The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-06-10

ROOSEVELT AND THE EDITORS.
In his address before the National
Editorial association at the James
town exposition today President RCose
Welt had these sayable things to say
If the great molders Of public thought
1T is of course. a mere tru1sm 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 periodicals. 1t is also
truism to say that such power implies
the gravest responsibility. and the
man exercising it should hold him.
self accountable, and should be neld
by others accountable, precisely as If
he occupied any other position of pub
lie trust. do not intend to dwell upon
your duties today, however. save that
1 shall permit myself to point out one
matter where it seems to me that the
need of our people is vital. 1t is essen
tial that the man in public life and the
man who writes in the public press
shall both of them, If they are really
good servants Of the people. be prompt
to assail wrongdoing and wickedness.
But in thus assailing wrongdoing and
wickedness, there are two conditions
to be fulfilled, because if unfulfilled.
harm and not good will result. In the
first place, be sure of your facts and
avoid everything like hysteria or exag-
gera ton; for to assail a decent man
for something of which he is inno-
cent is to give aid and comfort to
every scoundrel, while indulgence in
hysterical eXaggeration serves to
weaken, not strengthen, the statement
of truth. In the second place, be sure
that you base your judgment on con-
duct and not on the social or economic
position of the Individual with whom
you are dealing. There are good and
their being good or bad does not de-
pend 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 pub
lie writer's. The men who thus ignore it
and who attack wickedness only when
found in a particular class are always
erous 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.
It is a sure sign of moral and mental
in any man if in his pub
lie assaults upon iniquity he is never
able to see any iniquity save that of
4 particular class; and this whether
he is able only to see the crimes of ar
rogance and oppression in the rich or
he crimes of envy and violence in the
poor. He is no true American if he is
4 respecter of persons where right and
wrong are concerned and if he fails to
denounce the demagogue no less than
the corruptionists, to denounce alike
crimes Of brutal violence. There is
equal need to denounce the wealthy
man who swindles investors or buys.
or Expresses wage work.
erS, and the needy man who inf1ames
class hatred or incites mob violence
We need to hold the scales of justice
even, and to weigh them down on one
side is as bad as to weigh them down
IN the other.
so much for what 1 have to say to
YOU in your capacity of molders and
guides of public thought. In addition I
want to speak to you on two great
in our public life which l
feel must necessarily occupy no in
part of the time of our
public men in the near future One of
these is the question of, in certain
ways. reshaping our system of taxa
ion so as TO make it bear most heavi-
" 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"