Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-01
ROOSEVELT MAKES
POSITION KNOWN
Declares Radical Change in Poll
tics Needed to Save Ma
ton from Doom
PUBLIC'S RIGHTS UPPERMoST
Influence of Special Interests to
Be Removed from Govern
ment Officials
PUBLIC'S RIGHTS UPPERM0ST
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tween the national and the various
state government.
10. Direct primaries, associated with
corrupt practices acts.
16. Publicity of campaign contribu-
tions, not!only after election but before
election es well.
II. Prompt removal of unfaithful or
incompetent public servants.
is. Provisions against the perform
ance OF any service for interstate cor
porations or the reception of any COM
pensation from such corporations by
national officers.
Rosevelt's speech was as follows:
TWO GREAT CRISES
'sThere have been two great crises
In our country's history; first when
It was formed and then again when
it was perpetuated. The formative
period included not merely the revo-
lutionary war, but the creation and
adoption of the constitution and the
first dozen years of work under 1t.
Then came sixty years during which
we spread across the continent-years
of vital grow H. but of growth with
out rather than growth within. Then
came the time of stress and strain
which eliminated in the civil war,
the period of terrible struggle upon
the issue of which depended the justi-
fication of all that we had done earlier.
and which marked the second great
period of growth and development
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 Kan
sas which determined that our country
should be in deed as well as in name
devoted to both union and freedom,
that the great experiment of demo-
cratic government on a national scale
should succeed and not fail. 1t was a
heroic struggle; and, as is inevitable
with all such struggles, 1t had also a
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
man did both good and evil. For our
great good fortune as a nation, we, the
people of the United States as whole,
can now afford to forget the evil, or
at least to remember it without bitter
ness, and to fix our eyes with pride
on the good that was accomplished.
SEE LIFE DARKLY
"Even in ordinary times there are
very few of us who do not see the
problems of life as through a glass,
darkly; and when the glass is clouded
by the murk OF furious popular pas
sion the vision of the best and the
bravest Is dimmed. Looking back, we
are all of us now able to do justice to
the valor and the disinterestedness and
the love of the right, as to each it was
given to see the right, shown both by
the men of the north and the men OF
the south in that contest which was
finally decided by the attitude of the
west. We can admire the heroic yalor,
the sincerity, the self-devotion shown
alike by the men who wore blue and
the men who wore the gray; and our
sadness that such men should
have had to fight one another Is tenn
pered by the glad knowledge that ever
hereafter their descendants shall be
found fighting side by side, struggling
In peace as well as in war for the up
lift of their common country, all alike
resolute to 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 Re-
public, they deserve honor and recogni-
zens of the republic; for to them
the republic owes its all, for to them
it owes its very existence.
at do not speak of this struggle of
the past merely from the historic
standpoint. Our interest is primarily
in the application today of the lessons
taught by the contest OF half a cent
urv ago. 1t is of little use for us to
pay lip loyalty to the mighty men OF
the past unless we sincerely endeavor
to apply to the problems of the pres
ent precisely the qualities which In other
crises enabled the men of that day to
meet those crises. 1t is half melan-
ohcly and half amusing to see the way
in which well-meaning people gather
to do honor to the men who, In COM
pany with John Brown, and under the
lead of Abraham Lincoln, faced and
solved the great problems Of the nine
teenth century, while at the same time
these same good people nerVousiy
X shrink from or frantically denounce
those who are trying to meet the prob
lens Of the twentieth in the spirit
which was accountable for the success
full solution Of the problems of Lincoln's
time.
OWE MUCH TO LINCOLN
"Of that generation of men, to whom
we owe SO much, the man to whom
we owe the most Is, of course, Lin
coin. Part of our debt to him is
because he forecast our present strug-
Gle and saw the way out. He said:
"'I hold that while man exists 1t is
his duty to improve not only his own
condition but to assist in amelioratine
mankind.' And again: Labor is prior
to and independent of capital; capital
is only the fruit of labor, and could
never have existed but for labor. La
Dor is the superior Of capital and de-
serves much the higher consideration.
Capital has its rights which are as
worthy of protection as any other
rights. Nor should this lead to a
war upon the owners Of property
Property Is the fruit of labor; prop
erty is desirable--is a positive good IN
the world Let not him who is house
less pull down the home of another,
but let him work diligently and build
one for himself, thus by example
showing that his own shall be safe
fr6m violence when built 1t seems
to me that in these words Lincoln
xoo:S substantially the attitude that we
ought to take. He showed the proper
sense of proportion in his relative
estimates Of capital and labor, of hui
man rights and property rights. Above
ali. in his speech, as In many others
he taught a lesson in wise kindliness
and charity; an Indispensable lesson tc
us of today. But this wise kindliness
and charity never weakened his arm
or numbed his heart. We cannot af-
ford weakly to blind ourselves to the
actual conflict which faces us today