Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-05-03


cises of the exposition His address
while not proclaiming any new lines
of administration activity, clearly
pledged the presidents influence to
maintain the policies he has already
announced 1t was a distinct notice
to those who. directly or indirectly,
have been trying to bring about a
modification of President ROOSeVelt'S S
course as outlined that he has decid-
ed to stand to his guns in defense of
individual rights of citizenship and
the enforcement of laws, without re-
gard to class distinctions.
Taking advantage Of the interna-
tional character of the aSSembage,
President Roosevelt in his address eX-
tended welcome to all foreign repre-
sentatives, leading up to reference
to the cause of peace. He said:
'The world has moved so far that
it is no longer necessary to believe
that one nation can rise only by
thrusting another down. | believe
that there is a rising tide in human
thought which tends for righteous
international peace; tide which it
behooves US to guide thru rational
channels to sane conclusions: and all
of us here present can well afford tOtake
to heart St. Paul'S counsel; If it be pos
sible, as much as lieth in you, live
peaceably with all men,"
The president then sketched the his
tory of the country with special refer
ence to the elements contributing to
the colonizing and Development Of the
new world. He showed how, in the
growth of a new nation, all these fac
tors had been welded into homo
geneous mass. After renewing the
manner in which great problems had
been handled by the founders and saw
iors of the nation. the president said:
OBLIGATIONS OF THE PRESENT.
eve, too, in our turn, must prove
our truth by our endeavor. We must
show ourselves worthy sons of the men
of the mighty days by the way in
which we meet the problems of our
own time. We carry our heads high
because our fathers did we'll in the
years that tried mems souls; and we
| must in our turn so bear ourselves
that the children who come after us
may feel that we, too, have done our
duty.
eve can not afford to forget the
| maxim upon which W Washington insist.
ed that the surest way to avert war is
to be prepared to meet it. Neverthe-
less, the duties that most concern us
of this generation are not military
but social and industrial. Each com
munity must always dread the evils
which spring up as attendant upon
the very qualities which give it sue
cuss. We of this mighty western re.
public have to grapple with the dan
gers that spring from popular self-gov'
ernment tried on ascale incomparably
faster than ever before in the history
of mankind, and from an abounding
material prosperity greater also than
anything which the world has hither-
| to seen.
GOyERNMENT Is INEVITABLE.
GAS regards the first set of dam
gers, it behooveS us to remembe that
men can never escape being governed
Either they must govern themselves
or they must submit to being govern
ed by others. If from lawlessness or
fckleness, from folly or self-indulgence
they refuse to govern themselves, then
most assuredly in the end they will
have to be governed from the outside.
| They can prevent the need Of govern.
ment from without only by showing
that they possess the power to gov
ern from within. A sovereign
cannot make excuses for his failures;
a sovereign must accept the RESPONSE
bility for the exercise of the power
| that inheres in him; and where, as is
true in our republic the people are
sovereign, then the people must show
a sober understanding and sane and
steadfast purpose if they are to pre-
serve that orderly liberty upon which
as foundation, every republic must
rest
| AN ERA OF COMBINATION.
| SIN industrial matters our enormou:
prosperity has brought with it certain
grave evils. 1t is our duty to try tt
cut out these evils without at the
same time destroying our well-beins
| itself This an era of com binatior
alike in the world of capital and ir
the world of labor Each kind of com
bination can do good, and yet each
however powerful, must be opposed
when it does i'll. At the moment the
greatest problem before us is how tt
lexercise such control over the business
use of vast wealth, individual. but es
pecially corporate, as will insure it
not being used against the interest o
the public, while yet permitting sucl
ample legitimate profits as will en-
courage individual initiative. 1t j
our business to put a stop To abuse
y = =