Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-05-02
CLASS RULE FATAL.
PRESIDENT GIVES WARNING AT
JAMESTOWN.
In Exposition speech Says End of
Republic Will Come When Gov
PIutocracy Mob Instead of All.

President Rooseyelt's speech at the
opening of the tercentennial 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 class before
the interests of the whole: for when such
was the case it mattered little whether it
was the poor who plundered the rich or
the rich who exploited the poor. In eth
er event the end of the republic was at
hand.
1--WE are resolute in our purpose not to
fall in such a pit. This great republic
of ours never shall become the govern
ment of 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 where each man stands on
his worth as man and where we strive
to give every man a 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
lish, but calling attention to the fact
that the blood of many peoples flows 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 1 wish to say a word of
special greeting to the representatives 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 peo-
pie which 169 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 1t happens l myself am one, have
but very small 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
resentatiVes of the 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-
sentatives 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 will.
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 mmemorial. In particu-
lar, let me express a word of hearty well
come to the representative of the mighty
island empire of Japan, that empire which,
In learning from the West, has shown that
it has SO much, SO very much to teach the
West in return.