The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-08-27
COL. ROOSEVELT
SPEAKS BEFORE
RANCH FRIENDS
Cheyenne People Heard the
Man Who Knew the Pio-
neer Life

WANTS 4 STATUE ERECTED
TO FREDERICK REMINGTON
The Great West, He Declares, Has
Made the Men of Broad Views and
Strong Character-Recalls Some OF
His Life on the Plains.
Cheyenne, wy, Aug. 27.-Theodore
bsre today:
w. ~ at the close of my hunting
trip in africa, reached the borders
of civilization, the first invitation
acceptde was this. to visit the capital
Of Wyoming on the day when the peo.
pie of the frontier came together tc
commemorate their achievements;
was glad it was SO, because have q
peculiar feeling for the men and wom-
en- of what used to be called tie 'fal
west and especially for those OF the
cattle country. For a number Of
Years l lived on a ranch on the Lit
| tie Missouri, sharing work and play
good fortune and bad fortune, with
my neighbors; working on the round.
up. serving as delegate from the Lit
tie Missouri roundup district to the
Montana Stock Growers association
and even at times acting as deputy
sheriff at my end of the county.
count those years as among the most
valuable Of my life, because nothing
breeds such community Of feeling as
to work with ones fellow men al
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 figure in
American life, and no man can really
understand our country and appre-
ciate what it really is and what il
promises unless he has the fullest and
closest sympathy with the ideals and
aspirations of the west The prime
reason for this is to be found in the
fact that the westerner is 80 good an
American. He is an American first
and foremost; for this is the great les.
son, friends, that all of us need to
learn and to keep, the lesson that II
is unimportant whether 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 uphold the
interests of all other Americans in
whatever section of the country they
may dwell.
"A hundred years ago. when men
spoke of the west they meant the
country between the Alleghanies 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 l am now addressing lead your
lives and do your work, has grown up
within my own lifetime. l myself saw
and took part in the closing years OF
the pioneer period, and 1t was my
great privilege to work side by side
with the pioneers-the ranchmen, the
miners, the cowpunchers, the mule
skinners, the bull-whackers-who ac-
tually opened up the country. l have
seen the herds and flocks of the cat
tlcman and sheeprnen supplant the
game; l 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 he buffalo; and l find
cities where one can obtain not mere
ly comfort, but luxury, in the places
where thirty years ago there was not
a building beyond log hut or a do
bic house. The men who did this
work were engaged in the final stages
of conquering the continent; and it
was their privilege to do one of the
great works of all time, to do their
part in the performance of an epic
feat in the history of the progress of
mankind.
West Stands for Progress.
II have used the word progress. The
west stands for growth, for progress.
So must the whole American people
stand. A great democracy must be
progressive or 1t will soon cease to
be either great or democratic. No
nation no state. no party, can stand
still. 1t must either go forward or go
backward; and it becomes useless if
it goes backward. Therefore 4 greet
you, men Of the west, and stand for
progress as all men must stand who
are progressive.
"The pioneers and their immediate
successors won victory only by prov
ing that they possessed the great,
masterful qualities which lie at the
foundation of national greatness.
There are certain well-meaning men
of intellectual cultivation, but lacking
mental and moral robustness. who
complain continually that they find
American life, and especially the life
of those American communities
emerging from the pioneer stage,
crude and without genius or beauty.
Genius is a fine thing for a nation,
but character is still greater thing,
and though beauty Is good, strength
is an even greater good.
The men who have made this great