Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1907-08-10

citizens, are claiming for ourselves.
(Applause.) 1t is a problem, l say,
that is not at all free from very serl-
Gus difficulty. l looked at those lit
tie Indian villages as / came along
the railroad today; | looked into the
happy faces of many of those peo-
pie at the stations, and l felt this,
that there ought not to be a white
man in this community who would III
any way endeavor to take advantage
of those people; who would in any
way attempt to take away from them
the land which they and their ances-
tors have cultivated fof hundreds OF
years. They We're there before them;
they have their own civilization; now
1t is our duty to try to help them
improve that civilization, not to throw
a stone in their way not to make one
step of theirs harder by endeayoring
to take away their lands or prevent
them from carrying on their indus
tries in the ways best suited to their
condition. SO l hope that | shall
have the hearty cooperation of the
people of New Mexico in working out
this Indian question in a way that
will be mere than fair to those who
are less fortunate than we are. That
question is in an acute form over in
the Indian Territory where l am go
ing next. Those people there are en-
tirely different from the people you
have here. But in every instance we
ought to try to treat our Indian
wards, not only as / say, meeting
them half way, but we ought TO treat
them very much better than we treat
a white man under similar condi-
tiOns, because they have not had the
chance that we have, they have not
had the opportunities that We have,
and we want to see to it that they
are given those opportunities in
children and their children's chill
dren in years to come will say The
white man has been honest and fair
with them and has given them the
opportunity and the chance to make
the most of their opportunities, as
he is making the most of his.
Good Report.
Now then, ladies and gentlemen,
| know that L ought not to keep you
longer here. 1t has been a great
pleasure to see you, to look into your
faces, to gasp the hands of
tions that obtain in this territory.
AS has been said, l shall take back
my report, not only of this, but Of
your adjoining territory Of Arizona,
and of the other states that surround
these territories; and / am very
pleased that / can take back SO fine
a report of the conditions in all OF
have been travelling up and down, we
have been finding out what these
conditions are, we have been learn
ing the difficulties that you have had
to meet with here, and there is but
one word of warning that l want to
throw out to you as you go forward
in your progress here. Learn not only
TO be fair with yourselves, but TO
DE fair with the industries that are
going to come into your territory
here. Do not make the mistake of
believing that the great industries Of
this country are all wrong because
some have been wrong. Give to those
industries, and the managers of those
industries, to the railroads, and to
the managers Of those railroads, the
same plea for honesty of conduct that
you claim for yourselves. Do not put
them down all wrong because some
have done i'll. Do not suppose that
it ought not to have done, that all
railroads and all railroad managers
would follow in their footsteps. DO
not suppose that because some mines
have failed to obey the law, or the |
managers, that all mine managers |
viii fail to obey the law. And In the |
legislation that may come hereafter, I
deal fairly with these great indus |
tries; see to it that there Is no dis I
tinction made between the laws that
you will apply to capital and the /
laws that you will apply to labor |
(Applause.)
Fairness 10 All.
Let every class of this great COM |
monwealth, as you grow in import I
ance and grow in political rights-let |
II be understood that every class i'm |
this great commonwealth will be .
treated with equal Justice and equal |
There should be no special /
legislation, We have had too much /