The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-04-26
PRES. ROOSEvElTS SPEECH
(Continued from Pase ~

w s. Il
the people of English stock went west
ward OF the Alleghenies. Moreover,
both the Dutch and the Swetles were
shortly to found colonies between the
two sets of English colonies. those
that grew upon what Is now the New
England coast. Nevertheless. this
landing at Jamestown possesses for
us OF the United States an altogether
peculiar significance, and this with
out regard to our several origins. The
men who LANDED at jamestown and
those who, thirteen years later. land
ed at Plymouth. all Of English stock,
and their fellow-settlers who during
the next few decades streamed in
after them were those who took the
lead in shaping the life history of this
people in the colonial and revolu-
tionary days. 1t was they who bent
into definite shape our nation while
1t was still young enough most easily,
most readily, take on the character
istics which were to become part of
Its permanent life habit.
Yet let us remember that while this
early English colonial stock has left
deeper than all others upon our ma
tional life the mark of its strong twin
Municipalities. the mark of the Cava-
Her and of the Plritan-nawerthe-
less, this stock. not only from its en-
viornment but also from the presence
with it of other stocks. almost from
the beginning began to be ,lifferentiat-
Ell strongly from any European peo-
pie. AS / have already said, about
the time the first English settlers
landed here. the Frenchman and the
Spaniard. the Swede and the Dutch
man. also came hither as permanent
jewellers, who left their seed behind
them to help shape and partially to
inherit our national life. The Ger
man. the Irishman. and the Scotch
man came later, but still in colonial
times. Before the outbreak of the
revolution the American people, not
only because of their surroundings,
physical and spiritual. but because of
the mixture of blood that had already
begun to take place. represented a
new and distinct ethic type. This
type has never been fixed in blood.
All through the colonial days new
waves of immigration from time to
time swept hither across the ocean,
now from one country, now from an
other. The same thing has gone on
ever since our birth as nation; and
for the last sixty years the tide of
immigration has been at the full. The
newcomers are soon absorbed into our
eager national life. and are radically
and profoundly changed thereby. the
rapidity of their assimilation being
marvellous. But each group of new
corners, as it adds its blood to the
life, also changes it somewhat, and
this change and growth and develop
ment have gone on steadily. genera
ton, by generation throughout three
centuries.
The pioneers of our people who first
landed on these shores on that event.
full day three centuries ago, had be-
fore them task which during the
early years was of heartbreaking
danger and difficulty. The conquest
of new continent is iron work. Peo-
pie who dwell in old civilizations and
find that therein SO much of humane
tvs lot is hard, are apt to complain
against the conditions as being solely
due to man and, to speak as If life
could be made easy and simple if
there were but a virgin continent in
which to work. 1t is true that the
| pioneer life was simpler, but it was
certainly not easier. AS matter of
fact. the first work of the pioneers
in taking possession of lonely will
derness is SO rough, so hard, so dan
| gerous that all but the strongest
spirits fail. The early iron days of
such a conquest search out alike the
weak in body and the weak in soul.
In the warfare against the rugged
sterness of primeval nature, only
those can conquer who are themselves
uncomfortable. 1t is not until the
first bitter years have passed that the
life becomes easy enough to invite
mass of newcomers, and SO great
are the risk, hardship, and toll of the
early years that there always exists
| a threat of lapsing back from civiliza-
| ton.
The history of the pioneers of
jamestown, of the founders Of Vir-
ginia. illustrates the truth of all this.
Famine and pestilence and war
menaced the little band pf daring
men who had planted themselves
alone on the edge of a frowning con-
tinent. Moreover. as men ever find,
whether in the tiniest frontier COM
munity or in the, vastest and most
highly organized and complex civiliz-
ed society, their worst foes were in
their own bosoms. Dissension, dis
trust. the inability of some to work
and the unwillingness of others,
jealousy. arrogance and envy, folly
and laziness-in short all the short
comings with which we have to Crap
pie now. were faced by those pioneers,
at moments threatened their whole
enterprise with absolute ruin. It was
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