The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-31
ROOSEVELT TO EDITORS.
Says No Other Body of His Country
men Weld Such Influence.

Says No Other Body of His Country
men Weld Such Influence.
Editors from all parts of the Uni
ted States assembled in the Auditor.
ium Building at the Jamestown EX-
position. They were members of the
National Editorial Association, which
held it's annual convention there. The
chief feature was the address Of
| President Roosevelt, who spoke as
follows:
1T is of course a mere truism to
say that no other body of our
trymen WELD as extensive IN infiu-
ence as those who write for the daily
press and for the periodicals. 1t is
also a truism to say that such power
implies the gravest responsibility,
and the mar exercisingit should hold
himself accountable, and should be
held by others accountable, pre-
cisely as if he occupied any
other position Of public trust.
I do not intend to dwell upon
your duties to-day, however, save
that ! shall permit myself to point
out one matter where it seems to me
that the need of our people is vital.
1t is essential that the man in public
life and the man who writes in the
public press shall both of them, if
they are really good servants Of the
people, be prompt to assail wrongdo-
ing and w%ickedness. But in thus as
sailing wrongdoing and wickedness
there are two conditions to be full
filled, because if unfulflled harm and
not good will result. In the first
place, be sure of your facts and avoid
everything like hysteria OF exaggera-
ton; for to assail a decent man for
something of which he is innocent is
to give aid and comfort to every
%scoundrel, while indulgence in hys-
terical exaggeration erves to weak
en-, not strengthen, the statement Of
truth. In the second place, be sure
that you base your judgment on con-
duct, and not on the social or eco
nomic position of the individual with
whom you are dealing. There are
good and bad men in every walk of
life, and their being good or bad does
not depend upon whether they have
OF do not have large bank accounts.
Yet this elemental fact, this fact
which we all accept as s~elf-evident,
when we think each of us of the peo-
pie whom he himself knows in his
business and social relations, is often
completely ignored by certain public
men and certain public writer's. The
men who thus ignore it and who at
tack wickedness only when found in
a particular class are always unsafe
and are sometimes very dangerous
leaders. Distrust equally the man
who is never able to discover any
vices of rich men to attack and the
man who confines himself to attack
ing the sins and shortcomings of rich
men. 1t is a sure sign Of moral and
mental dishonesty in any man
if in his public assaults upon
iniquity he is never able to see any
iniquity save that of a particular
class; and this whether he is able to
see the crimes of arrogance and OPP
preston in the rich or the crimes of
envy and violence in the poor. He is
no true American if he is a respecter
of persons where right and wrong are
concerned. and if he fails to de-
nounce the demagogue no less than
the corruptionist, to denounce alike
crimes of organized greed and crimes
of brutal violence. There is equal
need to denounce the wealthy man
who swindles investors or buys legis-
latures or Expresses wage workers,
and the needy man who inhames
class hatred or incites mob violence.
We need to hold the scales of justice
even, and to weigh them down on
one side is as bad as to weigh them
down on the other"