The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-10-03
President Roosevelt Tells His
Hearers at Cairo
There Are Many Wrong Doors
Against Whom to War.
THE TRENDISUPWARD
We Must Be just to Boil
Nations and individuals.
Again Asserts Necessity of Fed
eral Control of Corporations.

Cairo, ILL.,, Oct. AT this point to-
day, President Roosevelt delivered his
fourth set speech since leaving Wash
| ington on his western trip He spoke
as follows:
Men of Illinois. and you. men of Ken
lucky and Missouri:
1 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 to denote that great
which literally forms the heart of the
country. 1t is a region whose people
are distinctively American in all their
thoughts, in all their ways of look
ing at life; and in its past and it's
present alike it is typical of our
country. The oldest men present can
still remember the pioneer days, the
days of the. white-tilted OK wagon,
of the emigrant, and of the log cabin
in which that emigrant first lived
when he settled to his task as a
pioneer farmer. They were rough
days, days of hard work. and the peo-
pie who did that work seemed them
selves uncouth and forbidding to visi-
tors who could not look below the
surface. 1t is curious and amusing
to think that even as genuine a lover
of his kind, man normally SO free
from national prejudices as Charles
region where we are now standing as
the seat of his foElorn Eden in
Martin Chuzzlewit. The country he
SO bitterly assai1ed is now one of the
most fertile and productive portions
of one of the most fertile and produc-
tive agricultural territories in all the
world and the dweHers in this ter
ritory represent a higher average OF
comfort. intelligence, and sturdy
capacity for self-goyernment than the
in ira af Ixa wi n
any other continent. The land teens
with beauty and fertility, and but
score of years after Dickens wrote IT
was shown to be a nursery and breed
ing ground of heroes, of soldiers and
statesmen of the highest rank. while
the rugged worth of the rank and
file of the citizenship rendered pos
sible the deeds ofrS the mighty men
who led in council ana in battle Fhlss
was the region that brought forth
mighty Abraham Lincoln, the incar-
nation of all that is best in democratic
life; and from the loins of the same
people, living only little farther
south, sprang another of our greatest
presidents Andrew jackson, "Old
Hickory''-a man who made mistakes,
like most strong men, but a man of
iron will and fncorruptible integrity,
fearless, upright, devoted to the well
fare of his countrymen, bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh. a typical
American If ever there was one.
Says Read Martin Chuzzlewit.
I commend careful reading of
Martin ChuzzIewit to the pessimists of
today, to the men who, instead of
fighting hard to do away with abuses
while at the same time losing no jot
of their buoyant hopefulness for the
country insist that all our people, |
socially and industrially, in their pri-
vate lives no less than as politicians, |
men, and business men,
are at a lower ebb than ever before. |
If ever any one of you feels little |
downcast over the peculiarly gloomy |
view of the present taken by some |
pessinnist of today, you |
will find it real comfort to read Mar /
tin Chuzzlewit, to see what a we'll |
pessimist of the past thought |
of our people sixty-five years ago; |
and then think of the extraordinary |
the extraordinary gain, |
no less than materially, of |
those sixty-1ve years. Dickens can /
be read by US now with profit; Elijah |
Pogram. Hannibal Chollop. Jefferson |
Brick and Scadder have their repre-
sentatives today, plenty of them; and |
the wise thing for US to do is to
recognize that these are still types OF
evil in politics, journalism, business,
and private life and to war against |
them with all our hearts But it is
rank folly to regard these as the only, |
or the chief, types in our national /
life. 1t was not much consequence
whether Dickens made such an error |
or not, but il would be of great con-
sequence If We ourselves did; for a
foolish pessimism is an even greater
foe of healthy national growth than
1 foolish optimism 1t was not that
Dickens invented characters or scenes
that had no basis in fact; on the con-
trary, what he said was true, as far
as it went; the trouble was that out
Of many such half truths he made a
picture which as a whole was absurd;
for often a half truth is the most
dangerous falsehood. 1t would be
simply silly to be angry over Martin
on the contrary, read it.
be amused by it, profit by 1t; and
don't be misled by it Keep a lively
watch against the present-day Po-
trust the man who would persuade
you to feel downhearted about the
country because of these same Po-
grams and Bricks, past or present It
would be foolish to ignore their exis-
-ence, or the existence of anything
else that is bad in our national life;
but it would be even more foolish to
gnore the vaster forces that tell for
Friends. there is every
reason why we should fight whatever
s evil in the present.
Hope for the Future.
But there is also every reason why
We should feel a sturdy and confident
nope for the future. There are many
wrongs to right: there are many and
powerful wrong doors against whom |
% war; and it would be base to
shrink from the contest or to fail to |
wage it with a high, a rresolute will |
But / am sure that we shall win in the
contest. because I know that the heart
IF our people is sound Our average
men and women are good men and
this is true in all sec
ions of our country and among all
Do 4