Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-04-30
.AMERICAN|SM ON TRIAL,
Says COLONEL IN WEST
Asks People There to Take Lead In
Effort for Robust and Virile
s. Nnti,nalfsn. -
ADDRESSES BAR OF ILLINOIS
.A1ludes to Conditions in Mexico and
I'm Europe and Urges Industrial
and Social as Well ms Military Pre-
parcdness.

CHICAGO. April 2o.-Americanism is
on trial. with tho national character in
the balance. Theodore Roosevelt said
in preparedness appeal hero tonight
to tho people living in the territory be
tween the Allcghanies and the Rockies
The former President. speaking before
the Illinois Bar Association, discussed
National Duty and International
Ideals" alluding to conditions in
Mexico and in Europe. and urging in
dustrial and social. as we'll as mill
tary. preparedness.
II ask you OF the West" he said.
ITO take the lead in the. effort for n
robust and virile nationalism, ut and
ready TO cope with all possible dangers
at home and abroad. :. I ask for
military preparedness as an arm to
help the soul of the nation. I ask for
II to quicken tho national conscience,
to help the national discipline.
1 ask you to prepare. so that we may
secure peace for ourselves and for
others; not the peace of cowardice nor
the peace OF selfishness. but the peace
OF righteousness and of justice, the
peace Of brave men pledged to the SER
vice OF this mighty democratic republic,
and through that service pledged also
to the service Of the world at large.
Our national character Is in the bal
ance. Americanism is on trial. If we
produce merely the self seeking, ease
loving. duty-shirking man, whether he
be a mere materiallst or a mere silly
sentimentalist; II we produce only the
Americanism Of the CRATER and the
mollycoddle and the safety first. get
rich quick. peace-at-any- price man. we
Will have produced an American faith
ful only to the spirit of the Tories OF
1916 and the Coppeheads OF 1861. and
fit only to vanish from the earth"
Colonel Roosevelt said he did not
agree with those prophets of gloom
who have said that tho West, prosper
Gus and Indifferent, secure in her
fancied safety because she is in the
middle OF the continent, cares nothing
of tho dangers that might bcfall the
cities on the Atlantic or the Pacific
Coast, cares nothing for what has be-
fallen the dwellers along the Mexican
boundary"
WEST is PECULIARLY
AMERICAN SECTION OF LAND
'Tf did," he declared, II should de-
SP"'h Va NhO tcpuDliC. lne west Is,
to peculiar degree. the democratic,
the intensely and characteristically
American section of our land. The
West produced for the service of tho
whole nation Abraham Lincoln and
Andrew Jackson, and know that their
spirit Is still the spirit Of her sons. T
appeal to the mon of the West to take
the lead In the movement for the gem
uine naturalization of our people,"
Discussing industrial preparedness,
Colonel Roosevelt said he stood heart
lily for protection" "By that mean,
not only protection to American, indus
tries and to tho material interests of
American workingmen, farmers and
business men" he explained; II also
mean, and with svep greater emphasis,
protection for tho whole American ma
tlon; protection forS American honor.
Y EContinued On Tenth PageS