Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-08-29
ROOSEVELT To
THE RANCHMEN
Speech Made BY The Former
President During His Visit
At Cheyenne.
HAD ENJOYABLE TIME
speclaI bp Untted Press Rira.

mer President Roosevelt had IN en-
1oyable time here Saturday at the
ranchmen's show. During the day
he addressed the crowd as follows: -
When, at the close, Of my hunt
ing trip in Africa, 1 reahced the
morders of civilization, the first in
Vitation l accepted was this, to visit
the capital of Wyoming on the day
when the people of the frontier came
together to commemorate their
achievements; I was glad it was SO,
because l have a peculiar feeling for
the men and women Of what used to
be called the Far West and espe-
cially for those of the cattle coun-
try.
For a number of years ! lived
on a ranch on the Little Missouri,
sharing work and play, good fortune
and bad fortune, with my neigh
bors; working on the roundup, serv-
Ing as a delegate from the Little
Missouri roundup district to the
Montana Stock Growers Association,
and even at times acting as deputy
sheriff at my end Of the county. I
count those years as among the most
valuable of my life, because nothing
breeds such community of feeling as
to work with ones fellow-men at
their life tasks, and to learn to know
their feelings by actually sharing
them. The mar of the west, through
out the successive stages Of western
growth, has always been of the
two or three most typical figures
indeed, I am tempted to say the
most typical fgure-in American
life, and no man can really under
stand Jul country and appreciate
what 1t really Is and what it prom
1ses unless he has the fullest and
closest sympathy with the ideals and
aspirations Of the west.
"The prime reason for this Is to
be found in the fact that the west
erner is so good an American. He
Is an American first and foremost
for this Is the great lesson, friends,
that all of us need to learn and to
keep, the lesson that 1t Is unimport-
ant whether a man lives north or
south, east or west, provided he Is
genuinely and in good faith an Am
erican, that he feels every part of
the United States as his own, and
that he is honestly DESTROYS to up
hold the interests Of all other Ameri-
cans In whatever sections of the
country they may dwell.
"The west stands for growth, for
progress. So must the whole Amer
lean people stand. A great democ-
racy must be progressive or it will
soon ease to be either great or dem
ocrattc. No nation, no state, no
party can stand still. 1t must either
gov fnrryo WI Nr W. Ena11-,1- a-5 ~
becomes useless if it goes backward,
Therefore, ] greet you, men Of the
west, and I stand for progress as all
men must stand who are progress
sive.
1.-THE pioneer days are over, save
in a few places; and the more COM
pick life of today calls for a greater
variety of good qualities than were
needed on the frontier. There is
need at present to encourage the de-
velopment Of new abilities which can
be brought to high perfection only
by a kind of training useless in pio-
neer times, but these new qualities
can only supplement, and never sup
plant. the old, homely virtues; the
need for the special and distinctive
pioneer virtues Is as great as ever,
In other words, as u civilization
grows older and more complex,
while 1t Is true that we need new
forms of trained ability, and need to
develop men whose lives are devoted
wholly to the pursuit Of special OBJ
jects, 1t is not also true that we need
a greater and not a less development
OF the fundamental frontier virtues.
These. virtues include the power of
self-help, together with the power
of joining with others for mutual
help, and what Is especially import
ant, the feeling of comradeship, OF
social good-fellowship.
Now, so far as possible these
| qualities and the conditions that
bring about these qualities should be
kept in the great states which are
growing out of the old frontier COM
munities. In continually and earn
estly striving for this betterment of
social and economic conditions In
our complex industrial civilization
we should work in the old frontier
spirit of rugged strength and cour-
age, and yet with the old frontier
spirit Of brotherly comrades and
good will. I do not mean hat we
SAOlhlu refrain HUN udLiuS nlOhS
on the contrary, / would preached
fiery wrath against wrong. But
would not preach such wrath against
the wrong-doer, save in those cases
where his wrong-doing really is due
to evil moral attributes on his part
and not to a wrong or false system
of which he Is almost as much thu
victim as the beneficiary. Some
times a wrong represents the DELHI
crate wickedness of the wrong-doeT
in which case the remedy is to pun
ish him; but sometimes 1t represent
the effects of a false social system
in which case the right course is I
alter what Is false in the system.
Before ending ! wish to say
word on something which 1 believ
should especially interest all me
who live in the open country, and es
pecially all men who during the pas
thirty years have lived and worke
] on ranches, OR have done their If
/ work in the wilder parts of on
: land, on the great plains or anon
the mountains.
"The artists who saw the pi'
. turesqueness of the backwoodsma
lacked the genius adequately I
} commemorate it, while the artists {
real ability unfortunately had thei
eyes turned towards Europe, an
I lacked the robust originality-whic
D the novelist Cooper showed-to sc
! where their chance lay to do a gref
. work. But in our generation, fc
our good fortune a great artit;
D arose who was capable of seeing an
recording the infinite PICTURESQUE