Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-04-17
PRESIDENT IN SPEECH cHIDEs
THE PENNY.A-LINE "ExposER
OF DISHONESTY
LESSON is DRAWN
FROM JOHN BUNYAN
sPiIsrim's Progress" Furnishes Text
for the President to Make Speech
on the Recently Developed Craze
for Sensational Literature-speaker
Points to the Good in the World.

Tor sensational ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Points to the Good in the World.
Washington, d. G., April 14.-In the
presence of distinguished assem-
biage with the President Of the United
States taking prominent part and
with the supreme court and senate,
the house Of representatives and the
diplomatic corps as spectators, and be-
fore a large concourse of people the
corner store Of the Office building for
the house Of representatives was laid
with impressive ceremony under the
auspices Of the Masonic fraternity this
afternoon.
The address Of the day was made by
President Roosevelt on "The Man
With the Muck Rake" The other
speakers included Walter A. Brown,
grand master Of the Masons; Con-
gressmen Joseph e.. Cannon, William
P. Hepburn and former Congressman
]. D. Richardson, of Tennessee. grand
commander of the supreme council of
the Scottish Rite Masons.
The Presidents Address.
President Roosevelt devoted his
speech to criticism of the aims and
methods of the chronic "exposers' Of
whom there are just now SO many in
America. His address in full follows:
Growth of the Country.
Over century ago Washington
laid the corner store of the capitol in
what was then little more than tract
OF wooded wilderness here beside the
POTOMAC. We now find it necessary to
provide by great additional buildings
Tor the business of the government.
This growth in the need for the hous-
Ing OF the government Is but a proof
and example of the way in which the
nation has grown and the sphere of
action OF the national government has
grown. We now administer the affairs
OF a nation in which the extraordinary
growth of population has been out
shipped By By tts. growth Of wealth and
the growth in complex interests. The
material problems that face US today
are not such as they were in Washing
toms time, but the underlying facts of
human nature are the same now as
they were then. Under altered exter-
nal form we war with the same ten
denotes toward evil that were evident
in Washington's time, and are helped
by the same tendencies for good. 1t
is about some of these that wish to
say a word today.
The Muck Rake Man.
"In Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress you
may recall the description Of the Man
with the Muck Rake, the man who
could look no way but downward, with
the muck rake In his hand; who was
offered celestial crown for his muck
rake, but who would neither look up
nor regard the crown he was offered,
but continued to rake to himself the
filth of the floor.
In Pilgrims Progress the man with
the muck rake is set forth as the ex-
ample of him whose vision is fixed on
carnal instead of spiritual things. Yet
he also typiies the man who in this
life consistently refuses to see aught
that his lofty, and fixes his eye with
solemn intentness only on that which
is vile and debasing. Now, it is very
necessary that we Should not finch
from seeing what is vile and debasing
There is filth on the floor and 1t must
be scraped up with the muck rake;
and there are times and places where
this service is the most needed of all
the services that can be performed.
But the man who never does anything
else, who never thinks or speaks or
writes, save OF his feats with the muck
rake, speedily becomes, not help to
society, not an Indictment to good, but
one of the most potent forces for evil.
The Modern Muck Rake.
s'There are, in the body polite, eco.
nomic and social, many and grave
evils, and there is urgent necessity for
the sternest 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 bust
ness. or in social life. hail as ben
efactor every writer or speaker, every
man who, on the platform, or in book,
magazine, or newspaper, with merci.
less severity makes such attack, pro.
vided always that he in his turn re-
members that the attack 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 Sian.
der, he may be worse than most
thieves. 1t puts premium upon
knavery untruthfully to attack an
honest man, or even with hysterical
exasgeration to assail bad man with
u7truth An epidemic Of indiscrimin-
rte assault upon character does no
rod, but very great harm. The soul
of every scoundrel is gladdened when.
ever an honest man is assailed, or
even when scoundrel is untruthfully
assailed.
Now it is easy to twist out OF
shape what / have just said, easy to
affect to misunderstood it, and, if 1t is
slurred over in repetition, not difficult