The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1910-09-02

Roosevelt. speaking here today, said;
There are certain matters which
should never be treated as party mat
ters, and foremost among these is the
great and vital virtue Of honesty. Hon
esty should De treated as a prime me-
cesslty TO our success as nation. The
minute that a question Of honesty as
against dishonesty Is involved. when
we must all act together as Americans,
without the slightest regard to party
affiliations Honesty is not a party
matter, and the first man to attack a
scoundrel Of amy party should be The
honest men Of that party. When in
office, ! always proceeded upon the
theory that there would be no need Of
my opponents raising The cry Of Turn
the raseals out, because j would turn
them out myself just as soon as, by
vigilant and intelligent Industry
could discover them. The present
Senator Bristow. for instance, was in
the post Office department when infor-
nation reached me which convinced
me that there was extensive rascality
being practiced in the department.
This Information came to me through
the then first assistant postmaster
general, Air Wynne-an admirable
man whose honesty knew to be be-
yond proof The active work Of the
Investigation was done BY another post
office official in whose honesty. cour-
age and energy had absolute conf
dence-the present Senator Bristow
When he cot through knew that all
the rascals whose rascaliiy could be
detected were out Of office and that ali
of them that had committed acts which
we could proceed against as criminal
We're indicted Or imprisoned As we
dealt with the crooked public official
80 we dealt with the crooked private
citizen. with the rich swindler in New
York. OF Chicago as with the horse thief
or homicide iii Indian Territory. we
never attacked a man because he was
man Of one political faith Or another.
because he ala or did not possess
wealth. and we never shielded him be
cause he was poor or rich. because he
belonged to ans particular church OF
10 any particular party But also
wish YOU especially to remember that
we never hesitated to shield him and
stand up for him once we were con
yinced that nc was Improperly attack
cd. There is no greater zoe Of honesty
than the man who for any reason, in
any capacity attacks. or seeks to at-
tack. an honest man for a crime which
We has not committed Falsely accus-
ing an honest man Of dishonesty is an
act which stand on ihe same level of
inlamy with that Of the dishonest man
himself, and It IS no higher duty %
attack the dishonest man than y is -
cxonarae the honest man falsely ae-
cnsed, and ! should bo ashamed 10 hes
itate the fraction Of second longer
in one case than in the other
Remember that honesty cannc3 be
unnatural Good citizens SHOULD cor
dially dislrust the man who can neve
soc dishonesty excepting IA men OIL
the class he dislikes The reckless
agitAtor Who invariably singles ont
men Of wealth as furnishing lie nnly
examples Of dishonesty. and ho eiual-
NJ unscrupulous but no more unseru- (
pulous -reactionary who car see dis
honesty only a blackmailing poliiieiaa
or a crooked labor leader. both stand
on the same plane Of obnoxiors ness. (
You will never get honesty from poli-
ticians until YOU exact honesty from
business men; on tho Diner hand you
brand yourselves as fools Or As hypo-
critics II YOU say that the corporation
owner, or the employer, Is always the
dishonest man. and tlie poor man
never, that itis only The wealthy rasn
who corrupts the politician and never
the politician who blackmails the cor
poration.
Any man in his senses knows that
there are ieriy Of corporations IN this
country who PROSPER BY hriblng lesis-
lnures just as they prosper BY swind-
ling the public. and any man ia his
senses ought To- know, in addli on 'hat
there are plenty Of corrups men os
small neai.s who In legislative or
other bodies, try o blackmall corpora
tions and try % blaelmall atheg peo
pie as well II they doubt Tits let
them look a the revelations Of cor
rnption IN my own state-NeN York
and ia yours. my hearers-here in MIS-
souri, let Them look At what bias oc-
CURED N california and what has oc-
CURED in illinois In Illinois. tor
s y