Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-09-01
By Associated Press.

IAhIff AMI nI07 ! VI 6SGT
' By Associated Press.
Osawatomie, Kan, August 81
Theodore Roosevelt delivered the fol
lowing address in this city today:
There have been two great crises
in our country's history; first when
it was formed, and then again when
it was perpetuated. The formative
period included not merely the Revo
lutionary war, but the creation and
adoption of the constitution and the
first dozen years of work under It.
Then came sixty years during which
we spread across the continent-years
of vital growth, but Of growth with
out rather than growth within. Then
came the time of stress and strain
which eliminated in the Civil war,
the period Of terrible struggle upon
the issue of which depended the justi'
fication of all that we had done earl
Ter, and which marked the second
great period of growth and develop
ment within. The name of John Brown
will be forever associated with this
second period of the nations history;
and Kansas was the theatre upon
which this first act of the second
of our great national life dramas was
played. 1t was the result of the strug.
gle in Kansas which determined that
our country should be in deed as we'll
as in name devoted to both union and
freedom, that the great experiment
of democratic government on ma
tional scale should succeed and not
fail. 1t was heroic struggle; and
as is inevitable with all such strug'
giles, it had also a dark and terrible
side. Very much was done Of good,
and much also of evil; and. as was
inevitable in such period Of revolu-
ton. often the same man did both
good and evil. For our great good for
tune as nation, we, the people of
the United States as whole can now
afford to forget the evil, or at least
to remember it without bitterness,
and to fix our eyes with pride on the
good that was accomplished. Even
in ordinary times there are very few
of us who do not see the problems
Of life as through a glass, darkly;
and when the glass is clouded by the
murk of furious popular passion the
vision of the best and the bravest is
dimmed. Looking backward, We are
all of us now able to do justice to
the valor and tn disinterestedness
and the love of the right, as to each
it was given to see the right, shown
both by men of the North and the
men of the South in that contest
which was finally decided by the at
titude Of the West. We can admire the
heroic valor, the sincerity, the self.
devotion shown alike by the men who
wore the blue and the men who wore
the. gray; and our sadness that such
men should have had to fight one an.
other is tempered by the glad knowl-
edge that ever hereafter their de-
scendents shall be found fighting side
by side, struggling in peace as we'll
as in war for the uplift of their COM
mon country, all alike resolute to
raise to the highest pitch of honor
and usefulness the nation to which
they all belong. AS for the vet
Grams of the Grand Army of the Re-
public, they deserve honor and rec
ognition such as is paid to no other
citizen of the republic; for to them
the republic owes it's all, for to them
it owes it's very existence.
I do not speak of this struggle of
the past merely from the historic
Our interest is primarily
in the application today of the les.
sons taught by the contest of half a
century ago. 1t is of little use for us
TO pay lip loyalty to the mighty men
Of the past unless we sincerely en-
1eavor to apply to the problems of the
present precisely the qualities which
in other crises enabled the men OF
that day to met those crises. 1t is
half melancholy and half amusing to
see the way in which we'll meaning
people gather to do honor to the men
who, in company with John Brown,
md under the lead of Abraham Lin
coin, faced and solved the great prob
ems of the nineteenth century, while
It the same time these same good
people nervously shrank from of fran
ically denounced those who are try
ng to meet the problems of the twen-
ieth century in the spirit which was
for the successful solu.
ion of the problems of Lincoln's !
ime.
OF 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
le forecast our present struggle and ,
aw the way out.
In every wise struggle for human !
'etterment one of the main objects
nd often the only object, has been to
.chieve in larger measure equality of
opportunity In the struggle for this
,reat end, nations rise from barbar-
SIN to civilization, and through it
eoples press forward from one stage
f enlightment to the next. One of
he chief factors in progress is the
obstruction of special privilege. The :
ssence of any struggle for healthy
berty has always been and must al
rays be to take from some one man
r class of men the right to enjoy
over, or wealth, or position, or i'm
1unity, which has not been earned
y service of his or their fellows.
Practical equality of opportunity for
II citizens, when we achieve it, will
ave two great results. First, every
ian will have a fair chance to make
f himself all that in him lies, to