The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-03-29
Declared Roosevelt in One of
Six St. Louis Addresses
AND NOT BE B0SSED ABOUT
Our Officials Are Not Our Bosses and
We Should Let Them Know 1t, He
Deelared-Quoted Lincoln in
Support of His Words.

st. Louis, March 29.-The last of
Theodore Roosevelt's six speeches in this
city and East st. Louis was delivered
last night on "The Right of the People
to Rule Roosevelt said:
when ! 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 9TH
ers | am not using a figure of speech,
I am speaking of a vital Issue which
fundamentally affects our whole Ameri-
can life. | not merely admit but in
sst that in all government and especial
~ in popular government there must be
control; and furthermore that if control
does not come from within it must come
from without. Therefore it is essential
that any people which engages in the
difficult experiment of government
should be able to practice self-controI.
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, / hold that in the long
run, taken as a 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 Lin
coins statement that this is govern
ment Of the people, for the people, by
the people, As a substitute therefor
it is proposed that this government shall
hereafter be government OF the people,
for the people, by a representative part
of the people 1t is always a dangerous
matter to try to improve on Lincoln |
when we deal with the rights and duties /
of the people, and this particular at I
tempt at improvement is not a happy I
one. In substance it of course means I
nothing except that this is 10 be a gov
of the whole people by a part
of the people We have had such a
government in various parts of this
union from time to time and stripped
of verbiage it simply means a govern
ment of the people by the bosses, gov.
instead Of for the interest of the whole
people by part Of the people which
does the bidding Of the holders Of politi-
cal and financial privilege.
'Now | want each of you to consider
this governmental proposition from his
own individual standpoint. Our conten.
ton is that just as each individual
wishes. and ought to wish, to rule his
own life for himself. so that all mdiyid.
lals taken together that is, the people
must wish themselves to rule their ,ol-
ective life and not to be ruled by 9TH
srs 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 it was not true Of
my of my sons | would feel like disn-
neriting them. | want to lead my own
fife for myself and not to have anyone
alse lead it for me or boss me in leading
Il. and each of you who are in my class
the parent class. you mothers and fa-
Tiers, want to feel that way about your
boys as they grow up.
After the boy has gone out into the
zig world, il he is worth his salt, he
will want to boss the job of leading
lis own life himself and if YOU find
hat he wishes he had guardian. or
reeds guardian, you won't think much
# him. This does not mean that none
# us viii make mistakes; on the con
rary. each of us will sometimes make
You will make them. | will
make them. But they will be my own
and not sometbdy else's; and
will know that they are mistakes and
will cure them myself, whereas if some
'ody else was making them for me
maybe he and ! would not agree as to /
What were mistakes and what were not,
md in that case he could not cure {
hem.
"Well, it is just the same way about I
he people as a whole. All of us, YOU {
nd |, all of us together, want to rule !
ourselves, and we don't wish to have I
NY body of outsiders rule u.s. That f.,
5 what free government means. If peo- I
lie cannot rule themselves, then they are
ot fit for free government, and all talk |
bout democracy is a sham. | do not I
or moment mean that we, the people. l
will not occasionally make mistakes, /
Mt after all they will be our mistakes a
nd not somebody elses, and we can 5
me them ourselves, whereas if other i
eople rule over us, under whatever d
orm, even if they are entirely disntcr- a
sted, they may make what we regard 0
5 very bad mistakes and vet if they \
o not think them such we cannot make a
hem change And this is aside from v
he fact that in actual life here in the t