Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1912-04-11
Colonel Again Outlines His Views
Before Immense Mass Meet
ing at St. Louis.
FREE GOVERNMENT" HIS AIM
Real Democracy as Opposed to Rule
Of Priviege-Tyranny by Minority
Menace - Representatives
Chosen to Carry Out the
Will of Those Who
Elected Them.


audience that crowded the building to
it's limit, while thousands were unable
to gain admittance.
During the day the colonel spoke at
the Merchants Exchange and the Col
lseum.
Colonel Roosevelt's address at the
Armory was as follows:
When | say that l 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, l am not using figure of
speech, l am speaking of a vital issue
which fundamentally affects our whole
American life. not merely admit but
insist that in all government and espe-
cially in popular government there
must be control; and furthermore that
II control does not come from within
1t must come from without. There,
fore 1t is essential that any people
which engages in the difficult expert
ment 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 l contend that the
American people most emphatically
are capable of 1t. I 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 government of the people,
for the people, by the people" AS a
substitute therefore it is proposed that
this government shall hereafter be a
government of the people, for the peo-
pie, by a representative part of the
people. 1t is always dangerous mat
ter to try to improve on Lincoln when
we deal with the rights and duties of
the people, and this particular at
tempt at improvement is not happy
one. In substance it of course means
nothing except that this is to be a
government of the whole people by a
part of the people. We have had such
government in various parts of this
Union from time to time, and stripped
of verbiage it simply means govern
ment of the people by the bosses, a
government of the whole people
against instead of for the interest of
the whole people by a part Of the peo-
pie which does the bidding Of the
holders of political and financial priv
ilege.
Appeals to the Individual.
Now want each of you to consider
this governmental proposition from
his own individual standpoint Our
contention is that just as each indi-
vidual wishes, and ought to wish, to
rule his own life for himself, so that
all individuals taken together; that
is, the people, must wish themselves
to rule their collective life and not be
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 found
1t was not true of any of my sons,
would feel like disinheriting them.
want to lead my own life for myself,
and not to have anyone else lead it
for me or boss me in leading 1t, and
each of you are in my class, the par
ent class, you mothers and fathers,
want to feel that way about your boys
as they grow up. After the boy 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 him
self, and If you find that he wishes he
had a guardian, or needs a guardian,
you won't think much of him. This
does not mean that none Of us make
mistakes; on the contrary, each of
us will sometimes make mistakes. You
will make them. | will make them.
But they will be my own mistakes and
not somebody else's; and l will know
that they are mistakes, and will cure
| them myself, whereas if somebody
else was making them for me, maybe
he and | would not agree as to what
were mistakes and what were not, and
In that case he could not cure them.
| Free Government.
Well, 1t Is just the same way about
the people as whole. All of u.s. you
and |, all of us together, want to rule
ourselves, and we don't wish to have
any body of outsiders rule us. That
is what free government means. If
people cannot rule themselves, then
they are not fit for free government
and all talk about democracy is a
sham. 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
somebody else's, and we can cure
them ourselves, whereas if other PEG
pie rule over us, under whatever form
even If they are entirely disinterest
ed, they may make what we regard as
very bad mistakes and yet If they dc
not think them such we cannot make
them change.
Whenever there is tyranny by the