Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-05-03
CLASS RULE FATAL.
PRESIDENT GIVES WARNING AT
JAMESTOWN.
In Ex position speech Says Eud of
Republic VIII Come when Gov
eminent Is in Hands of Either
Plutocrucy or Mob Instead OF All.

President Roosevelt's speech at the
opening of the tcrcentcnnial exposition
at jamestown was an appeal to national
pride to preserve the republic by avoid
ing the fatal error of class rule"
"Other nations have fallen" he said,
because the citizens gradually grew to
consider the interests of n class before
the interests of the whole; for when such
was the case it mattcred little whether it
was the poor who plundored the rich or
the rich who exploited the poor. In eth
er event the end Of the republic was at
hand.
w are resolutc in our purpose moi to
fall in such Il pit. This great republic
of ours never shall become the govern
ment of a plutocracy and it never shall
become a government Of the mob.
God willing. it shall remain what our
fathers who founded it meant it to be. a
government whore each man stands on
his worth as II man and where we strive
to give every man n fair chance to show
the stuff that is in him."
Avoiding politics, in the accepted sense
Of the word, he devoted his address to
history, reviewing the founding of the
nation, giving especial credit to the Eng
liah, but calling attention to the fact
that the blood of many peoples lows in
the veins of the typical American. He
then referred to Our national problems.
saying that the struggles in times of
peace are as great and as important as
those of war. The President spoke in
part as follows:
AT the outset ! wish to say a word OF
special greeting to the representative of
the foreign governments here present, They
have come to assist US in celebrating what
was in very truth the birthday Of this ma
ton, for it was here that the colonistS first
settled whose incoming, whose growth from
their OWN loins and by the action Of new
Corners from abroad was to make the DcO-
pie which 1863 years later assumed the sol
emn responsibility and Weighty duties of
complete Independence.
In welcoming all of YOU ! must say a
special word, first to the representatives of
the people of Great Britain and Ireland.
The fact that so many Of our people, of
whom as it happens l myself am one, have
but a very snail portion OF English blood
in our veins, in no way alters the other
fact that This nation was founded by Eng
lishmen. by the Cavalier and Puritan.
Let us further greet all Of you, The rep
resentUtives OF che. people Of Continental
Europe, From almost every nation of Eu-
rope we have drawn. some part of our
blood. some part Of Our traits.
Again. let me bid you welcome. repre-
sonratives of our sister republics of this
continent. In the larger aspect. your in
terests and ours are identical. Your prob
lens and ours are in a large part the same;
and as we strive to settle them. ! pledge
you herewith on the part of this nation
the heartiest friendship and good viii.
Finally, let me say a special word of
greeting to those representatives of the
Asiatic nations who make up that newest
East which is yet the most ancient East,
the East of time immemorial. In p~articu.
lar, let me express a word OF hearty vel
come to the representative of the mighty
island empire of Japan, that empire which,
in learning from the West, has shown that
1T has so much, so very much to teach the
West in return.
First English Settlement.
We have met to-day to celebrate the open
ing of the exposition which itself commeul
crates the first permanent settlement of
men of our stock in Virginia, the first be
ginning of what has since become this
mighty Republic. Three hundred years ago
a handful of English adventurers, who had
crossed the ocean in what we should call
cookie boats, as clumsy as they were fTail,
landed in the great wooded wilderness, the
Indian haunted waste, which then stretched
down to the waters edge along the entire
Atlantic coast.
Hitherto each generation among us had
its allotted task-now heavier, now lighter.
In the Revolutionary War the business was
to achieve independence. Immediately af-
terward there was an even more moment
Gus task-that to achieve the national unity
and the capacity for orderly development,
without which our liberty. our independ-
enIe would have been a curse and not a
blessing. In each Of these two contests,
while there were many leaders from many
different States, it is but fair to say that
the foremost place was taken by the states
men of Virginia and to Virginia was re-
served the honor Of producing the hero
of both movements-rhe hero of the war,
and Of the peace which made good the
result Of the war-George Washington
while the two great political tendencies
of the time can be symbolized by the
names of two other great Virginians. JEFF
ferson and Marshall. from one Of whom
we inherit the abiding trust in the peo-
pie which is the foundation stone OF de
mocracy, and from the other the po-