Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-09-15


sources; the amendment of the public
land system; the execution of the pure
food law; and all the rest of the i'm
portant matters that should demand
attention, make the legislative and
executive labor of the next three years
heavy enough, if our purposes are car
ried out, to exhaust the energy of the
most enthusiastic and hopeful.
Still the world is making progress
cur country is making progress. Oc-
OCCASIONALLY one hears note like that
of Governor Johnson, denouncing the
East and calling upon the West TO or
ganize in a sectional way against the
East because the East is deriving more
benefit from the governmental policy
than the West, and at the expense OF
the West. 1t is difficult for one to
treat such an appeal seriously.
Throughout the country there is frea
trade of the freest character; and due
to this the pros perity of the West es-
pecially the agricultural West, is even
more pronounced than that of the East.
Moreover the East is too close to the
Pacific coast too close to the Middle
West. too close to the Rocky Noun
tains, because all the people of these
Western stretches have Eastern an
cestry and Eastern associations and
Eastern connections. and because they
have Eastern capital with which their
sections have been largely built up.
and because they are too much assist
ed by Eastern markets in enhancing
the prices which their products bring,
to make such an attempt at sectionat-
ism successful.
1T is true that at times public ques-
lions Will be given q local color by
what is thought to be local benefit,
as distinguished from the general and
the rational benefit. But such attitude
Is generally temporary and it takes
bat q few years of business experience,
it takes but a panic or two, to present
the convincing evidence that in this
country we are all in the same business
boat. and that the prosperity of one
section adds to the prosperity of the
other, and that business disaster in
one section is only the forerunner of
business depression and disaster in an
other.
4 was born and brought up in the
Middle West. / have had a New Eng
land ancestry and New England asso-
Citations. Fortune threw me out into the
Pacific so that / know something of
the feelings of the West coast Juris-
dlction as a judge gave me some
what intimate knowledge of Southern
feelings and Southern aspirations.
feel. therefore. as if I could speak with
confluence in respect to the whole ma
ton. and as President of the United
states may well lift up my voice to
protest against any effort, by whom
ever to arouse section against section
and Americans against Americans. Not
in the history of the country since the
war has the feeling between the North
and the South been more cordial and
friendly than it is today and political
attempts to make cleavage between
NewEneland and the East on the one
SIDE and the West on the other, will be
found to be so utterly hopeless as to
cmfound those who propose it.
And now, my friends and fellow
citizens as / take my departure for the
west, feel that l carry from you to |
every citizen and inhabitant of the |
United States whom / shall meet, the |
cordial greetings of New England and |
the East. your congratulations on the |
Prospective prosperity in the whole |
country, and an earnest wish that the |
national government shall be conducted |
Ill such way as to insure peace with |
all the nations of the world and tran
guilty and prosperity at home, grow
ing out of the conduct of business on
lines of commercial integrity. and with
in the law which forbids the organiZa-
ton and maintenance of monopoles
and the systematic suppression of COM
petition. Things are not perfect: but
we have made progress. We have a
right to be optimistic and believe that
further progress is likely; that condi-
ions are improving and that we may
continue to maintain for all citizens
II the country that equality of oppor-
unity which it is the highest object of
wen conducted government to pre-
serve"
the President was applauded loudly
It the close of his address. Under !
'seort 81 the receptiefs committee and ;
Re NationGli5Ianeeryi shesr passed {
through the dining rocm to the street !.