Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1907-10-03

Cairo, ILL.,, Oct. 3.--When President
Roosevelt stepped ashore here at
o'clock this morning he manifested
every evidence of having passed a
comfortable night. He was the guest
| at dinner last evening on the
steamer Alton of the Business
Mems League Of ST. Louis and
with that entertainment, speech
making and conversation, his time un
It'll almost midnight was fully TAX.
Ell up. The dinner was regarded by
| all as very important and it Is be-
leved that the scheme Of ship chan
| mel from the gulf TO the lakes re
ceived great impetus. The President
requested that his remarks be not re-
ported but he consented to the state
ment that he has announced une
quivocally his endorsement Of the gen
eral principle involved In the scheme
for the creation of a ship channel up
the river to the Great Lakes. At the
same time he was most careful TO say
he would not give his assent to any
particular scheme of Improvement.
He also pointed out that there were
many obstacles connected with the
carrying into effect of any plan of
such vast proportions and involving
so much expense, and while promis-
ing all the assistance he could give,
he told his hearers the only way to
make success certain was to thorough
ly prepare themselves as to render
their arguments unansWerable.
His speech was greeted with pro-
longed applause and this endorsement
took the shape Of words when Cover
nors Folk, Deneen and Blanchard
spoke. All pledged their utmost ef-
forts in furtherance of the enterprise.
The gathering at dinner was not
able one and included the governors
of fifteen states.
Upon the arrival of President Roose-
welt and party at the Cairo wharf all
were Immediately conveyed in carriag-
es to ST. Mary's park. Governor De
neen, of Illinois, introduced the Presi-
dent, who began speaking at 9:4o
O'Clock and continued until 1880.
Then the party returned to their boat
and shortly afterward the start was
made for Memphis. Over ten thousand
people heard the Presidents address
in the park and the crowds would
have been larger had the arrival Of
many excursion trains not been de-
layed. The President spoke in part
as follows:
The Presidents Speech.
Men of Illinois, and You, Men of Ken
lucky and Missouri:
"I 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
group of rich and powerful states
which literally forms the heart Of the
country. 1t Is region whose people
are distinctively American in all their
thoughts, in all their ways of looking
at life; and in it's past and its pres
ent alike it is typical of our country.
The oldest men present can still re-
member the pioneer days, the days OF
the white-tilted OK wagon, of the emf
grant, and of the log cabin in which
that emigrant first lived when he set
tied to his task as pioneer farmer.
They were rough days, days of hard
work, and the people who did that
work seemed themselves uncouth and
forbidding to visitors who could not
look below the surface. 1t is curious
and amusing to think that even as
genuine a lover of his kind, a man
normally so free from national pre-
JUDGES as Charles Dickens, should
have selected the region where we
are now standing as the seat of his
forlorn Eden in Martin Chuzzlewit.
The country he so bitterly assailed is
now one of the most fertile and pro-
ductive portions of one of the most
fertile and productive agricultural ter
ritories in all the world, and the
dwellers in this territory represent
higher average of comfort, intelli-
gence, and sturdy capacity for self
government than the people in any
tract of like extent in any other con-
tinent The land teens with beauty
and fertility, and but score of years
after Dickens wrote 1t was shown to
be nursery and breeding ground OF
heroes, soldiers and statesmen of
the highest rank, while the rugged
worth of the rank and file of the citi-
zenship rendered possible the deeds Of
the mighty men who led in council
and in battle. This was the region
that brought forth mighty Abraham
Lincoln, the incarnation 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,