The Elbert County tribune., 1910-09-02
HONESTY IS NOT A
MATTER OF PARTY
Prime Necessity to Our Success
as Nation, Says Roosevelt.
ADDRESS AT KANSAS CITY
Great Issue Declared to Be Doing
Away With Special Privilege
Praise Is Given Senator
Bristow.

rresiGent Roosevelt arrived here
shortly after noon today. and spent
the day as the guest of the CONNER
cial club. The reception committee
and the Thirteenth regiment met
him at the station and there was a
short parade through the city to the
Hotel Baltimore, where luncheon was
served. Among the guests were Gov
ernor Hadley of Missouri, Governor
Stubbs of Kansas, General Funston
and the senators from Missouri and
Kansas.
Makes Lively Speech.
This evening, after a dinner given
by he officers of the Commercial
club. Col. Roosevelt delivered lively
address on honesty and corruption in
the public service. 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. Hon
esty should be treated as prime ne
cessity to our success as a nation. The
minute that a question of honesty as
against dishonesty is involved, then we
must all act together as Americans.
without thu slightest regard to party
amlfattonsa Honesty is not n party
matter; and the first man to attack a
scoundrel of any party should be the
hohest men Oh tnat When in
office. 1 always proceeded upon the
theory that there would be no need
OF OF my opponents raising the cry of
Turn the rascals out" because 1
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-Ofice 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 I knew to be
beyond proof The active work of the
Investigation done by another
post-office official in whose honesty
courage. and energy L had absolute
conference.-the present Senator Bris-
tow. When he got through 1 knew
that all the rascals whose rascaIity
could be detected were out of office and
that all of them that had committed
acts which we could proceed against as
criminal were indicted or imprisoned.
As we dealt with the crooked public
official so we dealt with the crooked
private sfzen; with the rich swindler
in New York or Chicago as with the
horse thief or homicide in Indian Ter
ritory. We never attacked a man be-
cause he was a man of one political
faith or another. because he did or did
not possess wealth; and we never
shielded him because he was poor or
rioh because he belonged to any par
ticular church to any particular
party. But 1 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
man for a crime which he has not COM
mitted. Falsely accusing honest
man of dishonesty is an act which
stands on the same level of infamy
with that of the dishonest man him
self; and 1T is no higher duty to attack
the dishonest man than 1t is to exoner-
ate the honest man falsely accused;
and I should be ashamed to hesitate
the fraction of a second longer in one
case than in the other.
Honesty Is Not UniIaterai.
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 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 more unscrupu-
lous-reactionary who can see dishon-
esty only in a blackmailing politician
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 II 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
never the politician who blackmails
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 plenty of corrupt men of
small means who in Legislative or
other bodies, try to blackmail corpora
tions-and try to blackmail other peo-
pie as well. If 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 h Is
occurred in California and what has
occurred in Illinois. In Illinois, for in
stance. one of the rascalities Developed
by the recent investigation the
existence of a combination of legisla-
tors who blackmailed fishermen along
q 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 course, the very men
who on the one hand. will blackmail
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, is 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
zraalth nd the amall man WIN rnaI1ea