The Arvada enterprise., 1910-09-02

baitlmOro, lunche0n and Qlun0r,
former President Roosevelt spent .
busy afternoon and evening hero to-
day. ! In return he gave the people
Of Kansas City q chance to hear one
Of his lively speeches. in which he
scored dishonesty and corruption.
The Commercial club was Col Roose-
velts host and his fellow guests at
luncheon included Governors Hadley
and Stubbs, the senator's from, Mis-
souri, and Kansas and General Funs-
ton.
Mr.. RooseveIt's Speech.
Mr.. Roosevelt's address was as
follows:
should never be treated as party mat
tiers; and foremost among these 10 the
great and vital virtue of honesty Hon
esty should be treated as a prime me-
cessity to our success as a nation. The
minute that a question of honesty as
against dishonesty is involved. then we
must all act toEsther as Americans,
without the slightest regard to party
amliattons. Honesty Is not party
matter; and the first man to attack .
scoundrel of any party should be the
honest men of that party When in
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 in
| dustry. could discover them The
present Senator Bristow, for instance
was In the Post-Onice Department
when Information reached me which
convinced me that there was extensive
rascality being practiced in the depart
| ment. This information came to me
through the then First Assistant POST
master-General. Mr.. Wynne-an admir-
| able man whose honesty knew to be
beyond proof. The active work of the
Investigation was done by another
post -ofice oficiai in whose honesty,
courage and energy I had absolute
| conference.-the present Senator Bris-
| tow. When he got through I knew
| that all the rasoals whose rascality
| could be detected were out of office and
| that all of them that had committed
| It's which we could proceed against as
| ninal were indicted or imprisoned.
.s 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 Ter
rftory. We never attacked a man be-
4 cause he was a man of one political
| faith or another. because he did or did
1
| shielded him because he was poor or
| rich. because he belonged to any par
tfcular church or to any particular
party. But I 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 attacked. There is no
greater foe of honesty than the man
| who. for any reason, in any capacity
attacks. or seeks to attack. an honest
l F-
| mitted. Falsely accusing honest
man of dishonesty II an act which
stands on the same level of "infamy
with that of the dishonest man him
self: and 1t is mo- higher duty to attack
the dishonest man than 1t is to e1oner-
and should be ashamed to hesitate
| the fraction Of a second longer in ono
| case than in the other.
Honesty Is Not UnIiateraL
Remember that honesty cannot be
unilsteral Good citizens should cor
| daily distrust the man who can never
| see dishonesty excepting in men OF the
| class he dislikes. The reckless agi-
| tator who invariably singles out men
| of wealth as furnishing the only ex-
amples of dishonesty; and the equally
unscrupulous-but no more unscrupu-
| lous-reactionary who can see dlshon-
esty only in a blackmnfling politician
| or a crooked labor leader; both stand
| on the same plane of Consciousness.
| You will never get honesty from poll
ticians until you exact honesty from
business men: on the other hand. you
brand yourselves as fools as hypo-
| critics IL 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
|
the corporation.
Any man in his senses knows that
| there are plenty of corporations 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
tlons-and try to blackmail other peo-
pie as well. II they doubt this. let
them look at the revelations of cor
ruption In my own state-New York
and In yours. my hearers-here In
Missouri: let them look at what has
occurred in California and what has
occurred in Illinois In Illinois. for in
stance. one of the rascalities developed
by, the recent investigation was the
existence of a combination of legisla-
tors who blackmailed fishermen along
a certain river. forcing them to pay to
prevent Legislation which would have
interfered with their business.
No Distinction Of Class.
Now. scoundrels who do these kinds
of things are. of'oourse. the very men
who. on the one hand. will blackmail
a corporation. II they get a chance
and. on the other hand. will cheerfully
II the chance occurs. sell themselves to
that corporation against the interests
of the public. Their corruption is no
more due to the action of the corpora
tions than the corruption of the cor
porations is due to their action; and
evil. and not good. 10 done by the hon
est but misguided man who would per-
suade you that either fact Is true. Our
duty is to war with equal sternness
against the corrupt man of great
wealth and the small man who makes
trade of corruption: our nght is
against both the swindling corporation
and the blackmailing or bribe-taking
politician.
We cannot AFFORD to limit a campaign
against corruption to those who hap
pen to have a certain social status. We
need laws which shall put the CORPORA
ton out OF busineys. SO far as concerns
corrupting tho servants of the public
and betraying the rights of the public
I believe that the great issue now be-