The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-03-09
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
President Roosevelt on Conditions that
Confront the United States.

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 Giver
of good who has blessed us with the con-
ditions which have enabled us to achieve
20 large measure of wellbeing and of
happiness. To us as a people II has
been granted to lay the foundations of
our national life in a new continent We
have had to pay few of the penalties
which In old countries are exacted by
the dead hand Of a bygone civilization.
I'VE 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. Under
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 feeling
of vainglory. but rather deep and abid-
ing realization of all which life has Of
fered us; full acknowledgment of re-
sponsibility which is ours, and a fixed
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.
Duties to Others and Ourselves.
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 of its greatness into relations
with the other nations of the earth,
and we must behave as becomes people
with such responsibilities. Toward all
other nations. large and small, our at
titude 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 DESTROYS of securing their
good will by acting toward them in spirit
of just and generous recognition Of all their
rights.
But justice and generosity in a nation,
as In an individual, count most when
shown not by the weak but by the strong
While ever careful to refrain from wrong
ing others, we must be no less insistent
that not wrOnged ourselves. We
WISH peace, Dul We WISH lnc ptdNt VA Jus
tice, the peace of righteousness. We wish
1t because 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
subject for insolent aggression.
Internal Relations Important.
''Opr relations with the other powers of
the world are important, but still more i'm
pOrtant are our relations among ourselves.
Such growth in wealth, In population and
In power as this nation has seen during
the century and a quarter Of its national
life is inevitably accompanied by like
growth in the problems which are ever be-
fore every nation that rises TO greatness.
Power invariably means both responsibility
and danger. We now face other perils the
very existence of which 1t was impossible
that they should foresee. Modern life is
both complex and intense and the tremen-
dous changes wrought by the extraordinary
Industrial development of the last half cen
fury are felt in every fiber OF our social
and political being. Never before have men
tried vast and formidable an expert
ment as that of administering the affairs
Of a continent under the forms Of a demo
cratic republic.
Care and Anxiety Wealth Brings.
1.-THE conditions which have told for our
marvellous material wellbeing, which have
developed to a very high degree our energy.
self-reliance and individual initiative, have
also DfOuSul tue care anu duAlely lnSep-
arabic from the accumulation of great
wealth in Industrial centers. Upon the sue
cess of our experiment much depends; not
only as regards our own welfare but as re-
CARDS the welfare of mankind
IF fail the cause of free self-gov-
eminent throughout the world Will rock TO
its foundations, and therefore our response
bility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world
as it is to-day and to the generations yet
unborn. There is no good reason why we
should fear the future, but there Is every
reason why we should face 1t seriously,
neither hiding from ourselves the gravity
of the problems before US nor fearing TO
approach these problems with the unbend-
ing, unfinching purpose to solve them
Alright
Must Face New Tasks in Old Spirit.
yet, after all, though the problems are
new, though the tasks set before us differ
from the tasks set before our fathers who
founded and preserved this republic. the
spirit In which these tasks must be under
taken and these problems faced, II our duty
is to be well done remains essentially I'M
changed. We know that self government
is difficult. We know that no people needs
such high traits of character as that people
which seeks to govern its affairs Alright
through the freely expressed Will Of the
free men TO the memories Of the men Of the
mighty past. They did their work, they
left us the splendid heritage we now en-
joy. We, In our turn, have an assured
confidence that we shall be able to leave
this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our
children and our children's children.
ITO do so we must show not merely In
great crises, but In the everyday affairs of
life, the qualities of practical intelligence,
of courage, of hardihood and endurance,
lofty IDEAL which made great the men who
founded this republic in the days Of Wash
ington, which made great the men who pre-
served this republic in the days Of Abraham