Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-10-10
SPEAKS AT KEOKUK.
ROOSEVELT INSISTS THERE is
BUT ONE LAW FOR ALL.
Ieiis Iowans Common Good Must
Come Ahead of Financier's Wishes
-Favors Improving Water Ways
TO Give Cheap Transportation.

The great movement for a deep water
way from Chicago to the gulf was given
new impetus when President Roosevelt
arrived in Keokuk, made an address and
embarked on a steamboat for the trip
to st. Louis. From there he went to
Memphis, where he addressed the dele
gates to the Deep Waterways convention.
The President was introduced By Gov.
Cummins of Iowa. Mr.. Roosevelt said,
in part:
1 believe so implicitly in the future of
our people, because l believe that the av-
yerage American citizen will no more toll
crate government by a mob than ne will
tolerate government by a plutocracy; that
ne desires to see justice done and justice
exacted from rich man and poor man alike.
We are not trying to favor any man at the
expense Of his fellows. We are trying TO
shape things so that as far as possible
each man shall have a fair chance in life;
SO that he shall have. so far as by law
this can be accomplished. the chance to
show the stuff that there is in him.
therefore we need wise laws, and we
need to have them FeSolutely administered.
At intervals during the last few months
the appeal has been made to me not TO en-
force the law against certain wrongdoers
of great wealth because TO do so would in
terfere with the business prosperity of the
SOuuIIS OuueT the eHecIS OF IDaL KIM
fright, which when sufficiently acute we call
panic, this appeal has been made to me
even by men who ordinarily behave as de-
cent citizens.
I do not admit that this has been the
main cause of any business troubles we
have had but it is possible that it has
been contributory cause. If so, friends,
as far as | am concerned it must be
cepted as disagreeable but unavoidable
feature in a course of policy which as long
as am President will not be changed
In each case the answer must be that
we earnestly hope and believe that there
viii be no permanent damage to business
from the movement but that if righteous
ness conflicts with the fancied needs of
business, then the latter must go to the
wall.
If a man does well, if he acts honestly,
he has nothing to fear from this admins
tration But so far as in me lies the cor
rupt politician, great or small, the private
citizen who transgresses the law-be he rich
or poor-Shall be brought before the impair
tial justice of a court.
l feel that we cannot have too many
highroadS and that in addition to the iron
highroads of our railway system we should
also utilize the great river highways which
have been given us by nature. From a
variety of causes these highways have in
many parts of the country been almost
abandoned. This is not healthy. Our peo-
pie, and especially the representatives of
the people in the national congress, should
give their most careful attention to this
subject. We should be prepared to put
the nation collectively back of the move
ment to improve them for the nations use
Our knowledge at this time is not such
as to permit me to go into details or to
say definitely just what the nation should
do; but most assuredly our great navigable
rivers are national assets just as much as
our great seacoast harbors.
Exactly as it is for the interest OF all
the country that our great harbors should
be fitted to receive in safety the largest
vessels of the merchant fleets of the world
so by deepening and otherwise our rivers
should be fitted to bear their part in the
movement of our merchandise, and this is
especially true of the Mississippi and its
tributaries which drain the immense and
prosperous region which makes in very
fact the heart of our nation the basin of
the great lakes being already united with
the basin of the Mississippi and both re-
gions being identical in their products and
interests. Waterways are peculiarly itteG
for the transportation of the bulky com
modities which come from the soil or under
the soil, and no other part of our country
is as fruitful as is this in such commodi
ties.
At present the ordinary farmer holds
his own in the land as against any possible
representative of the landlord class of farm
er-that~is, of the men who would own vast
estates-becauSe the ordinary farmer unites
his capital, his labor and his brains with
the making of a permanent family home,
and thus can afford to hold his land at
value at W<slch 1t cannot be neld by the
capitalist who would have to run it by
leasing it or by cutivating it at arms
length with hired labor
"There is one thing I put next to a
good Citizen" said the President, land
that is a good mother. l am pleased to
see the children"
A number of war veterans had met
the President at the station and marched
in the parade to the park, and to these
wearers of the blue the President also
paid compliment, saying:
81 am particularly glad to be welcomed
by the veterans"
President Roosevelt interposed several
remarks into his address.
He touched on the subject of undesira-
BILE citizens briefly, saying:
"You will remember that a year ago |
expressed my opinion of certain undesir-
able citizens and | stand by what l said.
He added that he would always con-
denim the man that incites to murder and
would demand punishment for that Of
Tense, as he would for the crimes of the
corporation criminals.
At the conclusion of his address the
President was presented with a gold
headed cane by the negroes Of Keokuk.