. m.-Leaves for Freder-
lex, o. T.
Parsons. Kan, April 5.-President
Roosevelt was routed out before
breakfast today. The presidential
special stopped here at 1880 O'Clock to
change engines and crowd gathered
around the private car Rocket" and
attracted the attention of the occu-
pants by shouts Of ''Where is he"
Several negroes called: I'VE have
been waiting since o'clock to see
you
The president hurried his dressing
and stepped to the rear platform
where he was cheered. The citizens
of Parsons had sent to the car huge
bunch of American Beauties, which
was placed on the breakfast table. The
crowd was not satisfied with merely
seeing the president and in response
to demand for a speeclR he greeted
/ the people briefly.
Talks About Statehood.
/ Muskogee, I. T, April 5.=President
roosevelt paid a tribute to the people
of Indian Territory and commended
them as eligible for statehood in a
/ Dr1eI speech at Vinita, where a stop OF
/ two minutes was made at sos a. m.
The little city was more profusely
i decorated than any other place
through which the presidential train
/ has passed. The station was decorated
RATith hags and. bunting and an i'm
mense sign SUSPENDED at the point
/ where the Rocket stopped bore the
i words: Welcome to our president
As the train slowed down a salute was
fired. Hundreds of people on foot a I'd
/ horseback and in vehicles of all kinds,
lpressed about the train. The presi-
| dents reference to statehood was Wild
1 ly applauded. He spoke as follows:
Il cannot say what pleasure it is
to me to be today in the Indian Terri
tory, which I earnestly hope viii soon
1 be part of a great state of our Union.
/ (Cheers.) have never had the good
fortune to be in the territory before;
but I had the good fortune to have
some of your sons in our regiment and
better and truer men never rode a
horse nor handled a rife. (Cheers.)
! All / need say of them, speaking to
you of the great war, is that we tried
in the little war to show that we had
some of the spirit that the men had
who fought in the great Civil war.
You will soon be part of one of the
great states of the Union, for surely
we VIII have Oklahoma and the IN
dian Territory admitted into statehood,
and when that takes place you viii be
at the outset a great state. Then 1t
will lie with you to see what kind OF
state you make of it..
A stop not on the schedule was
made at Wagner. Several hundred
people were waiting about the depot
platform. It had been intended that
the train should slow down in order
that the citizens might see the presi-
dent. The train stopped long enough,
| however, for the president to talk to
the people on the question of state
hood for the territory.
The president in his speech said:
''Frfends-I will just bid you good
morning. I am SO glad again to be in
the Sunflcwer state. From the begin
| ming I have believed in your people and
! I am more than grateful for the way
your people showed your belief in me
| last November. It is not possible for
any man in any position to promise
that things viii come right. All that
he can promise is that so far as in him
lies he Will do his part towards making
them right. This can promise and do
1 It IS in one stage of life as 1t is in
another Right here I see one Of the
men who fought in the great war. All
/ he could do in that war was to do MS
| part well, to do all that lay In MIN
| well. And that is what each one Of US
can do, in whatever position he is called
1T is because of what you and the
| average man and woman OF Kansas
have done that Kansas is so great a
state and it is what every man from
the president right through has got to
do if our country is to be what II
| should be.
ssTo you people in Kansas to you in
/ whom believe so much there are Just
1 one or two things could say in TINS
brief moment. There is nothing pecu-
liar in the qualities you need in gov
/ ernrnent that differentiates those quali-
ties from the qualities you need in hav-
ing one private man deal with another.
/ If a man is to be an advantage TO the
| community in which he lives he must
be a decent. square dealing man VINO
/ does fairly by his neighbors, who takes
/ care of his family. The same qualities
| in another sphere must be applied IN
| public life if he is to amount to any
thing,-honesty, deeency, courage ana
/ commonsense
The president said:
ut was here in this territory that
no small part of my regiment was
raised. and you, my comrade there,
who fought in the big war, know Il
means a good deal to have men with
you in the trenches. take the most
! extreme interest in everything that
concerns your welfare. It will be but
a short time now. probably. when IN
Il conjunction with Oklahoma you viii
/ become great state 1t is going 10
rest with you, upon the way in which