The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1907-06-21
THE President TO EDITORS
Roosevelt Delivers a Notable Address
at jamestown. Va.
Speaks Before the Delegates to the National
Editorial observation-disclosures Upon
Important National Questions.

1t is OF course a mere truism to say that
no other body of our countrymen WELD as
extensive an influence as those who write
for the daily press and for the periodi-
Gals. 1t Is also a truism to say that
such power implies tho gravest respon-
sibility. and the man exercising 1t should
hold himself accountable, and should be
held by others accountable, precisely as
IL he occupied any other position of pub
lie trust. I do not intend to dwell upon
your duties to-day, save that l shall
permit myself to point out one matter
where 1t seems to me that the need of
our people is vital. 1t Is essential that
The man In public life and the man who
writes in the public press shall both Of
them, IL they are really good servants
of the people, be prompt to assail wrong
doing anC wlctedness. But in thus assail-
ing wrongdoing and w~ickedness, there
are two conditions to be fulfilled. because
II unfulflled. harm and not good will
result. In the first place. be sure of
your facts and avoid everything like
hysteria or exaggeration; for to assail
a decent man for something of which he
Is innocent is to give aid and comfort to
every scoundrel, while indulgence in hys-
terical exaggeration serves to weaken,
not strengthen. the statement of truth.
In the second place, be sure that you
base your Judgment on conduct and not
on the social or economic position of the
individual with whom you are dealing.
lHtit II EObu anu Ddu men IN every
walk of life, and their being good or bad
does not depend upon whether they have
or do not have large bank accounts. Yet
this elemental fact, this fact which we all
accept as self-evident. when we think
each of us of the people whom he him
self knows in his business and social
relations, Is often completely ignored by
certain public men and certain public
writers. The men who thus ignore 1t
and who attack wickedness only when
found in a particular class are always
unsafe, and are sometimes very dan
eerous. leaders. Distrust equally the
man who is never able to discover any
vices of rich men to attack and the man
who confines himself to attacking the
sins and shortcomings of rich men. 1t
is q sure sign of moral and mental dis
honesty in any mar If in his public as
saults upon iniquity he is never able to
see any iniquity save that of a particular
class: and this whether he is able only to
see the crimes of arrogance and oppres-
sion in the rich or the crimes Of envy
ard violence in the poor.
So much for what / have to say to
you in your capacity of molders and
guides of public thought. In addition
/ want to speak to you on two great
movements In our public life which I
feel must necessarily occupy no incon-
siderable part of the time of our public
men in the near future. One of these is
the question of. in certain ways. re-
shaping our system of taxation so as to
make 1t bea- most heavily on those most
capable of supporting the strain. The
other is the question of utilizing the
natural resources of the nation in the
way that will be of most benefit to the
nation as a whole.
Need of Foresight.
In utilizing and conserving the natural
resources of the nation the one charac>
teristic more essential than any other is
foresight. Unfortunately. foresight is
not usually characteristic of a young and
vigorous people, and it is obviously not
a marked characteristic of us in the
United States. Yet assuredly 1t should be
the growing nation with a future which
takes the long look ahead; and no other
nation Is growing so rapidly as ours or
has a future so full of promise. No other
nation enjoys so wonderful a measure of
present prosperity which can Of right
be treated as an earnest of future sue
cess. and for no other are the rewards
of foresight so great, so certain, and so
easily foretold. Yet hitherto as a nation
wo have tended to live with an eye single
to the present. and have permitted the
reckless waste and destruction Of much
of our natural wealth.
The conservation Of our natural re-
sources and their proper use constitute
the fundamental problem which underlies
almost every other problem of our ma
tional life. Unless we maintain an ade-
quate material basis for our civilization,
we can not maintain the institutions in
which we take so great and just a pride:
and to waste and destroy our natural
resources means to undermine this ma
teriaI basis. During the last five years
efforts have been made in several new
directions in the government service to
get our people to look ahead, to exercise
foresight, and to substitute a planned and
orderly development of our resources In
the place of a haphazard striving for
immediate profit. The effort has been
made through several agencies.
In 1902 the reclamation service began
to develop the larger opportunities of the
western half of our country for irriga-
ton. The work includes all the states
from the great plains through the Rocky
mountains to the Pacific slope. 1t has
been conducted with the clear and def
mite purpose of using the valuable water
resources OF the public land for the
greatest good for the greatest number IN
the long run: in other words. for the
purpose of putting upon the land perma-
nent home makers who will use and
develop 1t for themselves and for theil
children and children's children. There
has been opposition. of course, to this
work Of the reclamation service: for WI
nave been obligAl to antagonize certain
men whose interest 1t was to exhaust fol
their own temporary personal profit nat
ural resources which ought to be deyel
oped through use. so as to be conserved
for the permanent common advantage Of
the people as a whole. Blu there will b'
no hat in the work of preserving tn'
waters which head in the Rocky noun
tain region so as to make them of mos
use to the people as a whole; for thu
policy is essential to our national wei
fare.
Operations of Land Laws.
The public lands of the United States
should be utilized in similar fashion. Ou
r-ssent public land laws were passes
when there was a vast surplus of vacan
public land. The chief desire was I,
secure settlers thereon. and comparative
ly slight attention was paid as to exactl.
how the lands were disposed OF in de
tail. In consequence, lax execution o
the laws became the rule both in the Ian
office and In the public mind. and Ian.
frauds were common and little noted
This was especially true when a system
originally designed for the fertile ant