The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-02-13
The Speech Recently Delivered by President Roosevelt at
the Nations Capital Before Methodist Body
Provokes Reply. #
PROF. J. c. MONAGHAN CHALLENGES STATEMENTS
The President Declared That the British Administration of
India is the Most Successful Since Fall of
the Roman Empire

I have neither desire nor purpo Sc
to poke fun at so sober and seem
irgly carefully prepared a paper as
the one printed below and delivered
by Mr.. Roosevelt, before a body of
Washington, d. c. 1t is Il tissue of
Inaccuracies, historical and otherwise,
from end to end. writes Prof. j. c.
Monaghan in the Catholic Telegraph.
When he says the Indians are
more numerous now, than they were
III the days OF Columbus, 1t is provoca-
tive of laughter. AS far back as 1925,
Charles Sprague, u Boston writer. was
panied to say: "As a race they have
withered from the land--their arrows
are broken. their springs are dried UP.
their cabins are in the dust. Slowly
hut surely they climb the distant noun
tains and read their doom In the set
ting sun. Soon they will sec the last
wave that is to roll over them and blot
them out forever"
And yet. Mr.. Roosevelt talks OF in
creased numbers! Where are they?
Here? Look around you for the tribes
Of the Great Nations of New York,
for the IronuoiS, the Mohawks, the AL
gonquins, the Senecas, for the tribes
that peopled our hills and valleys,
hunted in the foreHts and tlshed in the
rivers.
What Mr.. Roosevelt might have sal ]
."as this: that in Mexico, Central and
South America, the Indians are more
numerous than in the days OF Colum-
bus. The savage ca Spaniard lid
not destroy as did the Anglo Sax II
What Mr.. Roosevelt has failed to read
or find out about missions and mis-
sionary work is contained in such !ig
books as those edited by Reuben &
Thwaits, of Wisconsin. called the
tell a mean lie. when doing justice to
the Methodists.
Here is what Mr.. Roosevelt said af-
ter writing it. Had 1t been an en-
temporaneous utterance one need not
say a word; but since it is the DELHI
crate thought, prepared address, it will
have to stand all the sturdy kicks aid
cuffs it H. sure to get at the feet and
hands of real historians, to which class
Mr.. Roosevelt never did, and never
will, belong.
What he says about our purposes
and policies in the Philippines, what
he says about England in India is too
silly for comment. Had he selectad
Egypt, one might be able to say he
was right; or, If not right, not en-
tirely wrong. But India! Think Of it!
Not dollar goes to England? When
and where did he get authority for t'lat
statement? Why the cry has been the
cruelty with which india has been
drained Of her treasures to make t;.e
| fortunes Of the East India Company
and thousands Of English adventures
enough Of this. 1t is all Of a piece
With the kind Of historical (?) writ
ing for which Mr.. Roosevelt is now
famous. 1t is painful and pitifrl
spectacle this movement Of the Meth
odists among the people Of our Island
possessions. but pitiful and painful rs
that is, it is more, much more pitiful
and painful to see the President OF the
United States writing his big o. X
across their work. ......
Mr.. RooseveIt's Address.
There is one feature In the expaa.
SION of the peoples Of white, or Eu.
ropean, blood during the last four cen.
turies which should never be lost sigh
Of, especially by those who denounce
such expansion on moral grounds. nr
the. whole, the movement has beer
fraught with lasting benefit to mos
of the peoples already dwelling in tn.
lands over which the expansion tool
place.
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