The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1907-10-04

Cairo, ILL.,, Oct. 3.-President Roose
welt addressed vast throng here to
day on his visit to this city on his
trip down the Mississippi river in
company with the inland waterways
commission on the way to the lakes
to the gulf deep water convention al
Memphis. -
President Roosevelt dealt with the
complex questions of government, pay.
ing particular attention to the needs
of the navy and the federal control of
corporations. He spoke as follows:
Men of Illinois, and you, men OF
Kentucky and Missouri; y*as 81
1 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 group OF
rich and powerful states which liter
ally forms the heart of the country.
It is a region whose people are dis
tinctively American in all their
thoughts, in all their ways of looking
at life; and in its past and it's 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 te 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 lover OF his kind, a man nor
mally so free from national prejudices
as Charles Dickens, should have Sc
lected 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 produc
tive portions of one Of the most fertile
and productive agricultural territories
in all the world, and the dwellers In
this territory represent higher aver
age of comfort, intelligence, and
sturdy capacity for self-government
than the people in any tract of like
extent in any other continent. The
land teens with beauty and fertility
and but a score of years after Dick
ems wrote it was shown to be q
nursery and breeding ground OF
heroes, of soldiers and statesmen o1
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
a little further south, sprang another
of our greatest presidents, Andrew
Jackson, sold Hickory''-a man who
made mistakes, like most strong men
| but a man Of iron will and incorrupt
ible integrity, fearless, upright, de
| voted to the welfare of his country
men, bone of our bone and flesh OF our
flesh, a typical American if ever there
| was one.
I commend a careful reading of Mar
tin Chuzzlewit to the pessimists OF to
day, to the men who, instead OF fight
ing hard to do away with abuses while
at the same time losing no jot OF their
buoyant hopefulness for the country
insist that all our people, socially and
industrially, in their private lives nc
LESS than as politicians, newspaper
men, and business men, are at lower
ebb than ever before. If ever any
one of you feels a little downcast oyel
the peculiarly gloomy view of the pres
ent taken by some wel-meaning pessi
mist of today, you will find it rea]
comfort to read Martin Chuzzlewit, te
see what a well.meaning pessimist OF
| the past thought of our people 60 years
ago: and then think of the extra
ordinary achievement, the extraordin
tary gain, morally no less than ma
terial1y of those SIS years. Dickens
can be read b us now with profit
Elijah Pogran, Hannibal Chollop, JET
ferson Brick and scadder have theil
representatives today, plenty OF them
and the wise thing for us to do Is t
recognize that these are still types o
evil in politics, Journalism, business
and private life, and to war agains
4 them with all our hearts. But 1t i
rank folly to regard these as the only
or the chief types in our national life
i It was not. of much consequence
il whether Dickens made such an erro
or not, but 1t would be of great conse
i auence IL we ourselves did; for foo
tfsh pessimism is an even greater 10
1 L.. f.,