The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-08-09

+ system of land taxation should be trieu
which promotes the actual use of land
and discourages the holding Of land
for speculation. The telegraph lines
should be owned and operated by the
government.
international Affairs.
"In international affairs this country
should behave toward other nations ex-
actly as an honorable private citizen
behaves toward other private citizens"
Our small army should have efficiency;
the navy must be steadily built up In
til lit proves possible to secure by in
ternational agreement a general reduc-
ton of armaments;" the Panama canal
must be fortified. Panama canal tolls
on deep water commerce should be
uniform to all nations, including our
selves. American coastwise vessels
should pass through the canal free, for
this would be no discrimination against
foreign nations and would give us rea-
sonable competition with t%ransconti-
mental railways. No foreign treaty
should be entered into which we do
not mean to scrupulously observe in
every particular.
Conclusion.
In summing up the specific policies
eXpounded in his address Mr. Roosevelt
spoke as follows:
Of faith. l have made it rather long
because 1 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 I
iceland if, after hearing me. you
think you ought to choose some one
else l 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 in which, under many and
varied conditions. | have striven and
toiled with men l 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
go unremedied. l believe in q 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, I
could secure the triumph Of the causes
In which | 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 and appealing directly to
the people themselves.
Il am not under the slightest delusion
as TO any power that during my polit-
ical career | have at any time possessed.
Whatever of power l at any time had
l obtained from the people. | = Id
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
l did not have that backing, when on
any point l differed from the people, 1t
mattered not whether l 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 I
never hesitated to tell them what l
thought they ought to hear, even though
1t would be unpleasant for them to
hear it, but 1 recognized that my task
was to try to lead them and not to
drive them, to take them into my conf
dence. to try to show them that l was
right and then Loyalty and In good faith
to accept their decision. 1 will do any
thing for the people except what my
conscience tells me is wrong, and that
l can do for no man and no set Of men.
l hold that a man cannot serve the
people well unless he serves his con-
science, but I 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 c~onscientiously 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 way serve both
them and his conscience.
Surely there never was a fight better
worth making than the one in which
We are engaged. 1t little matters what
befalls any one Of us who for the time
being stands in the forefront of the bat
tie. l hope we shall win, and 1 believe
that If we can wake the people to what
the fight really means we shall win.
But, win or lose, we shall not falter.
Whatever fate may at the moment
any Of us, the movement itself
will not stop. Our cause is based on the
eternal principles Of righteousness, and
even though we who now lead may for
the time fail in the end the cause itself
shall triumph. Six weeks ago. here in
Chicago, l spoke to the honest repre-
sentatives of a convention which was
not dominated by honest men, a con-
vention wherein sat. alas, a majority
OF men who, with sneering Indifference
IN oynrv n,inninlo of rfrh% 90 oatoJ a~