Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-03-01
ATTITUDE ON TRUSTS
SILLY AS ON SLAVES
Roosevelt.
President Declares Common.
weaIths Must Leave Corpora
ton Control to Nation.

Cambridge, Mass, Feb. 26.-President
Roosevelt addressed the Harvard stu
dents and faculty today, being heard
by a huge crowd.
He spoke In favor of football and
against state rights, saying In part:
Rowing, base I'll, la crosse, track and
field games, h KEY, football are ell OF
them good. Moreover, 1t Is to my mind
simple nonsense, a mere confession OF
weakness, to desire to abolish a game be-
cause tendencies show themselves or prac-
tices grow up, which prove that the game
ought TO be reformed, Take football, for
instance. The preparatory schools are
able to keep football clean and to develop
the right spirit in the players without the
slightest necessity ever arising to so much
as consider the question OF abolish.ng IT,
There is no excuse whatever for colleges
failing TO show the same capacity. and
there Is no real need for considering the
question OF the abolition OF the game. TX
necessary, let the college authorities In
terfere to stop any excess or perversion.
making their interference as little officious
as possible. and yet as rigorous as -
necessary to achieve the end. But there
is no justification for stopping a thorough
ly manly sport because 1t Is sometimes
abused, when the experience of every
good preparatory school shows that the
abuse is In no shape necessarily
Study Beats Athletics.
Play while you play and work while you,
work; and though play Is a mighty good
LtlAAlR AhaI " 0o 0&Nh>
never play at all than to get into a conf
dition of mind where you regard play a.
the serious business of life.
Athletics are good. study Is even better:
and best of all Is the development OF the
type of character for the lack Of which,
in an individual as In a nation. no amount
of briIiancy OF mind or OF strength OF
body will atone. You here when you are
graduated will take up many different
kinds OF work; but there IL one work I'm
which all of you should take part simply
- ~AAl Ara q. t2n At1 fhnA L. IA
government. Remember. In the first place,
that TO take part In the work OF govern
ment does not in the least mean of neces-
sity to hold office. II f9eans to take an
part In the everyday duties Of the average
citizen, of the citizen who Is not a fad
dist or a doctrinaire, but who abhors cor
ruption and dislikes inefficiency; who
wishes TO see decent government prevail
at home, with genuine equality Of oppor-
tunity for all men SO far as IL can be
brought about: and who wishes, as far as
foreign matters are concerned. to see this
nation treat all other nations, great and
small, with respect, and IL need be with
generosity, and at the same time show
herself able TO protect herself by her own
might from any wrong at the hands of
any outside power.
Up to Strong Men.
In a republic like ours the government
class is composed of the strong men who
take the trouble to do the work OF govern
ment: and If you are too tim!d or too fas-
tidious or too careless TO do your part
In this work, then you forfeit your right
to be considered one OF the governing and
you become one OF the governed instead
one of the driven cattle OF the political
arena.
The educated man who seeks to console
himself for his own lack of the robust
qualities necessary to bring success in
American politics by moaning over the
degeneracy of the times instead of trying
TO better them, by railing at the men who
do the actual work of political life instead
OF trying himself TO do the work, Is q poor
creature, and. SO far as his feeble powers
avail, is a damage and not a help TO the
country.
Like most other things OF value, educa-
ton is good only in so far as 1t Is used
Alright. and If 1t is misused or Il II causes
the owner to be so puffed up with pride as
to make him misestimate the relative
values of things 1t becomes a harm, not a
benefit.
Cannot Control Trusts.
There has been a curious revival OF the
doctrine of state rights by the. people who
know the states cannot with justice to
both sides practically control the corpora
lions. and who therefore advocate such
control because they do not venture to ex-
press their real wish. which Is that there
shall be no control at all. Honest and fair
dealing railway corporations will gain and
not lose by adequate federal control.
But those who invoke the doctrine OF
state rights to protest state corporate ere
atoms In predatory activities extended
through otner states are dS sHoTt-SiBnleu
as those who once invoked the same doc
trine TO protect the special slayehoiding
interest.
State rights should be preserved when
they mean the peoples rights, but not
when they mean the peoples wrongs; not.
for instance, when they are invoked to
prevent the abolition of child labor, or to
break the force of the laws which pro-
hibit the importation of contract labor to
this country; in short, not when they
stand for wrong or oppression of any kind
or for national weakness or impotence at
home or abroad.