Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-09-01
ROOSEVELT IN
KANSAS SPEECH
TALKS POLITICS

TALKS POLITICS
| Continued From Page ID
{ clouded by the murk of furious popu
lar passion, the vision of the best and
bravest is dimmed. Looking back, we
arc all Of us now able to do justice to
the valor and the disinterestedness
and the love Of the right, as to each il
was given to see the right, shown both
by the men Of the north and the men
of the south in that contest which was
finally decided by the attitude 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 another is tenn
pered by the glad knowledge that ever
hereafter their descendants shall be
found fighting side by side, struggling
in peace as well as in war for the up
resolute to raise to the highest pitch
of honor and usefulness the nation to
which they all belong. AS for the
veterans of the Grand Army of the
| Republic, they deserve honor and rec
ognition such as is paid to no other
citizens Of the republic; for to them
| the republic owes it's all. for to them
! it owes its very existence.
Applies Lesson to Today.
l do not speak of this struggle of
the past merely from the historic
standpoint 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-
deavor to apply to the problems of the
present precisely the qualities whic'
in other crises enabled the men of
that day to meet these crises 1t 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 Abraham Lin
coin, faced and solved the great prob
lens of the nineteenth century, while
at the same time these same good
people nervously shrink from or fran
tically denounce those who are trying
to meet the problems of the twentieth
in the spirit which was accountable
for the successful solution of the prob
lens of Lincolnt time
Lincoln on Human Rights.
OF that generation Of men, to whom
!, ~ to NH
we owe the most is, of course, Lin
coin. Part of our debt to him is be-
cause he farecast our present struggle
and saw the way out. He said:
IT hold that while man exists 1t is
his duty to improve not only his own
condition but to assist in ameliorating
mankind" And again. Labor is prior
to and Independent Of capital; capital
is only the fruit of labor, and could
never have existed but for labor. La
Dor is the superior Of capital and de-
serves much the higher consideration.
Capital has it's rights which are as
worthy of protection as any other
rights Nor should this lead to
war upon the owners of property.
Property is the fruit Of labor; prop
erty is desirable; is positive good in
the world. Let not him who is house
less pull down the house of another.
but let him work diligently and build
one for himself, thus by example
showing that his own shall be safe
from violence when built" 1t seems
to me that in these words Lincoln
took substantially the attitude that we
ought to take; he showed the proper
sense of proportion in his relative
estimates of capital and labor, of hui
man rights and property rights. Above
all in this speech, as in many others.
he taught lesson in wise kindness
and charity; an indispensable lesson to
us Of today. But this wise kindness
and charity never weakened his arm
or numbed his heart. We cannot af-
ford weakly to blind ourselves to the
actual conflict which faces us today.
The issue is joined, and we must fight
or fail
Hits Special Privileges.
In every wise struggle for human
betterment one of the main objects,
and often the only object, has been to
achieve in larger measure equality of
opportunity.
One of the chief factors in progress
is the destruction of special privilege.
The essence of any struggle for
healthy liberty has always been and
must always be to take from some one
man or class of men the right to enjoy
power, or wealth. or position, or i'm
munity. which has not been earned
by service to his or their fellows.
At many stages in the advance Of
humanity this conflict between the
men who possess more than they have
earned and the men who have earned
more than they possess is the central
condition Of progress. In our day it
appears as the struggle Of free men
to gain and hold the right of self
government as against the special in
terests, who twist the methods Of free
government into machinery for de-
feating the popular will.
Stands For Square Deal.
stand for the square deal. But
when ! say that am for the square
deal I mean not merely that I stand
for fair play under the present rules
Of the game. but that stand for hav-