The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1910-09-02
COL. ROOSEVELT IS ORATOR
AT OSAWATOMIE CEREMONY
He Delivers the Chief Address at the Dedica-
ton Of John Brown Park, Discoursing Of
the Present Day Struggle for
Human Betterment.

his duty to improve not only his own
condition but to assist in ameior atins
mankind" And again, Labor is prior
10 and independent of capital; capital Is
only the fruit of labor, and could never
have existed but for labor. Labor Is the
superior of capital and deserves much tho
hlgher consideration. Capital has its
rights which are as worthy OF protection
as any other rights. Nor should this
lead to war upon the owners OF prop
erty. Property IL tho fruit Of labor; prop
erty Is desirable; is a positive good in
the world. Let not him who is houseless
pun down the house OF another, but let
him work diligently and build one for
himself. thus by example showing that
MS own shall be safe from violence when
oullt. 1t seems to me that in these
"oras Lincoln took substantially the atti
tuoe that we ought to take; he showed
the proper sense OF proportion in his rela-
i've estimates OF capital and labor. of
human rights and property rights. Above
all In this speech In many others he
tauSht lesson in wise kindness and
charlty; an indispensable lesson to US Of
TO-DAY But this wise ktndliness and char
NY never weakened his arm or numbed
nus heart. We cannot afford weakly to
olhd ourselves to the actual conflict
which faces us today. The issue Is join
ed and we must fight or fail.
Equality Of Opportunity.
In every wise struggle for human bet
terment one OF the main objects, and
! often the only object, has been to achieve
IN larger measure equality Of opportunity.
In the struggle for this great end, ma
tlons rise from barbarism to civilization,
ana through 1t peoples press forward from
one stage OF enlightenment to the next.
ono OF the chief factors in progress Is
the destruction of special privilege. The
essence or any struggle for healthy lib-
erty has always been and must always
be to take from some one man or class
OF men the right to enjoy power or
wealth or position, or immunity, which
mas not been earned by service to his
or their felIows
Al many stages in the advance Of hu-
manity this conflict between the men who
possess more than they have earned and
the men who have earned more than they
possess Is the central condition of prog
Tess In our day 1t appears as tho struK-
gle OF free men to gain and hold the
right of selfKovernnent as against the
special interests, who twist the methods
OF Tree government into machinery for
defeating the popular will At every
stage and under all circumstances the
essence of the struggle is to equalizs op-
portunity, destroy privilege and give to
the life and citizenship of every individ-
ual tho highest possible value both to
h'HiSeli aiid TO tne commonwealth.
PRACTICAL equality of opportunity for all
citizens, when we achieve it, will have
TWO great results. First, every man will
nave fair chance to make OF himself all
that In him lies, to reach the highest point
10 which his capacities, unassl..ed by
special privilege of his own and unham-
pered by the special privileges Of others
can carry him, and to get for himself
and his family substantially what he has
earned. Second, equality OF opportunity
means that the commonwealth will get
from every citizen the highest service Of
which he Is capable. No man who car
ries the burden of the special privileges
OF another can give to the commonwealth
that service to which 1t is fairly en-
titled
l stand for the square deal But when
1 say that 1 am for the square deal I
mean not merely that I stand for fair
play under the present rules Of the game
but that | stand for having those rules
changed so as to work for a more sub
stantial equality Of opportunity and of
reward for equally good service.
IhlS means that our governments, Ma
tlonal and State, must be freed from the
sinister influence or control of special
interests Exactly as the special interests
OF cotton and slavery threatened our po-
Htical integrity before the Civil war SO
now the great special business interests
too often control and corrupt the men and
methods OF government for their own
proHt. We must drive the special inter
ests out of politics. That Is one Of our
tasks today. Every special interest is
entitled to justice-full, fair, and com
plete-but not one is entitled to vote In
congress, voice on the bench, or to rep
resentation In any public office. The Con-
sttution guarantees protection to proper
ty. and We must make that promise good
But it does not give the right of suffrage
to any corporation.
Property Should Be tho Servant.
The true friend OF property, the true
conservative is he VINO insists that prop
erty shall be the servant and not the
master of the commonwealth; who insists
that the creature of mans making shall
be the servant and not the master of the
man who made It, The citizen Of the
United States must effectively control the
mighty commercial forces which they
have themselves called into being
There can be no effective control Of
corporations while their political activity
remains To put An end to 1t will be
neither short nor an easy task, but 1t
can be done.
We must have complete and effective
publicity OF corporate affairs, so that the
people may know beyond peradventure
whether the corporations obey ths law
and whether their management entities
them to the confidence OF the public. IT
10 necessary lIldl laws De passed
to prohibit the use OF corporate funds
directly indirectly for political pur-
poses; 1t Is still more necessary that
such laws should be thoroughly enforced
Corporate expenditures for political pur-
poses and especially such expenditures
by public service corporations, have sup
piled one Of tho principal sources Of cor
ruption in our political affairs.
1t has become entirely clear that we
must have government supervision OF the
capitalization not only of public service
corporations, including particularly rail
ways, but OF all corporations doing an
Interstate business l dc not wish to
see the Nation forced into ownership of
the railways II 1t can possibly be avoided.
and the only alternative is thorouxhgoing
and effective regulation. which shall b
based on . full knowledge Of all the facts,