The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-25
ROOSEVELT PARIS.

kROOSENEll TN FRTiS'
Americans have always taken pride
III the career of Theodore Roosevelt
and his latest triumphs in the old world
capitals are read with intense gratifi-
cation in the sland Of his birth. BY
taking his place as a member OF the
French Academy he reached the pm
naeie or, as he said himself. marked
the crowning OF his career as a man or
letters' He was treated with the
greatest consideration at the academy
but it was at the Sorbonne where the
vast audience cheered him to the echo
again and again.
Twenty-Five thousand persons crowd
ed the building, and their enthusiasm
was unbounded as he defined his posi-
zion on property rights in these words;
my position as regards the mOneyed
interests can be put into few words In
every civilized society property rights
must be carefully safeguarded. Ordina-
rily and in the great majority of cases.
human rights and property rights are
fundamental and in the long run, iden-
teal But when it clearly appears that
there is a real conflict between them,
human rights must have the upper
hand, for property belongs to man and
not man to property"
During his term as President Of the
United States Mr.. Roosevelt endeaV-
ored to conduct his administration
along the lines indicated, safeguarding
property rights, but at the same time
proving an unrelenting foe to Illegal
combinations The French audience
understood that the distinguished Wis
itor knew whereof he spoke and mani
Tested their belief in the doctrine enun-
-ciated. The position taken as to prop
-rtv rights will be approved all over
the civilized world, for the line of
cleavage between legitimate business
methods and dishonest practices is
daily becoming more marked.
A point made by Mr.. Roosevelt in
this connection was that the division
should be between right and wrong,
and not a separation of the classes. Re
garding the danger of such division he
said:
There have been many republics in
the past. both in what we call antiqui-
" and in what we call the middle ages.
They fell, and the prime factor in their
fan was the fact that the parties tend
ed to divide along the line that sepa-
rates wealth from poverty. 1t made no
IL c7TaoaCcf115
it made no difference whether the re-
public fell under the rule of an
oligarchy or the rule OF mob. In
either case, when once loyalty TO a
class had been substituted for loyalty
to the republic, the end of the republic
was at hand. There is no greater need
today than the need to keep ever in
mind the fact that the Cleavage be-
tween right and wrong, between good
citizenship and bad citizenship, runs at
right angles TO. and not parallel with,
the lines of cleavage between class and
class, between occupation and occupa-
ton. Ruin looks us in the face if we
Judge a man by his position instead Of
Judging him by his conduct in that po-
sition."
These words should be taken to heart
here at home. At the present time
some of the great corporations are
being prosecuted on the charge of
being Illegal combinations in restraints
of trade, and there is a disposition in
some quarters to array the poor
against the rich, the workingman
against the capitalist. Mr.. Roosevelt
pointed out the inevitable result of
such division, and the French people,
knowing the history of the past, agreed
with him and applauded
As a man Of wide experience. and
much learning, Mr.. Roosevelt summed
up his experience in life, and the OBJ
servations made by him as he passed
along. Every line of it bristled with
homely truths, clothed in plain yet
forcible language. The more the Sor-
bonnie speech is studied the more these
truths viii become apparent. The visit
of Colonel Roosevelt to Paris should
prove of great and lasting benefit.