Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-08-28
ROOSEVELT PAYS GLOWING TRIBUTE
To WESTERN men At CHEYENNE
Thousands of People Flock into Cheyenne to Greet the
Ex=President on Frontier Day. Elaborate
Wild West Program

Rockies, the country in which you
whom am now addressing lead your
lives and do your work. has grown
up within my ow1 lifetime. ! myself
saw and took part in the closing years
of the pioneer period, and 1t was my
great privilege to work side by side
with the pioneers-the ranchnen, the
miners, the cow-punchers. the mule
skinnners, the bull-whackers-who ac-
tually opened up the country. l have
seen the herds and tlocks OF the cat
tlemen and sheepmen supplant the
game; | have seen the fortunate
movement by which the small farm
has tended gradually to take the
place of the great unfenced ranch
now travel In every comfort on
railways across lands which when
first rode across them, were still the
home of the Indian and the bufralO5
and | find cities where one can OBJ
tain not merely comfort, but luxury,
in the places where thirty years ago
there was not a building beyond q
log hut or a dobie house. The men
who did this work were engaged in the
final stages of conquering the conti1-
ent; 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 feat in the history of the
progress of mankind.
II 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 either great or democratic. No
nation, no state, no party, can stand
still. 1t must either 60 forward or 60
Backward; and it becomes useless IL
lit goes backward. Therefore ! greet
you, men of the west, and stand
for progress as all men mHst stano
who are progressive.
"The pioneers and their Immediate
successors won victory only by prov
/ ing that they possessed the great,
masterful qualities which lie at the
foundation of national greatness
There are certain well-meaning men
of intellectual cultivation, but lack
ing mental and moral robustness, who
complain continually that they find
American life, and especially the HE
of those American communities en-
erging from the pioneer stage, crude
and without genius or beauty. Genius
lis fine thing for nation, but char
acter is a still finer thing, and though
beauty is good, strength is an even
greater good. The men who have
made this great republic of the west
what it is, and especially the men
who have turned It into a continental
commonwealth, have possessed In the"
highest degree the great v1rile virtues
of strength, courage, energy and un-
daunted and unwavering resolution
Their typical leaders-of whom Abra-
ham Lincoln, though the most excep-
tional was the most typical-have
possessed keen intelligence, and a.
character not merely strong but lofty
a character exalted by the fact that
great power was conquered by hfGha
and fine determination to use this
great power for the common good,
for the advancement Of mankind. The
pioneer days are over, save in few
places; and the more complex life OF
today calls for a greater variety of
good qualities than were needed on
the frontier. There is need at pres
ent to encourage the development Of
new abilities which can be brought to-
high perfection only by a kind Of
training useless in pioneer times; b1E
these new qualities can only supple
ment and never supplant, the DID,
honely virtues; the need for the s2e-
cial and distinctive pioneer virtues is
as great as ever. In other words, as
our civilization grows older and more
complex, while it is true that we need
to develop men whose lives are de
voted wholly to the pursuit of special
objects, it is yet also true that We
need a greater and not less devel:
opment of the fundamental frontier
virtues. These virtues include the
power of self-help, together with the.
power of joining with others for m,r-
tual help. and, what is especially i'm
portant, the feeling of comradeship, OF
social good-fellowship. Any man who
had the good fortune to live among
the old frontier conditions must, i'm
looking back, realize how vital was
this feeling of general comradeshio
and social fellowship. There were
good men and bad men in the new
just as in the old CON-
and the conditions on the
frontier were such that the qualities of
the good and bad alike were rather
more strikingly manifested than in
older communities; but among the
men who tried to lead hard-working,
decent lives, there was feeling Of
genuine democracy, which represent
ed an approach to the American ideal
which we certainly should do every.
thing in our power to preserve. We
did not try to say that men were
equal when they were not equal, but
we did our best to secure something