The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-08-31
COL. ROOSEVELT
At OSAWATOM|E

Continued from Page Two
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revising one schedule as a time.
general revision of the tariff almost in
equitably leads to log-rolling, and the
subordination of the general public
interest to local and special interests.
The absence of effective state, and
especially national restraint upon un-
/ fair money-getting has tended to Gre
ate small class of enormously
wealthy and economically powerfully
/ men whose chief object is to hold and
increase their power The prime need
| is To change the conditions which en-
able these men to accumulate power
which it is not for the general welfare
! that they should hold or exercise. We
grudge no man fortune which rep
resentS his own power and sagacity,
when exercised with entire regard to
the welfare of his fellows. But the
! fortune must he honorably obtained
and well used. 1t is not even enough
that it should have been gained with"
out doing damage to the community.
We should permit it to be gained only
so long as the gaining represent ben
eft to the community. This, | know,
implies a policy of far more active
government interference with social
and economic condition in this coun-
try than we have yet had, but | think
we have got to face the fact that such
an increase in governmental control
is now necessary
No man should receive a dollar un-
less that dollar has been fairly earned.
Every dollar received should represent
a dollars worth of service rendered.
The really big fortune, the swollen
fotune, by the mere fact of its size,
acquires qualities which differentiate
it in kind as well as in degree from
what is possessed by men of rela-
lively small means. Therefore | be-
llieve in a graduated income tax on big
fortune, by the mere fact of its size,
far more easily collected and far more
effective-a graduated inheritance tax
on big fortunes, properly safeguarded
against evasion, and increasing rapidly
in amount with the size of the estate.
The people of the United States
suffer from periodical financial panics
to a degree substantially unknown
among the other nations which ap-
proach us in financial strength. There
is no reason we should suffer what
they escape 1t is of profound inn
portance that our financial system
should be promptly investigated and
so thoroughly and effectively revised
as to make it certain that hereafter
our currency will no longer fail at
critical times TO meet our needs.
1t is hardly necessary for me to re-
peat that believe in an efficient army
and a navy large enough to secure
for MS abroad that respect which is
the surest guarantee of peace Justice
and fair dealing among nations rest
on principles identical with those
which control justice and fair dealing
among the individuals of which ma
tions are composed; with the vital ex-
ception that each nation must do its
own part in international police work.
National friendships, like those be-
tween men, but be founded on respect
as well as on liking, on forbearance
as we'll as upon trust In all this it
is peculiarly the duty Of the United
States to set good example.
OF conservation | shall speak more
at length elsewhere. Conservation
means development as much as it does
, protection. | recognize the right and
the duty of this generation To dev1iN,
and use the natural resources of our
land, but | do not recognize .he righ.
to waste them or to rob, by waS' iUl
use, the generations that come atte-
MS The natural resources must be
used for the benefit of all our people
and not monopolized for the genefit
of the few That is one of the funda-
mental reasons why the special in
/ terests must be driven out of politics.
OF all the questions which can come
before this nation. short of the actual
| preservation Of its existence in a great
war, there is none which compares in
| Importance with the great central task
/ OF leaving this land even better land /
! for our descendants than 1t is for us, /
and training them into a better race
to inhabt the land and pass it on
Conservation is a great moral issue,
/ for it involves the patriotic duty of /
insuring the safety and continuance |
of the nation Let me add that the |
health and vitality of our people are |
at least as well worth conserving as |
81, in.