The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-24
Col. Roosevelt Places Himself
in Opposition to Sherman
In a Pubic Way at the Vice
Presidents Home.
TALKS ON RURALLIFE.
Addresses a Crowd of 1 900 at
Grange Picnic
In Summit Park, Overlooking
the Mohawk River.

Utica, N. Y, Aug. 24.-Theodore
Roosevelt wound up the first day Of
his pilgrimage into the west by plac-
ing himself directly in opposition to
Vice President Sherman. Speaking in
the vice presidents own county, he
warmly endorsed State Senator F.
Davenport, who is a staunch progress
sive and whom Mr.. Sherman has said
that he would not support. Mr.. Sher-
man was out of town today and did not
see Colonel Roosevelt. 1t was late in
the afternoon when Mr.. Roosevelt
reached SUNNI Park. a summer re-
sort overlooking the Mohawk river.
Ten thousand persons who attended
the Grange picnic there were waiting
for him and raised a cheer as the ex-
president appeared upon the platform.
Colonel Roosevelt spied Senator Day-
export at once and he greeted him
warmly. AS soon as he began his
speech he turned to the senator and
said:
ST am glad to see you on the plat
form, Senator Davenport. The only
kind of politics care for is the kind
of politics in which decency is COM
bined with efficiency. 1 hold that the
only way in which a politician can
really serve his party is by helping that
party efficiently to serve the people
because the senator and the men who
have acted with him have stood for
LnlS pIlnClple L am SlaQ TO De on the
platform with him.
There was more cheering as the col
onel uttered these words. When he
could be heard again he added, You
will at least notice that my utterances
are free from ambiguity" Then the
colonel proceeded with his talk to the
farmers.
Colonel Roosevelt's move in endors-
ing Senator Davenport is regarded as
his first step in the New York state
iOHf In lao oxyir ho so;
there would be no compromise so far
as he was concerned. He has let it
be known that he was reluctant to take
part in the struggle, but now that he
| is in it he will fight hard.
| In his prepared speech Colonel
Roosevelt dealt with the problems of
life in the country and how to solve
them.
The colonel kept the crowd in good
spirits with his epigrams, some of
| which were not down in his speech.
'I think good man and good
woman can get to Heaven in a dozen
different ways" he said. but L do
not think they can get there unless
| they are good.'
''The only motto for Americans
should be all men up and not some
men down." he said And a little lat
er he said:
1--WE hear man tell his wife that
| she does not do as his mother did,
but that man is frequently a man who
does not do the way his father ought
to have -done.'
| all, however, was this: 'I will never
go with the type of farmer who says:
Il am down on lawyers and bankers,
am against the business men, 1 will
| go with him when he says, I am
against a bad type of lawyer or bad
| type of banker
.In other words, I will go with him
when he pronounces Judgment on man
not in accordance with his occupation,
but in accordance with his conduct.
This is good American doctrine.
Sometimes we hear a man say he
| is the poor mans friend. / am the
| poor mans friend if the poor man is
straight and am the rich mans friend
| If the rich man is straight. but 1 am
against the crooked man, rich or
poor"
Colonel Roosevelt's Address.
He spoke as follows:
| There are no two public questions
of more vital importance to the fu-
| ture of this country than the problem
| of conservation and the problem of
the betterment of public life. More
| over, these two problems are really
| interdependent, for neither of them
can be successfully solved save on con-
dition that there is at least measure
able success in the effort to solve the
other. In any great country the prime
physical asset-the physical asset more
1
tility of the SOIL. All our Industrial
and commercial welfare, all our ma
terial development of every kind, de-
pends In the last resort upon our pre-
serving and increasing the fertility of
| the soil. This, of course, means the
| conservation of the soil as the great
natural resource; and, equally, of
course, it furthermore implies the de-
| velopment of country life, for there
| can not be a permanent Improvement
of the soil if the life of those who live
on it. and make their living out of it,
is suffered to starve and languish, to
| become stunted and weakened and in
| ferfor to the type of life lived elsewhere.
We are now trying to preserve, not for
exploitation by individuals, but for the
permanent benefit of the whole people,
| the waters and the forests, and we are
doing this primarily as a means of
adding to the fertility of the soil; al
| though in each case there is a great
| secondary use both of the water and of
| the forests for commercial and indus
| trial purposes. In the same way it is
| essential for the farmers themselves to
| try to broaden the life of the man who
more attractive, to give 1t every adjunct
and aid to development which has
| been given to the life Of the man of
the cities. Therefore, friends, the con-
servation and rural life policies are
| really two sides of the same policy;
l and down at the bottom this policy
rests upon the fundamental law that
/ neither man nor nation can prosper
unless, In dealing with the present, he
steadily take thought for the future.
"In one sense this problem with
which we have to deal is very, very
old Wherever civilizations have
hitherto sprung up they have always
tended to go through certain stages
and then to fall. No nation can de-
velop a real civilization without cities.
Up to a certain point the city move