Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-05-30
.IH[ PRESIDENT
A1 PORTSMOUTH
Chief Executive Unveils Monu-
ment Erected In the Naval
Cemetery There
ALSO DELIVERS AN ADDRESS

as He Shakes Hands With Confeder-
ate Veterans--Thousands Hear His
Address.
Portsmouth, Va, May 30.-Presi-
dent Roosevelt Joined the people of
Virginia today in beautiful and i'm
pressive tribute to the nations dead.
Under the auspices Of the Army and
Navy Union, an organization of Off
GERS and enlisted men of the United
States army and navy, the president
delivered Memorial day address here
to an audience numbering thousands
after delivering the ora
tion the president unveiled the monu-
ment erected in the naval cemetery
by the Army and Navy Union to the
memory Of it's dead comrades, The
exercises took place in the great woods
of the naval hospital grounds.
President Speaks.
President Roosevelt was introduce
ed by Col. j. Edwin Brown. national
commander Of the Army and Navy Un-
ion. The presidents address in part
follows:
1--WE cannot too highly honor the
memory Of the leaders In the civil war
of Grant and Lee, of Sherman and
Johnston, of StoneWall Jackson and
Sheridan, of Farragut, and of the cap
tains who fought under and against
him. But after all, the man upon
whom the chief credit must rest was
the plain man in the ranks, the man
in blue or in gray who went in to see
the war thru and who did see it thru.
He had the courage TO stand without
tlinching the pickering Of the skirm-
ishes and the hammering of the great
fights; he had the steadfast endurance
to bear with accomplishing resolution
the hunger and the heat and the cold,
the scorching days and the freezing
nights, the grinding. heartbreaking ia
tigue of the marches, the wearisome
of the camps, and the slow
suffering of the field hospitals. So in
the army and the navy today, in the
last analysis we must depend up hav-
ing the right stuff in the enlisted man
and then upon having that stuff put
into proper shape. So again in our re-
public as whole it is just as true in
peace now as 1t was forty-tive years
ago in war, that it is the character of
the average man that must be the de-
termining factor in achieving national
success or going down to national dis
aster. Leadership in necessary in or
der that we may get really good results
out of a high average Of individual
character; but without the high char
acter in the average individual the
leadership by itself can avail but lit
tle
Nov it is easy to say this in words
which. shall imply merely flattery Of
the average voter or Of the average
enlisted man. certainly do not intend
my words to be so taken. 1t is sure
sign of weakness in any man if he is
always wanting to be fattered, and
especially if he lets his head be turned
by fattery. The average voter needs
to learn and to keep steadily in mind
the fact that If in the last resort the
real power is his, so in the last resort
the real responsibility is his. He can
not cast off on anyone else the respon-
sibility for our governmental Short
comings. Nothing is cheaper than to
say that the people are all right, but
that the politicians are all wrong. AS
a matter of fact, politics, and therefore
politicians, will in the long run repre-
sent faithfully either the wishes or the
Indifference of the people; and if the
people are Indifferent the results are
Just about as bad as if they deliberate
ly choose to go wrong. So it
is with the enlisted man. When
1 call attention to the high place
he holds, and must ever hold in the
esteem of every sensible man, I do it
less with the intention OF emphasizing
the respect due him by outsiders than
with the intention of making him real
ize the burden of honorable obligation
resting upon his shoulders. By un-
wearied effort he must learn to do his
duty, whether that duty lies afloat or
ashore, whether it lies in the cavalry
or the infantry, in the gun turret or in
the engine room. He must be able to
handle himself and to handle the for
midable and delicate mechanism in
trusted to his care in such manner that
if ever it becomes his fortune to take
part in battle for the flag another page
shall be added to the many which go
to make up the long honor roll of
American history.
In closing I ask your attention to the
fact that our soldiers and sailors are
able to do their duty in great emer-
gencies even other than those of war.
Recently the most appalling disaster
that has ever befallen any city in our
country, the most appalling disaster
that has befallen any city of the same
size for a century past, befell the
great and beautiful city of San Fran
cisco. In the midst of their horror and
pity and sympathy the rest of our
people were rendered proud and glad
by the courage, the self-reliance, the
self-command shown by the men and
women of San Francisco themselves
under the sudden and awful calamity
which had befallen them. We had yet
another source of pride in the fact that
the first Americans outside the city
oh 10 iaP onH