Carson City daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1907-1930, 1912-08-06
Conclusion,

In summing up the specific policies
e%xpounded in his address Mr.. Roosevelt
spoke us follows:
"\ow, friends. this is my confession
Of faith. | have made it rather long
because l wish you to know just what
my deepest convictions are on the
great questions Of today, so that if you
choose to make me your standard bear.
er in the fight you shall make your
choice understanding exactly how |
feel-and if. after hearing me. you
think you ought TO choose some one
else I shall Loyalty abide by your choice.
The convictions to which / have come
have not been arrived at as the result
of study In the closet or the library.
but from the knowledge | have gained
through hard experience during the
many years III which. under many and
varied conditions. ] nave striven and
toiled with men. | believe in a larger
use of the governmental power to help
remedy industrial wrongs because it
has been borne in on me by actual ex-
perience that without the exercise of
such power many of the wrongs will
20 unremedied. | believe in a larger
opportunity for the people themselves
directly to participate in government
and to control their governmental
agents, because long experience has
taught me that without such control
many Of their agents will represent
them badly. BY actual experience in
office ! have found that, as a rule. |
could secure the triumph of the causes
III which l most believed, not from the
politicians and the men who claim an
exceptional right TO speak in business
and government, but by going over
their heads inc appealing directly to
the people themselves.
II am not under the slightest delusion
as to any power that during my polit.
zeal career | have at any time possessed.
Whatever Of power l at any time had
| obtained from the people. could
exercise 1t only so long as and to the
extent that the people not merely be
lieved in me, but heartily backed me
up. Whatever | did as president | was
able to do only because l had the back
ing of the people. When on any point
= Niu IVl hpN lItI puckluS, when on
any point | differed from the people, it
mattered not whether / was right or
whether | was wrong. my power van
ished. l tried my best to lead the peo-
pie, to advise them, to tell them what
| thought was right; if necessary l
never hesitated to tell them what |
thought they ought to hear, v though
1t would be unpleasant for them to
hear ii, but | recognized that my task
was to try to lead them and not to
drive them, to tax them into my conf
dence, to try to show them that | was
right and then Loyalty and In good faith
to accept their decision. i will do any
thing for the people except what my
conscience tells me is wrong, and that
| can do for no man and DO set of men.
! hold that u man cannO serve the
people well unless he serves his con
science, but l hold also that where his
conscience bids him refuse to do what
the people desire he should not try to
continue in Office against their will.
Our government system should be so
shaped that the public servant, when
he cannot conscientiously carry out
the wishes of the people. shall at their
desire leave his office and not misrep-
resent them in office, and l hold that
the public servant can by so doing bet
ter than in any other yyav servo both