Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-13
ROOSEVELT TALKS
TO THE KNIGHTS
Former President Makes Strong
Speech for BrOadeSt Re-
IigiOuS Tolerance
PLEADS FOR MOTHER PAUL
At Springfield Colonel DenounCeS
Illinois JackpOtterS'
SympathizerS
PLEADS FOR MOTHER PAUL
fAssociated Press1


dent Roosevelt came from the south
into Illinois today. In his speeches he
denounced corrupt legislatures and
commended the work which the Roman
Catholic church is doing.
Leaving st. Louis early in the day,
he Travelled across the southern end of
Illinois speaking at several places on
the way. In Peoria he was the guest OF
the knights of Columbus, to whom he
made a speech at a dinner tonight.
1t was Col. Roosevelt's first public
utterance to Roman Catholics since the
Vatican incident last spring. He said
he favored the broadest measure Of re-
ligious toleration.
In a brief speech to the crowd at the
railroad station IN Springfield, Col.
Roosevelt made what was construed as
q reference to the allegations of cor
ruption in the Illinois legislature. Hard
ly had he begun to speak when a man
in the crowd called out:
'GiVe it to the jackpotters, colonel"
Others in the crowd, to whom the
expression had become familiar since
p the confession of members of the ILL
nois legislature that they had shared in
q corruption fund which was called the
jackpot, applauded
Col Roosevelt took it up and at
tackled the men involved in the scandal
as vigorously as he did in his speech
last month at the Hamilton club in
Chicago from which Senator Lortmer
was excluded after the colonel had re-
fused to attend unless the invitation TO
Lorimer was withdrawn.
TAINTED BY SCANDAL
Good, my friend! I am glad to hear
you say that" he said. mo man who
is worth his salt will have anything to
90 with any one of the creatures who
were tainted in that scandal The most
important thing before US as people Is
to drive from public life the corruption
ist. the bribe taker, the bribe g1Ver.
The men of whom you speak as jack
potters are traitors to the American
neople. traitors of the basest kind, and
it is infamous in anyone to condone
their iniduity or to support them and
stand behind them, directly or indi-
rectly.
"The presence in public life of such
men is shame and a scandal, ana
don't care a rap whether they belong
to my party or TO some other party.
hold it my duty to be equally hostile to
them in either event"
When Colonel Roosevelt arrived in
Peoria he went to the Country club
for luncheon, then visited the home Of
followed Long before the time for
the reception the clubhouse was crowd
ed. By the time the colonel got there
the street outside was blocked. After
he had spent an hour in shaking hands
with hundreds of people the crowd in
front of the building was larger than
when he began.
PACIFIED THE CROWD
The people were told that the col
onel could not shake hands with all or
them. but they refused to go away.
Colonel Roosevelt made little speech
from the steps to pacify those who
could not get inside.
At dinner tonight Bourke Cochran
of New York. Richard Little Henry of
Chicago and DR.. r. e. Kane OF ST.
Louis made speeches
Colonel Roosevelt in his address said:
Last winter 1 visited the various
Catholic missions In Africa and just
about Christmas I was at one of them,
Bishop Hanlon's, on the shores of the
great Victoria Nyanza lake, just under
the equator. There l met one OF our
fellow Americans, Mother Mary Paul,
who was at the head of the religious
sisters of the establishment. She al
ready had been in correspondence with
me, saying that I must not go through
Africa without stopping and seeing
their mission, because she was the only
American missionary in Uganda, right
in the heart of the Dark Continent. So
of course l stopped.
"Now, the mission to which Mother
Paul belongs is doing striking and
1
ised her that would publicly tell about
this before some Catholic body and ask
that the Catholics of the United States
take an active interest in this Catholic
mission in mid-Afrtca where much good
work is being done by an American
nun.
TO HELP MOTHER PAUL
uganda is one of the places where
missionary effort has been signally sue
7
wish to bear hearty testimony to the
good work done there by the Catholic
missions, and I hope the charitable
Catholics in the United States will
gladden. the heart of Mother Paul by
backing up in substantial fashion the
missionary work to which she has given
'There is no other country in the
world where there Is such really
broad religious tolerance, such good
will, among good people of different
religious creeds, as in America. There
is no other country where Catholic
and Protestant get on as we do here,
each treating the other on the basis
of our common citizenship and judg-
ing aim not as how he Worships his
Creator, but on his conduct toward his
fellow rlen-On his own worth as
man.
1--WE must never permit anything to
make US deViate from this standpoint.
perhaps I can give you my own
theory in short form by telling you of
a correspondence l once had. Of
course in every church there are some
good men who are narrow Gas well as
some men who are narrow without
being good, and one of these good
narrow men, a Protestant clergyman,
wrote me a letter of protest about
my receiving Cardinal Satolli at the
White House.
A CATHOLIC PRESIDENT
Il wrote him back, saying that I
had received the cardinal, Just as, for
instance, 1 had received bodies of
German Lutherans and Welsh Meth
odists, and as I am expected to re-
ceive the archbishop of Canterbury,
and that 1 would hold myself to be
a poor representative Of the American
people, an unworthy president, if J
failed to treat with good will and
friendliness all good men, no matter
what their relib Gus faith might be.
and then added that / could best ex-
plain my position by saying that
believed our country would last a very
long time and that if it did there
would be many presidents and some
of these would be Catholics and some