The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1910-08-31
GOOD GlTIzEAS
AR NEEDED.
Roosevelt Takes Up Problem
Of Our Government.
MUST CONTROL THE TRUSTS.
Of 0aT. G0VefRngnt.

r. - ~ sf3e = - NJ - lfhE a taf ~ r.
is Not In Favor Of Government Owner
ship of Railroads. He Says During
osawatomio tkan.l sPeeoh-Finan.
elal Systems Should Be Investigated
a. Once.
osawatomle, Kan, Aug. ai.-There
have been two great crises in our
country's history-frst when It was
formed and then again when 1t was
perpetuated. The formative period In
cluded not merely the Revolutionary
war. but the creation and adoption of
the constitution and the first dozen
years Of work under It. Then came
sixty years during which we spread
across the condnent-years of vital
growth. but Of growth without rather
than growth within.
Then came the time of stress and
strain which culmiEated In The civil
war. the period of terrible struggle
upon the issue of WHICH depended the
justification of all that we had done
earlier and which marked the second
great period of growth and develop.
ment within.
The name of John Brown will be
forever associated with this second
period of the nations history. and
KANSAS was the theater upon which
the first act OF the second of our great
national life dramas was played.
1t was the result of the struggle In
Kansas which determined That our
country should be in deed rs well rs
in name devoted to both union and
freedom, that the great experiment of
democratic government on a national
scale should succeed and not fail.
1t was heroic. struggle. and. MS is
inevitable with all such struggles. It
had also dark and terrible side. Very
much was done OF good and much also
of evil, and, as was Inevitable in such
a period Of revolution. often the same
mnD did both good evil.
For our great good fortune as n M.
ton we. the people of the United
States as n whole. can now afford to
forget the evil or at least to remember
1t without bitterness and TO ok our
eyes with pride on the good that was
accomplished. siy,,y.
Problems of Life.
Even In ordinary times there are
very few of US who do not see the
problems of life US through a glass
darkly, and when the slass Is clouded
by the m1fk Of furious popular pas.
sion the vision of the best and the
bravest isEdimmed.
Looking back. We are all of us now
able to o5ustlcc to the valor and the
disinterestedness and the love of the
right as to. each 1t was given to see the
right, shown both by the men of the
north and the men of the south III that
contest which was finally decided by
the attitude of the4westl
We. can admire the heroic valor. the
sincerity. the self devotion shown
alike by the men who wore the blue
and>the men who wore the gray, and
our sadness that such men should have
had to fight one another is tempted by
the glad knowledge that ever hereafter
their descendants shall be found 6ghs.
Ing side by side, struggling In peace
as well us In war for the uplift of their
common country, all alike resolute 10
raise to the highest pitch of honor and
usefulness the nation to which they all
belong.
As for the veterans of the Grand
Army Of the Republic, they deserve
honor and recognition such as are pald
to no other citizens of the republic
for 10 them the republic owes Its all.
for to them 1t owes its very existence.
do not speak of this struggle Of the
past merely from the historic stand
point. Our interest is primarily In the
application today of the lessons taught
by the contest Of half century ngo.
1t is of little use for US TO pay liz
loyalty to the mighty men Of the past
unless we sincerely endeavor TO apply
TO the problems of the present pre-
cisely the qualities which in Other
crises enabled the pen of those days tt
meet those crises.
1t is half melancholy and half anus
Ing to see the way in which well mean
ing people gather to do honor to the
men who in company with john Brown
and under the lead of Abraham Lin
coin faced and solved the great prob
lens Of the nineteenth century, while
at the same time these same good peo
Pile nervously shrink from or frantlcal
ly denounce those who are trying Il
meet the problems of the twentieth ii
the spirit which was accountable fol
the successful solution of the problem!
of Lincoln's time.
Lineoln's Forecast.
OF that generation of men to whom
we owe so much the man to whom W,
owe the most is, Of course, Lincoln
Part Of our debt to him is because HI
forecast our present struggle and saw
the way out BE said:
~ hold that while man exists 1t 4
his duty to improve not only his owl
condition, but to assist in amelioratlnl