The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-30
Colonel RooseUelt's Message to
the Middle West
Delivered at Convention Hall. Kansas City, Today

Memorial day address of Theodore
Roosevelt at Kansas City, Mo-, May
80, 1916.
/ come to Kansas City, here in the
great west, to speak on Memorial day
10 the farmers and merchants and
wage workers and manufacturers VINO
dwell west of the Mississippi What
] have to say to you is exactly what
/ should say to your fellows VINO
dwell on the Atlantic coast, or the Pa
cific slope, or beside the Greta Lakes,
or on the shores of the Gulf of Mex
leo. Ny MESA ge is a message to all
Americans. My appeal is to the spirit
of thoroughgoing Americanism in all
our people in whatever portion or the
land they dwell. In thanking all the
Observation-Disclosures. polltical ana
sociaI-whose invitation l have &C
ceuted including my comrades of the
Spanish war, I know that none OF you
will object to my putting hrst the
Grand Army of the Republic and the
Confederate Veterans l come mere
to speak on behalf of the spirit which,
in the early sixties, burned in the
hearts of the men who wore the blue
and of the men who wore the gray.
In what 1 have to say / shall appeal
with equal emphasis to the soul quail
tiles of the men who followed Grant
and of the men who followed Lee; of
all who, in the great crisis, proved
their truth by their endeavor and
showed themselves willing to sacrif1ce
everything for the right, as God gave
them to see the right But make
no appeal to the spirit of the peace-at-
any-price men of 81 OF So l ask
that we in this generation prove our
selves the spiritual heirs both OF the
men who wore the blue and of the
men who wore the gray But make
no appeal to the memory of the cop
perhead pacihsts who put peace above
l01rl Of love
of srnoney-getting before devotion to
country, and whose convictions were
too weak to stir to action their tepid
souls.
Year of Decision.
This is one of the great years of de-
cision in our national history The
way in which we. now decide Will
largely determine whether we are to
go forward in Righteousness and pow
err or backward in degradation and
weakness We are face to face with
elemental facts of right and wrong, OF
force or feebleness. According to the
spirit in which we face these facts ana
govern our actions, We shall deter
mine whether in the future we shall
enjoy a growing national life or sur
fer lingering national decay
First and foremost, friends, I ask
YOU to beware of the false prophets
both the prophets of sordid material
ism. and the prophets of that silly
sertimentalism which refuses to look
truths in the face if the truths are un-
pleasant We cannot meet the future
either by mere gross mater1allsn OF
nv mere silly sentimentalism; above
all we cannot meet 1t II we attempt 10
balance gross materialism in action by
silly sentimentalism in words In &C
tuai practice the professional pacllls sii
do not serve good. They serve eNil
They do not serve high ideals II is
not righteous to fail to fight on pc
half of assailed righteousness Sucn
course probably means sheer coward
ice and certainly means moral sur
render The men who are the loren
carriers of world civilization are those,
and only those who acknowledge the
supreme duty of protecting sacrTu
sniritual things when attacked In
actual practice the professional pacl-
fist. is merely the tool of the sensual
materialist who has no Ideals. Wnose
shriveled soul is wholly ABSORBED IN
automobiles and the MOVIES, ana
money making, and in the policies OF
the cash register and the stock ticker
and the life of fatted ease
Lie to Millennium Talk.
Two wears ago any number of per-
sons were assuring US that the day OF
great wars had passed. that II "aS
impossible that there ever Snoulu ne
great wars again; that preparedness
brought on war: that we did not need
10 take any steps in our own defense
tbst the capitalists of the world, be-
cause high finance had become inter
nationaIized. would never permit
great war; that the opinion OF tne
civilized world was enough to stop al
International outrages. This was only
two wears ago During these two
wears we have seen the most destruc-
tive war in all history waged on a
wider scale than ever in history be-
fore. Never before has there been
such slaughter as has been compress
ed into the last twenty-five months
and. alas that it should be written. the
brutality, the ruthlessness, the dlsre-
gard for international law, and the
caI1ous and calculated atrocities com
rnitted on non combatants, including
women and children, have been such
as the civilized world has not even ap-
PREACHED during the past century.
Two years ago the false prophet:
who said that there never would be
another war were applauded by al
our people who were wholly absorbed
in Lmoney-getting; by all who earee
cared only for lives of soft-ease ano
vapid pleasure; by all who liked t.
satisfy. their emotions cheaply anC
safely by applauding high sounding
phrases; and by the great mass of wei
meaning men who had not though
out the matter with conscientiou
thoroughness.
Beware of Fake Prophets.
Let US not be misled again. I'm
doubtedly as soon as this war ends al
the well-meaning, short-sighted per
sons who two years ago said Their
never would be a war again, and VIII
have been obliged to be silent on thi
particular point during the past tw'
years, will once more begin their shril
piI5ings that the last war has occurred
Once more they will demand or an
nohnce the invention of some paten
device by which strong and ruthles
and cunning men will be held in plac
by. tinid men without any prepared
ness. without any display of coura e
or acceptance of endurance, risk, la
Dor and hardship.
When this war is over it is possibl
that some one of the combatants. be
ing fully armed. will assail us beca us
we offer ourselves as rich and help
less prize On the other hand it