The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-28
Roosevelt Points Out Lessons
to Be Learned in the West
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
CHEYENNE, Wyo., Aug. 27-Fol-
lowing is the full text of former Pres
ident Roosevelt 's address, delivered at
the Frontier celebration hero today:
Roosevelt's Address.
when. at the close of my hunting trip
In Africa, / reached the borders OF civ
ilization, the first invitation l accepted
was this. to visit the capital Of Wyo-
ming on the day when the people OF the
their achievements; was glad II was so.
because I have q peculiar feeling for
the men and women OF what used TO be
those OF the cattle country. For num-
ber Of years I lived on ranch on the
Little Missouri, sharing work and play.
neighbors working on the roundup
serving as delegate from the Little Mis-
souri, roundup district to the Montana
Stock Growers association, and even at
times acting rs deputy sheriff at my end
OF the country. l count those years as
among the most valuable OF my life, be.
cause nothing breeds such community Of
feeling as to work with ones fellow men
at their life tasks, and to learn to know
their feelings by actually sharing them
The man OF the west, throushout the
successive stages OF western growth, has
always been one OF the two or three most
typical fgures-indeed. ! am tempted TO
gay. the most typical flgure-in American
our country and appreciate what II really
Is and what it promises unless he has
the fullest and closest sympathy with
tho ideals and aspirations Of tho 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 NIL OF US need 10 learn
and to keep. the lesson that 1t Is unim-
portant whether man lives north or
south, east or west, provided he is genu-
inpIy and In faith N American
that he feels every part OF the United
States as his own. and that he is hon.
estly desirous to uphold the interests of
all other Americans in whatever sec
tions of the country they may dwell
Ever Changing Boundary.
"A hundred years ago when men spoke
Of the west they meant the country be-
tween the Alleghanies and the Mississip-
pi. Fifty years ago the white mans
west took in Minnesota. Iowa and Kan
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 I
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 cowpunchcrs, the muleskn-
ners. the bullwhackers-who actually
opened up the , country 1 have seen the
shcepmen supplant the game. 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 rail-
ways across lands which when I first
rode across them were still the home OF
the Indian and the buffalo; and / find
cities where one can obtain not merely
comfort, but luxury, In the places where
thirty years ago there was not 81 build
ing beyond a log hut or an adobe house.
10 me- " \, ,Ic rlr
gagged In the final stages of conqucrine
the continent. and 1t was their privilege
TO do one of the great works of oil time.
to do their part In the performance OF
an epic feat in the history OF the prog
ress of mankind
II have used the word progress. The
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
go forward or go backward and 1t be-
comes useless II it goes backward.
Therefore | greet you. men of the west.
and I stand for progress as all men must
stand who are progressive.
Work of the Pioneers.
"The pioneers and their immediate
successors won victory only by proving
qualities which lie at the foundation of
national greatness. There are certain
well meaning men or intellectual Cultiya-
ton, but lacking mental and moral ro-
business. 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 Il nation, but charac-
ter is n still finer thing and though
beauty is good, strength is an even great
er good. The men who have made this
great republic OF the west what II is,
and especially the men who have turned
It into a continental commonwealth, have
possessed in the highest degree the great
virilc virtues of strength. courage,
energy and undaunted and unwavering
resolution. Their typical leaders-of
whom Abraham Lincoln, though the most
exceptional. was the most typical-have
possessed keen intelligence and a charac~
ter not merely strong, but lofty, char
acter exalted by the fact that great
power was accompanied by high and
fine determination to use this great
power for the common good. for the ad-
vancement OF mankind The pioneer
days are over save in few places, and
the more complex life of today calls for
n greater variety of good qualities than
were needed on the frontier
Back to Homely Virtues.
There Is need at present to encourage
the development OF new abilities which
can be brought to high perfection only
by n kind OF training useless in pioneer
times; but these new qualities can only