The Mena weekly star., 1910-09-08
JOHN BROWN PARK
 GIVEN ID KANSAS
Address by Theodore Roosevelt
 Closes the Ceremonies.
GREAT DAY FOR osAwATo.IE.
Standing Where Battle of osawatomIe Wse Fought, Ex-President Gives
 Hla ideas of Freedom and Good Government.

A Good Government.
 osawatomie. Kan. Aug. s1.--This
 was Osawatomie's great day, for
 which the citizens have been prepar- Ing for months--the closing day of the dedication ceTemonies at John Brown park. Today the park of 22 acres.
 on the site of the battle of osawato
 mic. fought on Aug 30. 1856, was for
 maIly presented to the state. and the
 dedicatory oration was delivered by
 Theodore Roosevelt.
 1 Preliminary exercises were held | yesterday. and the program was re-
 sumed at 10;30 this morning with concert by the Thirteenth Regiment band, followed by drill by troops oi the Kansas National guard and the regular army. Meanwhile Col. Roose- velt's train had arrived and all the thousands of people assembled here went to the station to greet him After dinner all gathered in the new park. where there was a parade by the soldiery. the Grand Army Woman's Relief corps and civic so- cieties and another band concert Then. after vocal solo by Miss Eliz- abeth Uhls and an invocation, the president of the board of trustees, Cora M. Deputy. formally presented the park 10 the state on behalf of the Woman's Relief corps of Kansas, which bought the ground. Governor Stubbs responded gracefully for the state, and then the chairman, J. B. Remington, introduced the distin- guished orator of the day. former President Roosevelt
 oratlon by Colonel Roosevelt.
 Col. Roosevelt stocd silent and sni. inB until the storm of applause hao died down, and then srcke as follows
 There have been two great crises in our country's history, first when 1t wne formed. and then again when 1t was per petuatcd- The formative period included not merely the Revolutionary war, buA the creation and adoption of the consa- under it. Then came sixty years during which we spread across tho continent years of vital growth. but of growth with out rather than growth within Then oame the time of stress and strain which cuiminated in the Civil war, the period of terrible struggle upon tho issss of which depended the justification of al that we had done earlier and which marked the second great period of growth and development within The name of John Brown will be forever associated with this second period of tho Notions history: s=1 Kansas -s. sA> theAtes upon which the first act of the second of our great National life dramas was play ed It was the result of the struggle In Kansas which dsterminod that our coun- try should Do in deed as as well as in name devoted to both unson and freedom. that the greet experiment. ef deusocratic government on a National scats should succeed and not fall n was . heroic struggle; and. as is inevitable with ail such struggles 1t had also a dara and terrible side. Very much was done of good, and much also of evil; and, as was inevitable in such period of revolution. often the same man did both good and evil. For our great good fortune as a Nation. we, the people of the United States as whole. can now afford to for get the evil. or at least to remember 1t without bitterness. and to fix our eyea with pride on the good that was accom- pfshed. Even in ordinary times there are very few of us who do not see the problems of life as through glass. darkly; and when the glass Is ciouded by the murk of furious popular passion. the vision of the best and the Sravest Is dimmed Looking back. we are all of US now able to do justice to the yalor and the disinterestedness and the love of inc right as to each it was given to see the right, shown beth 5y shs men cT thc north and tho men of the south in that contest which was finally decided by the attitude of tho west. we can ndmire the heroic vaior, the sincerity. the seif-devotion a k2x olue and the men who wore the gray: and our sadness that such men should have had to fight one another is temp cred by the glad knowledge that ever hereafter their descendants shall be found lighting side by side, struggling in peace as we'll as in war for the uplift of their common country, eli alike rssolute to raise to the highest pitch of honor and usefulness the Nation to which they all belong. AS for the veterans of tho Grand Army of the Republic. they deserve honor and recognition such as Is paid to no other citizens of tho Republic; for to them the Republic owes its all for to them it owes It's very existence.
 Application of the Lesson.
 do not speak of this struggle Of the past merely from the historic standnoint Our interest is primarily in the appltca- tion today of the lessons taught by the -SAAe~% VA AaAA . century ago It Is Of bttie use for us Co pay lip loyalty to the mighty men of tho past unless we sin- cereiy endeavor to aprly Co the problems of the present precisely the qualities which in other crises enabled the men of that day to meet those crises. It is half melancholy and half amusing to see the way in which well-meaning people gather to do honor to the men who in company with John Brown. and under the lead. of l Abraham Lincoln, facod and solved the great problems of the nineteenth cen tury, while at the same time these same | good people nervousiy shrink from or | fraEticaily denounce those who are try l Ing 10 meet the problems of the twentieth | In the spirit which was accountable for | the successful solution of the problems Of | Lncoln's time.
 or that generation of men. to whom we | owe so much, the man to whom we owe | the most is. of course, Lincoln Part Of | our debt to him is because he forecast | ouy present struggle and savv fhe xvav r,,,f