The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-10-01
Grand Spectacle,


? ".dent's address, which was deliv
cred to an immense throng, the party
boarded the steamer awaiting the chief
executive for his triumphant trip down
! the Mississippi. Steamers of all kinds.
! decked in all cOlors. escorted the YES
! sci and a more beautiful spectacle has
never been seen on the Mississippi.
| The party expects to reach St. Louis
! at 9:45 tomorrow morning.
| In his address this morning the
president spoke in part as follows
! You know that | believe that the
! National Government, in the interests
of the people, should assume much the
same supervisor and controle over the
! management of the interstate common
carriers that it now exercises over
national banks. You know further
more that | believe that this super
vision and control should be exercised
| in a spirit of rigid fairness toward the
corporations, eXacting justice from
| them on behalf of the people but Civ
! ing them justice In return.
! l believe so implicitly in the future
Of our people, because believe that the
average American citizen will no more
! tolerate government by a mob than he
will tolerate government by a plutoc-
racy; that he desires TO see justice done
| to and justice eXacted from rch man
and poor man alike. We are not trying
to favor any man at the expense of his
fellows. We are trying to shape things
so that as far as possible each man
shall a fair chance in life; so that he
shall have. so far as by law this can
! be accomplished, the chance to show
the stuff that there is in him.
Pure Democracy.
We have no intention of trying to
work for the impossible and undesra-
BILE end of giving to the lazy, the thrift
less, the weak, and the vicious, the re-
ward that belongs to, and in the long
run can only come to, the hard work.
ng, the thrifty. the resolute. and the
honest. But we do wish to see that
the necessary struggle in life shall be
carried on under genuinely democratic
conditions; that. so far as human act
ion can safely provide it. there shall
be an approximately fair start: that
there shall be no oppression of the
weak, and that no man shall be per-
mitted to acquire or to use a vast for
tune by methods or in ways that are
tortuous and dishonest.
Therefore we need wise laws, and We
need to have them resolutely admins
tered. We can get such laws and sucn
administration only if the people are
alive to their interests. Each man
here knows that he himself has been
able to use his freedom to advantage
only provided that he could master
himself, that he could control his own
passions and direct his own faculties.
Our Liberty.
Ours is a government of liberty but
it is a government of that orderly lib
honest enforcement of and obedience
to the law. At intervals during the
last few months the appeal has been
made to me not to enforce the law
against certain wrongdoers of great
great wealth because to do so would
interfere with the business prosperity
of the country. Under the effects of
that kind of fright which when suffi-
GENTLY acute we call panic, this ap-
peal has been made to me even by
men who ordinarily behave as decent
citizens.
One newspaper which has itself
strongly advanced this view gave
prominence to the statement of a Ger
tair man of great wealth to the. fleet
that the so-called financial weakness
was due entirely to the admitted in
tention of President Roosevelt to pun
ISL the large moneyed interests which
had transgressed the laws" I do not
admit that this has been the main
cause of any business troubles we have