The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-09-02
HONESTY In PUBLIC LIFE
PRIME NECESSITY OF u. S.
Roosevelt Scores the Crook and CRATER in Political Office
Any Number Of Corporations Who Prosper by
Bribing Legislatures, Says Teddy.

Kansas City, Mo, Sept. 2s-Colonel
Roosevelt was greeted by the greatest
reception of his trip here. A monster
crowd heard his speech last evening
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.
Honesty should be. treated as a prime
necessity to our success as a nation.
The minute that question of hon
esty as against dishonesty is involved,
then we must all act together as Amer
icans without the slightest regard to
party affiliations. Honesty is not
party matter; and the first man to at
tack scoundrel of any party should
be the honest men of that party. When
in office, always proceeded upon the
theory that there would be no need of
my opponents raising the cry of Turn
the rascals out" because would turn
them out myself just as soon as, by
vigilant and intelligent industry,
could discover them. The present Sem
ator Bristow, for instance, was in the
postoffice department when info~ma-
ton reached me which convinced me
that there was extensive rascality be-
ing practiced in the department. This
information came to me through che
then first assistant postmaster general
Mr.. Wynne-an admirable man whose
honesty knew to be beyond proof.
The active work of the investigation
was done by another postoffice Off
cial in whose honesty, courage and en-
ergy I had absolute CONFERENCE.-The
present Senator Bristow. When he got
through / knew that all the rascals
whose rascality could be detected were
out of office and that all of them that
had committed acts which we could
proceed against as criminal were in
dicted or imprisoned. AS we dealt
with The crooked public official, so we
dealt with the crooked private citizen;
with the rich swindler in New York
or Chicago as with the horse thief or
homicide in Indian Territory. We
never attacked man because he was
a man of one political faith or an
other, because he did or did not pos
sess wealth; and we never shielded
him because he was poor or rich, be-
couse he belonged to any particular
church or to any particular party. But
also wish you especially to remember
that We never hesitated to shield him
and stand up for him once we were
convinced that he was improperly at
tackled. There is no greater foe of
honesty than the man who, for any
reason, in any capacity, attacks, or
seeks to attack, an honest man for a
crime which he has not committed.
Falsely accusing an honest man Of dis
honesty is an act which stands on the
same level of infamy with that Of the
dishonest man himself: and 1t Is no
higher duty to attack the dishonest
man than it is to exonerate the honest
man falsely accused: and / should be
ashamed to hesitate the traction of a
second longer in one case than in the
other.
Remember that honesty cannot be
unilateral. Good citizens should cor
daily distrust the man who can never
see dishonesty excepting in men of
the class lie dislikes. The reckless agi-
tator who invariably singles out men
of wealth as furnishing the only exam
pies OF dishonesty; and the equally un-
scrupulous-but no more INSCRIPTIONS
-reactionary who can see dishonesty
only in a blackmailing politician or a
crooked labor leader; both stand on
the same plane of Consciousness. You
will never get honesty from politicians
until you exact honesty from business
men on the other hand, you brand
yourselves as fools or as nypocrites
if you say that the corporation owner
or the employer, Is always the dishon-|
est man. and the poor man never, that
Ii. Ii only the wealthy man who cor
rupts the politician and never the poli-
tician who blackmails the corporation.
Any man In his senses knows that
there are plenty of corporations In this
country who prosper by bribing legis
iatures just as they prosper by swind-
ling the public; and. any man In his
senses ought to know, In addition. that