Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-10-03
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT DISCUSS
Es ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.
WORK FOR THE POSSIBLE
Struggles in Life Should Be Carried
On Under Genuinely Democratic
Conditions-NavigabIe Rivers Are
National Asset to Be Made Avail
able for Purposes of Commerce.

eminent, IN the interests OF the peO-
pie, should assume much the same
supervision and control over the man
| agement of me interstate common
carriers that it now exercises over
the national banks. | believe also
that this supervision and control
should be exercised in spirit of rigid
fairness toward the corporations, ex-
acting justice from them On behalf or
the people but giving them justice in
return"
Thus spoke President Roosevelt
yesterday. He disavowed any dispo-
sitiOn toward pessimism but urged
that a study of the history Of the ma
tons, of the past would prove profit
able to present and future generations
in aiding them to avoid the pitfalls OF
government.
L believe so implicitly in the fut-
ure of our people" said the speaker,
because l believe that the average
American citizen will no more tolerate
government. by mob than he will
tolerate government by a pIutocracy:
that he desires to see justice done to
and justice eXacted from r Oh man and
poor man alike. We are not trying to
favor any man at the expense of his
fellows. We are trying to shape things
so that as far as possible each man
shall have a fair chance in life: so
that he shall have, so far as by law
this can be accomplished, the chance
to show the stuff that there is in him.
We have no intention of trying to
work for the impossible and undaSir-
able end of giving to the lazy, the
thrlttless, the weak, and the vicious.
the reward that belongs to, and in the
long run can only come to, the hard
working, the thrifty, the resolute, and
the honest. But we do wish to see
that the necessary struggle in life
shall be carried on under genuinely
democratic conditions; that, SO far as
human action can safely provide it,
there shall be an approximately fair
start: that there shall be no oppres-
sion OF the weak, and that no man
shell be permitted to acquire or to
use vast fortune by methods or in
ways that are tortuous and dis
honest"
The president spoke for wise laws
and for their resolute administration
and declared that "the price of liberty
is not only eternal vigilance but eter-
nal virtue and he added, eternal
common sense" He told his hearers
that they must themselves control
and not be controlled.
One way of exercising such con-
troll said the president, lis through
the laws Of the land Ours is a GOV
eminent Of liberty, but it is a govern
ment of that orderly liberty which
comes by and through the honest en-
forcement OF and obedience to the
law. At intervals during the last few
months the appeal has been made to
me not to enforce the law against
certain wrongdoers of great wealth
because to do so would interfere with
the business prosperity of the coun-
try. Under the effects of that kind OF
fright which when sufficiently acute
We call panic. this appeal has been
made to me even by men who ordinar-
lily behave as decent citizens. One
newspaper which has itself strongly
advanced this view gave prominence
to the statement of a certain man of
great wealth to the effect that the So
called financial weakness was duo
entirely to the admitted intention OF
President Roosevelt to punish the
large moneyed interests which had
transgressed the laws. I do not admit
that this has been the main cause or
any business troubles we have had:
but it is possible that it has been
contributory cause. If so, friends, as
far as 1 am concerned it must be &C.
cepted as a disagreeable but un,
avOidable feature in a course of pol,
icy which as long as l am president
will not be changed. In any great
movement for righteousness, where
the forces of evil are strongly in
trenched, it is unfortunately newt
able that some unoffending people
should suffer in company with the
real offenders. This is not our fault
1t is the fault of those to whose de-
ceptive action these innocent people
owe their false posIUIon.- A year or
two ago certain representatives of la
Dor called upon me and in the course
of a conversation told me that they
regarded me as the friend of labor.
answered that | certainly was, and
that l would do everything in my
power for the laboring man except
anything that was wrong. I have the
same answer to make to the business
man. I will do. everything can do 70
help business conditions, except any
thing that is wrong. And it would be
not merely wrong but infamous to
fail to do all that can be done to Sc
cure the punishment Of those wrong
doors whose eeds are peculiarly rep
rehensible because they are not COM
mitted under the stress of want"
Approaching then the theme with
which the present trip is related the
president said: From variety of
causes canals have in many parts of
the country been almost abandoned.
This is not healthy. Our people, and
especially the representatives of tee
neODlp in the national ooporocc