The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1907-10-04
THREE GREAT MEN
Roosevelt. Taft and Root
Lead Strenuous Lives.
HARD AT WORK FOR UNCLE SAM
Taft Gains the Troubled Waters
In Japan.
ROOTS PEACE MISSION TO MEXICO

sissippi Waterways Convention In
Session There-scOres Pessimists at
cA,iro, Scene Of Dickens' "Eden,"
Contrasting Past and Present-Must
BE Ready with Big Navy to Fight
All Corners. He Says-Taft Leaves
Japan After Calming All Fears Of
War-Root Promotes Good Will and
Our Trade In Mexico's Capital.
MEMPHIS, Tenn, Oct. 4. - With
flags and bunting flying from nearly
every business house, Memphis greet
ed the presidents flotilla and the dele
gates to the second annual convention
Of the Lakes to the Gulf Waterways
association. which was addressed here
today by President Roosevelt. Many
distinguished visitors are present.
chief among them being the president
Of the United States, w..o spoke before
the governors from many states. mem
bers OF congress and celebrated engi-
neers.
Fifty thousand cheering citizens
greeted President Roosevelt when he
landed here from the steamboat Mis-
sissippi. The president spoke to a vast
crowd, which gave him ovation after
ovation.
A short holdup occurred below Cairo
when the steamer Mississippi bearing
President Roosevelt to Memphis, broke
some of her machinery and put in to
shore for repairs, The spot where the
steamer tied was twelve miles below
Cairo, between Wickliffe and Colnm.
bus, Ky. No serious damage was done.
In his addr,bs mt Cairo President
Roosevelt scored the pessimists OF the
present. taking for his text Charles
Dickens novel. Martin ChuZzlewit,"
in which the scene of the forlorn dis
NAL swamp Eden was laid at the
site of the city of Cairo in years gone
by.
He contrasted the wretched picture
Of country and people drawn by Dick
ems with the land now teeming with
beauty and fertility and inhabited by
the stock that brought forth Abraham
Lincoln.
Keep lively watch" said he,
against the present day Pograms and
Bricks, but above all dlstrust the man
who would persuade you to feel down
hearted about the country because of
these same pessimists past or present.
1T would be foolish. to ignore their
existence or the existence of anything
else that is bad In our national life,
but it would be even more foolish to
ignore the vaster forces that tell for
Friends, there is every reason why
we should fight whatever Is evil In the
present, but there Is also every rea-
son why we should feel sturdy and
confident hope in the future of our
country.
1--WE have ms nation an era Of unex-
ampled prosperity ahead Of us. We
shall enjoy II, and our children will
enjoy it after us"
The president also took occasion
again to make extended reference to
the relations of the United States with
other world powers, with particular
regard to the necessity Of maintaining
a big navy.
Arguing from the particular to the
general, he said that the type Of man
respected was "the man who is no
milksop," who wouldn't tolerate insult
or injury, but was thoughtful of 9TH
ers' rights. This, he said, was true Of
the nation as Of the individual Con-
duet insulting or hurtful in speech or
act to another nation is particularly
cheap and Objectionable. "but the poll
cy becomes infamous from the stand
point of the interests of the United
States when 1t Is combined with the
refusal to take those measures Of prep
aration which can alone secure us
from aggression on the part of others"
The president announced that "thIs
nation is now on terms Of the most
cordial good will with all other ma
tons" But to preserve these cOndi-
tons it Is necessary, ''as We are yet a
good way Off from the millennium, to
keep ourselves in such shape as to
make it evident to all men that we de-
sire peace because we think II Ia inst
and right and not from motives of