The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-03-29
Right to Rule.

st. Louis. March o9.-Theodore
Roosevelt spoke in this city last night.
His address. entitled "The Right of
the People to Rule" was as follows:
When l say that believe not only
IN the right OF the people to rule, but
IN their duty to rule themselves and
to refuse to submit to being ruled by
others. ! am not using a figure of
speech; am speaking of a vital issue
which fundamentally affects our
whole American life. ] not merely ad-
NIT, but insist that in all government
and especially in popular government,
there must be control: and further
more. that If control does not come
from within 1t must come from with
out. Therefore it is essential that any
people which engages in the difficult
experiment of self-government should
be able to practice self-control. There
are peoples in the world which have
proved by their lamentable expert
ences that they are not capable Of this
self-control; but / contend that the
American people most emphatically
are, capable of It. l hold that in the
long run. taken as whole. our people
can and will govern themselves great
deal better than any small set of men
can govern them.
The attempt has recently been made
to improve on Abraham Lincoln's
statement that this is a government
OF the people for the people. by the
people, AS a substitute therefore 1t
is proposed that this government shall
hereafter be government of the peo-
pie, for the people. by representative
part of the people. 1t is always dam
gerous matter to try to improve ON
Lincoln when we deal with the rights
and duties Of the people. and this par
inf .lf
a happy one. In substance it. of
course. means nothing except that this
Is to be a government of the whole
people by part of the people. We
have had such a government in vari-
GUS parts of this union from time to
time. and stripped of verbiage 1t SIM
ply means a government of the people
by the bosses. a. government of the
whole people against instead of for the
Of the people which does the bidding
Of the holders of political and financial
privilege.
Nov I want each of you to consid-
er this governmental proposition from
his own individual standpoint. Our
contention is that just as each individ-
ual wishes. and ought to wish. to rule
his own life for himself. SO that all in
divtduals taken together: that is. the
their collective life and not to be ruled
by others. Each of us here wants to
lead his own life himself. Is not that
true of each of you? 1t certainly is
true Of me. and If l found it was not
true of any of my sons I would feel
like disinheriting them. want to
lead my own life for myself and not to
have any one else lead 1t for me or
boss me in leading it. and each of you
m q ra In my fs1Sa No IL,
you mothers and fathers. want to feel
that way about your boys as they
grow up. After the hoy has gone out
into the big world, If he is worth his
salt he will want to boss the Job of
leading his own life himself. and IL
you find that he wishes he had a
guardian, or needs guardian, you
won't think much of him. This does
not mean that none Of us will make
will sometimes make mistakes. You
will make them. I will make them.
But they will be my own mistakes and
not somebody else's; and will know
that they are mistakes and will cure
them myself. whereas If somebody else
was making them for me maybe he
and I would not agree as to what we're
mistakes and what were not. and in
that case he could not cure them.
the people as a whole. All of us, you
and J.. all Of US together, want to rule
ourselves. and we don't wish to have
any body Of outsiders rule us. That
10 what free government means. If
people cannot rule themselves, then
they are not fit for free government,
and all talk about democracy is a
shame. do not for moment mean
that we. the people. will not OCCASION
ally make mistakes. but after all they
will be our mistakes and not some-
body else's. and we can cure them
ourselves. whereas IL other people rule
over US, under whatever form, even II
they are entirely disinterested, they
may make what We regard as very bad
mistakes and yet II they do not think
them such we cannot make them
change. And this is aside from the
fact that In actual life here in the
United States experience has shown
that the effort to substitute for the
genuine rule Of the people something
else always means the rule Of privilege
in some form or other. sometimes po-
litical privilege. sometimes financial
privileges. often a mixture of both.
Whenever there IL tyranny by the
majority / shall certainly fight 1t.
But the tyrannies from which we have
been, suffering In this country have,