Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-09-01
PROGRESSIVE WEST IS
PRAISED BYROOSEVEL7
Vigorous Speech by Former President
Is Climax of Great Frontier DAYS
Celebration at Cheyenne, Wyo.---
Cattle Range Men Warmly Greet
Their Old Associate.

Cheyenne. Wyo, Aug. 27.-The
great virfle virtues of the men who
have built up the west formed the
theme Of speech which Theodore
Roosevelt delivered here today before
thousands of those same men and
thiT successors. He arrived in the
private car Republic abou 1920
O'Clock this morning and was at once
taken IN charge by reception com
mittee and mounted escort of a thou
sand cowboys and cowgirls who shout
ed and caYorted as the former Epresi-
dent and one-time ranchman alighted
from the train.
Mr.. Rooseyelt's visit and the speech
he delivered later in the day formed
the elimination of the annual Frontier
Days celebration which had attracted
TO the city thousands of persons from
all parts of the west and a large num-
Der Of tourists from more distant sec
tions Of the country.
Colonel RooseveIt's Speech.
Out in the open air, under the blue
sky, vast crowd assembled to hear
the former president speak, and it
heard one of the most important
speeches he has made since leaving
the White House. His address was as
follows:
When. at the close of my hunting trip
IN Africa. I reached the borders of civili-
cation, the first invitation I accepted was
this to visit the capital of Wyoming on
the day when the people of the frontier,
came together to commemorate their
achievements; I was glad it was so. be
cause I have peculiar feeling for the
men and women of what used to be called
the Far West" and especially for those
of the cattle country. For a number of
years ] lived on a ranch on the Little
Missouri, sharing work and play good
fortune and bad fortune, with my neigh
bors working on the roundup, serving
as delegate from the Little Missouri
roundup district to the Montana Stock
~rowers' association, and even at times
cting as deputy sheriff at my end of the
county. / count those years as among
the most valuable of my life, because
nothing breeds such community of feeling
as to work with ones feIowmeu at their
life tasks, and to learn to know their
feelings by actually sharing them. The
man Of the west, throughout the success
sive stages of western growth, has al
ways been one of the two or three most
typical fgures-indeed. I am tempted to
say the most typical figure-in American
life. and no man can really understand
our country and appreciate what it really
IS and what it promises unle he has
the fullest and closest sympathy with the
ideals and aspirations of the west. The
prime reason for this is to be found in
the fact the westeruer is so good an
American. He IS an American first and
foremost; for this is the great lesson.
friends, that all of US need to learn and
to keep, the lesson that It is unimportant
whether man lives north or south. east
or west, provided he is genuinely and in
good faith an American. that he feels
every part of the United States as his
own, and that he is honestly DESTROYS to
uphold the interests of all other Ameri-
cans in whatever sections of the country
they may dwell.
A hundred years ago. when men spoke
OF the west they meant the country be
tween the Alleghanies and the Mississippi.
Fifty years ago the white mans west
took in Minnesota. Iowa and Kansas, and
then skipped across to California and
Oregon. The country of the great plains
and the Rockies, the country in which
YOU whom am now addressing lead your
lives and do your work, has grown up
within my own lifetime l myself saw
and took part in the closing years of the
pioneer period, and 1t was my great priv
ilege to work side by side with the pio-
neers-the ranChmen, the miners, the
cow-punchers the mule-s6inners. the bull
whaCkers-who actually opened up the
country. have seen the herds and floclls
of the cattlemen and sheepmen supplant
the game: I have seen the fortunate
movement by which the small farm has
tended gradually to take the place of the
great unfenCed ranch | now travel in
every comfort on railways across lands
which. when I first rode across them,
were still the home of the Indian and the
buffalo; and I find cities where one can
obtain not merely comfort, but luxury, in
the places where thirty years ago there
was not a building beyond a log hut or
dobie house The men who did this work
were enga ged in the final stages of con-
quering the continent; and it was their
privilege to do one of the great works of
all time. to do their part in the perform
ance of an epic feat in the history of the
progress of mankind
West Stands for Progress.
have used the word progress. The
west stands for growth, for progress. So
must the whole American people stand.
4 great democracy must be progressive
or II will soon cease to be either great
or democratic. No nation. no state. no
party. can stand still It must either go
forward or go backward; and 1t becomes
useless II fe-goes backward. Therefore l
greet you, men of the west and l stand
Tor progress as all men must stand who
are progressive.
The pioneers and their immediate sue
Cessors won victory only by proving that
they possessed the great, masterful quail
lies which lie at the foundation OF Ma
tional greatness. There are certain we'll
meaning men of intellectual cultivation,
hut lacking mental and moral robustness.
who complain continually that they find
American life, and especially the life of
those American communities emerging
from the pioneer stage, crude and with
out genius or beauty. Genius is a fine
thing for nation. but character is q still
finer thing, and though beauty is good,
strength is an even greater good. The
men who have made this great republic
of the west what it is, and especially the
men who have turned it into a continental
commonwealth, have possessed in the
highest degree the great viriie virtues of
strength courage. energy. and undaunted
and unwavering resolution. Their typical
leaders-of whom Abraham Lincoln
though the most exceptional. was the
most typical-have possessed keen intel
ligence, and a character not merely
strong bYt lofty. a character exalted by
the fact that great power was accom-
panied by high and fine determination
TO use this great power for the common
good. for the advancement of mankind
The pioneer DAYS are over save in a few
places; and the more complex life OF