The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-04
SEABOARD LOOP FROM THE GULF
 TO THE LAKES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1.l

i pletlon ot the waterway was promised
 for the future.
 at the Cairo wharf promptly at o'clock
 and were saluted by the Danville battery | and hundreds of steamboat and other
 whistles as they entered the Cairo har-
 bor The Presidents party was met by
 the reception committee, headed by Mayor ] Parsons. Fifty carriages, all drawn by
 white horses, conveyed the party along l the line of march 10 St. Mary's park. On arrival at the park Mayor Parsons
 introduced Governor Deneen of Illinois,
 who introduced President Roosevelt.
 The president spoke for one hour and 1 10 minutes, after which the party re-
 turned to their boats
 At Il o'clock the fleet made the start
 for Memphis, amid the booming of can
 non and other popular demonstrations.
 More than 10000 people listened to the l Presidents address at the park and the
 crowd would have been considerably
 larger had the arrival of many of the ex- cursion trains not been delayed, some not coming until the conclusion of the speech. Ovation after ovation was given the President during his speech.
 The Presidents Speech.
 The President said in part:
 1 Men of Illinois. and ou, Men Of Ken lucky and Missouri:
 l am glad to have the chance to speak ] to you today. This is the heart of what
 may be called the old west, which we
 now call the middle west, using the term l to denote that great group of rich and l powerful states which literally forms the heart of the country. It is a region l whose people are distinctively American 1 in all their thoughts, in all their ways
 of looking at life; and in its past and it's
 present alike 1t is typical of our country. 1 The oldest men present can still remem- l Der the pioneer days, the days of the 1 white-tilted OK wagon, of the emigrant
 and of the log cabin in which that emil l grant first lived when he settled to his l task as a pioneer farmer. They were l rough days, days of hard work, and the l people who did that work seemed them
 selves uncouth and forbidding to visitors 1 who could not look below the surface 1 1t is curious and amusing to think that l even as genuine a lover of his kind, q 1 man normally so free from national
 prejudices as Charles Dickens, should l have selected the region where we are
 now Standing as the seat of his forlorn
 Eden in Martin Chuzzlewit. The coun- l try he so bitterly assailed is now one l of the most fertile and productive por- l tions of one of the most fertile and pro- l ductlve agricultural territories in all the
 world, and the dwellers in this territory 1 represent a higher average of comfort 1 intelligence, and sturdy capacity for self l government than the people in any tract 1 of like extent in any other continent l The land teens with beauty and fertility l and but score of years after Dickens ] wrote 1t was shown to be a nursery and 1 breeding ground of heroes, of soldiers l and statesmen of the highest rank, while 1 the rugged worth of the rank and file of 1 the citizenship rendered possible the deeds l of the mighty men who led in council
 and In battle This was the region that, brought forth mighty Abraham Lincoln l the incarnation of all that is best in dem
 ocratic life; and from the lolns of the same people, living only little farther 1 south, sprang another of our greatest
 president Andrew Jackson "Old Hick- l ory"-a man who made mistakes, like l most strong men, but man of iron 1 will and incorruptible Integrity, fearless, | upright devoted to the welfare of his 1 countrymen, bone of our bone and flesh l of our flesh, a typical American if ever l there was one.
 Should Fight Evil.
 Friends, there is every reason why we l should fight whatever Is evil in the pres
 ent. But there is also every reason why we should feel a sturdy and confident
 hope for the future. There are many
 wrongs to right; there are many and l
 war; and it would be base to shrink from l the contest, or to fail to wage 1t with
 a high, resolute will. But l am sure 1 that we shall win in the contest, because
 I know that the heart of our people is 1 sound Our average men and women are 1 good men and women-and this Is true | in all sections of our country and among 1 all classes of our countrymen. There is i no other nation earth with such vast 1 natural resources, or with such high | standard of living and of industrial eff | ciency among it's workers. We have as 1 a nation area of unexampled pros- l perity ahead of us; we shall enjoy it, and | our children will enjoy it after us. The | trend of Q we'll being in this country is upward not downward; and this is the | trend in the things of the soul as well | as in the things of the body.
 | Government in its application is often | a complicated and delicate work, but the
 principles of government are. after all. l fairly simple. In broad, general way we
 should apply in the affairs of the na- i tonal administration. which deals with 1 the interests of all our eighty-odd mil 1 lions of people, just the same rules that are necessary in getting on with our | neighbors in our several neighborhoods l and the nation as a whole should show | substantially the same qualities that we l would expect an honorable man to show l in dealing with his fellows To illustrate 1 this, consider for a moment two phases l of governmental action.
 Length of Wars.
 Since the days of Napoleon no war be- l tween two great powers has lasted as | long as it would take to build battle | ship. let alone fleet of battleships; and 1t takes just as long to train the crew of a battleship as 1t does to build 1t; and as regards the most important thing of all. the training of the officers 1t takes much longer. The navy must be built and all it's training given in time of peace When once war has broken out it 1t too late to do anything. We now have a good navy, not yet large enough for our needs but of excellent material. Where a navy is as small as ours, the cardinal rule must be that the battleships shall not be separated. This year I am happy to say that we shall begin course which l hope will be steadily followed hereafter. that, namely, of keeping the battleship fleet alternately in the Pacific and in the Atlantic. Early in December the feet will begin its voyage to the Pa cific. and 1t will number friends, among it's formidable fighting craft. three great battleships named, respectively, the H. linois, the Missouri and the Kentucky. It | is a national fleet in every sense of the term, and it's welfare should be, and firmly believe is. as much a matter of