The Prescott daily news., 1910-09-02
HONESTY |S N0T A
 MATTER 0F PARTY
Prime Necessity to Our Success as Nation, Says Roosevelt.
ADDRESS AT KANSAS CITY
Great Issue Declared to Be Doing Away With Special Privilege Praise Is Given Senator
 BristoW.


 Kansas City. Mo. Sept, 1.-Ex- President Roosevelt arrived here shortly after noon today, and spent the day as the guest of the Commer- cial club. The reception committee and the Thirteenth regiment met him at the st0tion and there was short parade through the city to the Hotel Baltimore, where luncheon was served Among the guests were Gov ernor Hadley of Missouri, Governor Stubbs of Kansas General Funston and the senators from Missouri and Kansas.
 Makes Lively Speech.
 This evening, after a dinner given by the officers of the Commercial club, Col. Roosevelt delivered lively address on honesty and corruption in the public service. He 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 be treated as a prime ne- cessity to our success as nation. The minute that question of honesty as against dishonesty is involved then 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 any party should bc the honest men of that party When in office. I always proceeded upon the theory that there would be no need or my opponents raising the cry of Turn the rascals out" because I would turn them out myself just as soon as, by Vigilsnt and intelligent fn- dustry. I could discover them. The present Senator Bristow. for instance. was in the Post -OGice Department when information reached me which convinced Tae that there was extensive rascalttY being praCticed in the depart ment. This information came to me through the then First Assistant Post master-General MT. Wynne-an admir- able man whose honesty knew to be beyond proof. The active work of the nvestisation was done by another post ofiioe official in whose honesty. courage. and energy I had absolute conference.-the present Senator Rris- tow. When he got through knew that all the pescsls whose rasoality could be detected were out of office and that all of them that had committed acts which we could proceed against as criminal were indicted or imprisoned AS we dealt with the crooked public official so we dealt with the crooked private citizenj with the rich swindler in New York or Chicago as with the horse-thief or homicide in Indian Ter ritory. We never attacked a man be- cause he was man of one political faith or another, because he did or did not possess wealth. and we never shielded him because he was pOor or rich because he belonged to any par ticu'ar church or to any particular party. Prt l also wish you especially to r"Wc' hop that wc never hestated to shi"' him and stand m for him once We were convinced that he was imprortriN attacked There is no greater foe of hon Sty than the man who. for any reason in any capacity. attacks, or seeks to attack an honest man for crime which be has not com mitted Falsely acSusfn~ an honest man of dishonesty is an act which stands on the same level of infamy with that of the dishonest man him self; and it Is no higher duty to attack the dishonest man than it is to exoner- ate the honest man falsely accused: and l should be ashamed to hesitate the fraction of a second longer in. one case than in the other
 Honesty Is Not UnilateraI.
 Remember that honesty cannot be unilateral. Good citizens should cor dially distrust the man who can never see dishonesty excepting in men of the class he dislkes. The reckless agi- tator who invariably singles out men of wealth as furnishing the only ex- amples of dishonesty; and the equally unscrupuious-but no more unscrupu- lous-reactionary who can see dishon- esty only in blackmailing politician or a crooked labor leader; both stand on the same plane of obnoxiousness You will never get honesty from poli- ticians until you exact honesty from business men; on the other hand you brand yourselves as fools or as hypo- critics if you say that the corporation owner. or the employer. is always the dishonest man. and the poor man never. that it is only the wealthy man who corrupts the politician and never the politician who blackmails the corporation.
 Any man in his senses knows that there are plenty of corpora tions in this country who prosper by bribing legis- latures just as they prosper by swim ding the public and any man in his senses ought to know. in addition, that there are plenty of corrupt men of small means who, in legislative or other bodies try to blackmail corpora tions-and try to blackmail other peo- pie we'll. If they doubt this let them look at the revelations of cor ruption in my own state-Nsw York and in yours. my hearers-here In M.ssourI; Jet th-o-n look at what bls