The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1906-04-14
MUCK RAKERS'
DENOUNCED
President Roosevelt AssailS'
SensatiOnalists
In A NOTABLE SPEECH
Warns Against the Hysteria Which Sees
Nothing Good But Continually
Rakes UP the
Bad.

corner stone Of the new Office building
of the House of Representatives hall was
laid today. President Roosevelt delivered
the chief speech, which contained the
much heraled man with the Muck-rake,
or the speaker or writer who rakes out
the bad ami refuses to see the good
iii our public life The Presidents
speech was a scathing denunciation Of
such. He opened with a reference to
THE description of Tie man with a
Muck rake III Bunyan's Pilgrims Pro-
gross who sees only csrnal instead Of
spiritual things and bringing the COM
Ipafison TO his purposes the President
declared:
..Now, it II very necessary that NE
should not finch from seeing what y
vile and debasing. There is filth on
the floor, ana il must be scraped mp
with the muckTake; and there sre
times and places where this service Is
the most needed of oll the services that
can be performed. But the man who
never does anything else, who never
thinks 81 speaks or writes, save Of his
ieats with the muck rake. speedily be-
comes. not help TO society. not an
Indictment to good, but one of the most
potent forces for evil.
"Therc are. IN the body polite, eco
ncmic and social, many and grave evils,
and there is urgent necessity for the
lsternest war upon them There should
be RELENTLESS exposure of and attack upon
every evil man, whether politician or
business man, every evil practice,
whether in politics, in business, OF in
social life. | hail MS henefactor every
writer or speaker, every man who, on
! the platform, or in book, magazine, or
newspaper, with mereilcss severity
makes such attack, provided always that
I he III his turn remembers that the at
tack is OF use only If it is absolutely
| truthful. The liar Is no whit better than
/ the thief, and if his mendacity takes
the form Of SANDER, he may be worse
than most thieves. II puts premium
upon llnavery untrlithfully TO attack an
| honest man, or even with hysterical ex-
acgcration to assail bad man with
untruth. An epidemic Of indiscriminate
assault upon character does not good,
but very great harm. The soul OF
every scounarel l. gIaddenei whenever
All honest man is as-ailad, OF even when
seoundrcl il untruthfully assailed.n
"Thc effort 90 make iinan
eial or political moft out of the destrue-
ton III character Pan only result IN pub
Tic calamity 6ros and reckless assaults
an charar.ry. whether on tie stump OF
III newspaper. magazine. or book, create
. morbid and vicious public sentiment,
FA s bale ...ne act ms a profound
a - - ~,
tiveness nnl tend 10 prevent them from
entering the public service at any
price.
.'To assail the great and admitted
evils of our political and industrial life
with such crude and sweeping general.
cations as TO include decent men in the
general condemnation means the scar.
| ing of the public conscience. There re-
suits general attitude either Of cyni-
I cal belief in and indifference to public
corruption or else OF distrnstful in.
ability TO discriminate between the good
and the bad Either attitude Is fraught
with untold damage TO the country as
o whole. The fool who has not sense
to discriminate between what is good
and what is bad is well nigh as danger
aus as the man who does, discriminate
and vet chooses the bad. There is
nothing more distressing 60 every good
patriot, To every good American, shan
the hard, soothing spirit which treats
/ the allegation OF dishonesty in public
/ iuan as a cause for laughter"
~Ne can no more and no less afford
I 10 coudone evil III the man 81 capital
I than evil in the man of no capital. The
wealthy man who exllts because there
IS failure OF Justice in the effort to
bring some trust msgnate to an &C.
count for bis inisdeeds, Is as bad AZ,
and no worse than, tae so.caIlcd labor
leader who DANGEROUSLY strives TO ex-
cite a foul class feeling ON behalf OF
some other labor leader who IL impli-
Gated in murder Ono attitude ia rs
bad as the other and no worse; in
\ each case the accused is entitled to
exact Justice; and in neither case is
there need Of action by others which can
be construed into an expression of SYM
pathy for crime.
1T il prime necessity that il the
/ present unrest Is to result In permanent
I good the emotion shall he translated
( into action. and that the action shall
/ be marked by honesty, sanity and self
4 rdcstraint. There j. mighty little good
I ia mere spasm Of reform. The re.
I form that counts Is that which comes
/ through steady, continuous growth: yio-
/ lent cmotionalism lends to exhaustion
IN concluding the President said 4;