The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-31
NO TURNING BACK
President Roosevelt Promises to
Keep Up His Fight
For Strict Regulation OF Rail-
roads by the Government.
MEMORIAL DAY TALK.
Is Devoted Almost Wholly to
Outlining His Policy.
Speaks at dwelling of the
LaWtOn Monument.
MEMORIAL DAY TALK.

Indianapolis, Ind, May 31.-Out
lining his policy toward the railroads
in his address at the unwilling of {
monument to General Henry w. Law
ton here on Memorial Day, Presiden
Roosevelt reiterated his previously ex-
pressed. views touching federal regu
laton, prevention of vercapitalization
safeguarding issues of securities anc
keeping railroad attorneys and operat-
ing heads out of politics. and declared
that he would go ahead along those
lines.
He asserted that existing securities
were not to be impaired and that he
believed the railroads of the country
worth at least as much as their pres
ent capitalization.
The president said:
For more than one reason 1 am
peculiarly glad that this year L speak
on Memorial day in the state of In
diana. There is no other class of our
citizens to whom we owe so much as
TO the veterans of the great war To
them it was given to perform the one
feat with which no other feat can be
compared. for to them it was given to
. preserve the Union. Moreover. you
men who wore the blue. blessed be-
yond the victors in any other war of
recent times have left to your country
men more than the material results
of the triumph, more even than the
achieving the triumph itself. You
have left country so genuinely re-
united that all of us now, in whatever
part of this Union we live, have
right to feel the keenest pride not
only in the valor and self devotion of
you, the gallant men who wore the
blue, but also in the valor and self
devotion of your gallant opponents
WI n he VI
monument we today unveil. by his life
bore singular testimony to the COM
pleteness of the reunion. General
Lawton in his youth fought gallantly
in the Civil war. Thirty-three years
afterward he again marched to war.
this time against a foreign foe, and
served with distinguished ability and
success as a general officer, both in
Cuba and in the Philippines. When
he thus served it was in an army
whose generals included not only
many of his old comrades in arms, but
some of his old opponents also, as
General wheeler and General F1tz-
hugh Lee. Under him, both among
the commissioned officers and in the
ranks, were many men whose fathers
had worn the blue serving side by side
with others whose fathers had worn
the gray; but all Americans now, and
nothing but Americans. all united in
their fealty and devotion to their |
common flag and their common cOun- !
try, and each knowing only the .gener- |
Gus rivalry with his fellows as to who |
could best serve the cause for which |
each was ready to lay down life itself |
To General Lawton it befell actually |
to lay down his life; a tragedy. but one |
of those noble tragedies where our /
pride rises above our sorrow. For he |
died in the fullness of time, serving |
his country with entire devotion-a |
death that every man may we'll envy. |
Indiana in the War
Indiana in the Civil war furnished |
even more than her share of brave
soldiers. 1t also fell to Indiana to
furnish the greatest of all the war
governors who upheld the hands of
Abraham Lincoln; for when history
definitely awards the credit for what
was done in the Civil war she will
put the services of no other civilian, |
save alone those of Lincoln, ahead of
the services OF Governor Morton. No
other man who rendered such services
rs he rendered worked under such ter
rible disadvantages. and no man with
what he achieved during the last two
years of the war. when he managed
the state government of Indiana solely
on money obtained by pledging his
own personal honor and personal for
tune; and yet never for one moment
relaxed the help he gave to Lincoln
and Chase and Seward and Stanton in
the cabinet, to Grant and Sherman
u.
It was work that only the strongest
man could have done. and it was work
7itally necessary for the sake of the
nation to do.
The men of the generation which
fought the civil war had their great
tasks to perform. They met them as
strong men should have met them
They did them, and we. their children,
profit by their mighty deeds. But no
generation can ever plead the great ;
leeds of its predecessors as an excuse
,or falling to perform its own duties.
Dur duties are those of peace and not
IF war. Nevertheless they are of the
Utmost Importance; of Importance to
ourselves and of still greater import
ince to the children who in a few years
Will take our places as the men and
women of this republic. If we wish to
how ourselves worthy heirs of the men
II the civil war, we must do our tasks
With the thoroughness with which they
lid theirs.
Great social and industrial problems
confront us, and their solution demands
N our part unfaltering courage, and
-et a wise, goOd-natured self-restraint;