Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-10
GOOD CITIZENS EVERYWHERE
In Fundamentals They Are Just
About the Same, With the
Essential Shortcomings
and Good Qualities,
He Says.

Va, June 10-Brought back to the James
town exposition by the formal opening of
Bulloch Hall, the ancestral home Of his
here as the Georgia state building, Presi-
dent Roosevelt today Is, for the second
time. the central figure of an attractive
exposition program.
Outside of the features arranged in
connection with the celebration Of Georgia
day, the military and naval spectacle was
not greatly dissimiliar to that which
marked the visit of the President when
the exposition was thrown open on April
26. He will be the guest of the exposition
for about nine hours. arriving with
special party, including Mrs. Roosevelt,
on the Mayhower at am. After re-
ceiving the Georgia officials on board, and,
with them as his guests, reviewing the
was landed at the exposition grounds at
about IL o'clock. He made a speech as a
part Of the Georgia day exercises in the
afternoon, which was as follows:
am at the action of the state of Georgia.
draw half the blood in my veins. in erecting
as the Georgia state house at the James
town exposition a replica of my grand
fathers house at Roswell, Ga; the house
in which my mother passed her youth and
where she was married to my father. 1t
is an act Of gracious courtesy and consider
alton which 1 very deeply appreciate: and
through the governor and other representa-
tives Of Georgia l desire from my heart
to thank all her citizens Georgia's his
tory Is unique. for she alone among the
original thirteen colonies and the subse-
Quent new states added thereto was found
ed with a consciously benevolent purpose,
with the deliberate intent to benefit man.
kind by upholding q commonwealth along
carefully planned lines of social, political
and religious liberty and justice. Ogle-
thorpe, the founder of Georgia, was true
apostle of philanthropy and Of equality
of opportunity for all. His set purpose
was to found a state the gates Of which
should be open to the oppressed Of every
land and creed. and closed to every form
of political, religious or industrial bondage
or persecution. His colony welcomed alike
those who fled from political or social
tyranny and those, whether Christian or
Jew who sought liberty for conscience's
sake 1t was a high and honorable begin
ming; and I am proud, indeed Of my Geor-
gian ancestry, anf Of the fact that my
grandfathers grandfather, Archibald Bull
loch, was the first governor. or as the title
then went, president of the new state,
when the continental Congress. of which he
was also a member declared that the thir-
teen states had became new and indie
pendent nation. Since then Georgia has
grown at a rate even more astounding
than the rate of growth of the nation as
whole; her sons have stood high in every
field of activity. intellectual or PHYSICAL
and rapid though her progress has been in
the past, it bids fair to be even greater
in the wonderful new century which has
now fairly opened.
Half Southern-Half Northern.
Perhaps the very fact that I am half
southern and half northern in blood, and
that for many years 1 was brought into
peculiarly close association with the life
of the great west, makes it natural for me
to feel with intensity the strong sense of
kinshp with every portion of our great
common country. which should be the
birhright of every true American. Since
have been President 1 have visited every
state and territory within the borders of
the oiilOii, save SUCH DIS Cali only De reached
by sea. 1 have Travelled from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, from the great lakes to the
gulf. l have spoken at country fairs to COL
leges, to commercial and business organrza-
tons, to associations of professional men
to labor organizations, to men of every
creed and parentage. The thing that has
struck me most has been the essential one
| ness, the essential unity Of our people.
In the fundamentals 1 have found Ameri-
can citizens to be just about the same
everywhere. In whatever locality of the
country we live, whatever our fortune or
occupation In life. there exist Just about
the same essential good qualities and much
the same shortcomings In any gathering of
our citizens. OF course. each community has
its especial temptations, its especial short
coInlngs; and II 1t Is wise each community
VIII try to cure itself rather than to cause
heartburnings by railing at the shortcom-
lngs OF sister community There ia am
pie neid for the reform energies Of every
one Of us in his or her particular snbere
or home and neighoorhood activity.
Opposing Forces.
Not only Is all of this true as between
one community and another, but it is lust
as true between one class of our citizens
and another. Now and then we meet we'll
meaning people who have a genuine horror
and dread of all rich men and think of them
as being set apart by peculiar vice and in
iquity. Now and then we meet equally
well meaning rich men who have an eouanv
irrational dread of those whom they STYLE
labor leaders," In each case I think the
hostility is in large part due to a want of
sympathy caused by complete ignorance Of
the men who arouse such distrust or anger
AS a matter of fact, If We take a given
number of men of large fortune and a like
number Of wage workers. we find that in
their essential human nature they are all
alike In each group We find men as wise
and as FOOLISH as good and as bad as in
the other group Such being the case 1t is
certainly well that. so far as possible, when
the men of given group. as a whole act
In way that we deem contrary to the pub
lie interest, We should treat the action as
wrong to be remedied rather than as a
wrong to be avenged. We ought not to toll
crate wrong. 1t Is a sign of weakness to
do so. and in its ultimate effects weakness
Is often quite as bad wickedness. But
In putting stop to the wrong we should, so
FAR as possible. avoid getting into an atti-
tude of vindictive hatred toward the wrong
doer. He may be morally to blame, and 1t
may be necessary to punish him; but, on
the other hand. the wrong he has committed
may simply be due to the existing condi-
ton of things, to conditions under which he
has been brought up; and in such a case,
while We must apply the remedy, and see
that there is no further chance Of harm to
the community, 1t Is neither just nor far
sighted to exact revenge for what has been
done In short. friends let us realize that