The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-27
TALK OF WEST.
Ex-PPesident Roosevelt Lauds
People OF That Section.
Says That They Always Stand
for Progress.
PLEA FOR REMINGTON.
Urges That Statue to Him Be
Erected.
Tells of the Great Work Done
by Artist.

cheyenne, wy Aug. 1I.-AiAeOUOAO
Roosevelt delivered the following adj
dress here today:
when. at the close of my hunting
trip in Africa, reached the borders OF
civilization, the first invitation accept
ed was this, to visit the capital OF wy
ominr- on the day when the people OF
the frontier came together to commem-
crate their achievements; 1 was glad
it was So because I have peculiar
feeling for the men and women of what
used to be called the far west and
especially for those of the cattle coun-
try For number of years l lived on
a ranch on the Little Missouri, SHARING
work and play, good fortune ana bad
fortune, with my neighbors; working on
the roundup, serving as delegate from
the Little Missouri roundup district to
the Montana Stock Growers assocla-
ton and even at times acting as deputy
sheriff at my end of the country
count those years as among the mos
valuable of my life, because nothing
breeds such community of feeling as TO
work with ones fellow men at their life
tasks, and to learn 40 know their reel
ings by actually sharing them. Inc
man of the west, throughout the sue
cessive stages OF western growth, has
always been one of the two or three
most typical fgures-indeed, l am
tempted to say, the most typical inquire
in American life, and no man can real
ly understand our country ana appre-
ciate what it really is and what II
promises unless he has the fullest ana
closest sympathy with the ideals ana
aspirations of the west. Inc prime Tea-
son for this is to HI found IN the Iact
that the westerner is so good an Amer
lean. He is an American first and fore
most; for this is the great lesson
friends, that all OF us need TO learn
and to keep, the lesson that 1t IS unlm-
portant whether a man lives north OF
south, east or west, provided he IS gen.
uinelv and in good faith an American,
that he feels every part or the Unlteo
states as his own, and that ne IS non
estlv DESTROYS to uphold the interests
of all other Americans In Whatever sec
lions of the country, they may dWeli.
"A hundred years ago, when men
smoke of the west they meant the
country between the A1leghanies and
the Mississippi. Fifty years ago the
white mans west took In Minnesota;
Iowa and Kansas. and then skipped
across to California and oregon. inc
country of the great plains and the
Rockies, the country IN which YOU
whom I am now addressing lead your
lives and do your work, mas grown - up
within NV 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 sloe
with the pioneers-the ranchmen' the
SINNERS, the MISUNDERSTANDING act
ually opened up the country. I have
seen the herds and 1ockS OF the cat
tleuen and Sheepmen supplant the
game; I have seen the fortunate move
ment by which the small farm mas
tended gradually to take the place OF
the great unfenced ranch. I now
travel in every comfort on railways
across lands which when I first rode
across them. were still the home of
the Indian and the buffalo; and I find
cities where one can obtain not merely
comfort, but luxury. in the places
where thirty years ago there was not a
building beyond log hut or DOPE
house. The men who did this work
were engaged in the final stages of con-
quering the continent; and it was
their privilege to do one Of the great
works of all time, to do their part IN
the performance OF an epic 1eat IN
the history of the progress of mankind.
81 have used the word progress. the
west stands for growth. for progress.
So must the whole American people
stand. A great democracy must be
progressive or it will soon cease to be
no state, no party, can stand still IL
must either go forward or go back
ward: and it becomes useless If it goes
backward. Therefore, l greet you,
men of the west, and stand for prog
ress as all men must stand who are
progressive.
'tThe pioneers and their immediate
successors won victory only by proving
that they possessed the great, master
full qualities which lie at the founda-
ton of national greatness. There are
certain welI-meaning men of intellec-
tual cultivation, but lacking mental
and moral robustness. 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 a community, but character
is a still finer thing, and though beauty
is good, strength is an ever greater
good"
In concluding Col. Roosevelt said:
Before ending 1 wish to say a word
on something which I believe should
especially interest all men who live in
the open country. and especially all
men who during the past thirty years
have lived and worked on ranches, Or
have done their life work in the wilder
parts of our land, on the great plains
or among the mountains. The phase
of our national life in which the stock
man, the mining prospector, the
frontier farmer and their associates
were the chief characters, was not only
a very important but also very pic
turesoue phase. Often such a phase
passes without any great artist arising
to commemorate it. The old time back
woodsman for instance, the man OF
the back country who lived in the east
ern forests through which the waters
ran eastward to the Atlantic and west
ward to the Mississippi, passed away
without any painter or sculptor arts
ing who possessed at once both the
Jyeenness of vision to see what a vital
and picturesque figure the backwoods-
man was and the genius adequately to
present that figure.
1.-THE artists who saw the pictur-
esoueness of the backwoodsman
lacked the genius adequately to COM
meuorate it; while the artists of real
ability unfortunately had their eyes
| turned towards Europe, and lacked
| the robust originality-which the
| pnueIist Cnoner ShoWed-to see where