The San Francisco call., 1910-09-03
Friendship of Nations

In his speech at the. Omaha fiel
club Roosevelt said:
l have always felt friendly to
foreign nations. l have never
believed that in order to show
your love for your own. country
1t was necessary to be insulting
to the people of another country.
L have a feeling of friendliness
for the countries 1 visited abroad,
even greater than L had before
visiting them. But l have come
back feeling that there is no
place in the world to live except
in the United States.
In the first place there is
chance here for the average man
such as there is not anywhere
else in the world. There is not
another country where the aver
age man, man who can not eX-
pect to get to the top, has a
chance to lead his life with the
success he can achieve here. In
the second place, what is less i'm
portant and still very important,
1t seems to me. there is no place
In the world where the man who
does get to the top has a chance
10 lead a life so attractive and
iull OF interest in every way as
in the United States.
Of course, if man desires
only to lead a life of pleasure,
this is not a good country for it,
There is no good country for it
anywhere, for the simple reason
that of all dismal careers, the
most dismal, the most empty, the
least, worth living from any
standpoint, is the career of the
man who seriously devotes him
self as his sole object TO pleas
ure.
l was interested in finding that
the leading statesmen of the va
rlous countries were watching us,
We're looking at what we were
doing and We're considering the
methods we had tried to solve
the different problems before us.
They said that they were inter
ested IN US because the things we
We're doing today were the
things they would have to do to-
morrow or the day after.
You are the pioneers in solving
social problems in America and
for the whole world. 1t is for
you to solve these problems in
the spirit of democracy. / need
not say that that imposes a very
grave responsibility upon us.
Everywhere / went there was
with a much less pleasing feel
ing, over the accounts of bust
ness and political corruption that
come to Europe about what hap
pens here in America. l think
you Will probably acquit me of
any great admiration of the mere
multimillionaire at home But /
IKE MIN even less abroad
| want to call to your attention
that / nave said the mere multi
millionaire. 1t is the rich man
VINO trusts to his riches that l
II nc ~,
alre whose. sole title to distinc-
tlon is the fact that he is a multi
millionaire. Such a one is a poor
cltlzen and he is very objec-
llohaple American exhibit abroad
was always ashamed when /
abroad as the typical American
ana l felt even more ashamed
When things happened here which
gave the impression abroad that
corruption in business, in politics
ana lawlessness and brutal vio-
lence obtained here more than
they did in any other country.
Every corruption in our bust
ness or political life and every
deed of violence by a mob is a
dow at democracy. It is A blow
at self-governm The mob in
ynching a criminal puts itself
Gown on the, same level of in
Niio luS VI lilllhdl SldIuS
on. The big man of business who
sWindles the public or debauches
legislature, the grating poll
tlclan who blackmails a corpora
tlon, are all enemies of democracy
ana self government. Reports of
such corruption and lawlessness
bring joy to the hearts of every
feactionary in Europe who wants
70 see. popular government fail.
ana who is glad to see that gov
eminent by the people on a large
scale can not succeed.