The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-08-27
ROOSEVELT AT
FRONTIER SHOW
His Address at Cheyenne Is on
Expanding Of the West.
PIONEER DAYS ARE over.

Tells How He Worked With Ranch
n,sn and tho Progress That Has
Been Made Since He Rode tho
Pisins-Makes Plea For Monument
In Honor Of Frederick Rsnninaton.
Cheyenne. wyo.. Aug 27.-When at
the close Of my hunting trip in Africa
reached the borders of civilization
the first invitation accepted was this
to visit the capital Of Wyoming on the
day when the people Of the frontier
came together to commemorate their
achievements. ! was glad 1t was so.
because / have peculiar feeling for
the men and women of what used to
be called the "far west" and especial
~ for those Of the cattle country.
For a number OF years lived on
ranch on the Little Missouri, sharing
work and play, good fortune and bad
fortune, with my neighbors. working
on the roundup, serving as delegate
from the Little Missouri roundup dis
trict to the Montana Stock Growers
association and even at times acting as
a deputy sheriff at my end of the
county.
count those years as among the
most valuable Of my life, because moth
ing breeds such community of feeling
as to work with ones fellow men at
their life tasks and to learn to know
their feelings by actually sharing
them. The man of the west through
out the Successive stages Of western
growth has always been one of the
two or three most typical figures
indeed. l am tempted to say the most
typical fgure--in American life, and
no man can really understand our
country and appreciate what It really
is and what 1t promises unless he has
the fullest and closest sympathy with
the ideals and aspirations the west.
The prime reason for this Is to be
found In the fact that the vesterner
is SO good an American. He is an
American frst and foremost. For this
IS the great lesson. friends. that all of
us need to learn and to keep. the les
son that II is unimportant whether q
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 desirous to up
hold the interests Of all other Ameri-
cans in whatever section Of the coun-
try they may dwell
The Expanding Of the West
A hundred years ago. when men
spoke Of the west. they meant the
country between the Allegbenies 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 I am now addressing lead your
lives and do your work. has grown up
within my own lifetime.
myself saw and took part In the
closing years of the pioneer period. and
It was my great privilege to work side
by side with the pioneers-the ranch
men, the miners. the cowpunchers.
the mule skinners, the bullwhackers
who actually opened up the country.
have seen the herds and focks OF
the cattlemen and sheepmen supplant
the game. 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 !
first rode across them were still the
home Of the Indian and the buffalo
aud l find cities where one can obtain
not merely comfort. but luxury. In the
places where thirty years ago there
was not building beyond log hut
or 'dobe house.
The men who did this work were en-
gagged in the final stages of conquer
ing the continent. and 1t was theii
privilege TO do one of the great works
of all time. to do their part In the per
formance Of an epic feat In the his
tory of the progress Of mankind.
have used the word progress. The
west stands for growth. for progress
so must the whole American people
stand. great democracy must be
progressive or II will soon cease TO be
either great or democratic. No na
tion, no state. no party. can stand still
1t must either go forward or so back
ward. and II becomes useless II II goes