Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1916-06-10
Col. ROOSEVELT
AT KANSAS CITY
Thousands Hear Former Presi-
dent i'm Great Address on
Preparedness.
APPEALS TO AMERICAN SPIRIT
Declares Persons Who Say There Is
No Danger to United States
Are Ignorant

Kansas City, May 31.-The greatest
Memorial Day grafton, it has been
said, was that Pericles delivered over
the first slain of the Peloponnesian
war.
A greater was spoken yesterday aft
ernoon in Kansas City by Theodore
Roosevelt to the thousands who were
fortunate enough to get into Conven-
ton Hall.
PericIes was encouraging a nation
in the midst of a war that was to last
twenty-seyen years. Roosevelt was
pleading with a nation to live up to
it's ideals in a crisis precipitated by
the worlds greatest war.
Must Be Willing to Die.
81 ask" Roosevelt said, that we in
this generation prove ourselves the
spiritual heirs both of the men who
wore the blue and the men who wore
the gray. l speak to, and on behalf
Of Nation of freemen. Freemen, hs
to be freemen, do not have to hire
other men to do their fighting. No ma
ton is really great, no race is entitled
to a permanent position of leadership
or of equality on this earth, unless its
sons are willing to die at need for
great ideals. In the long run the
country must De worm 1N1nS III IL IL
is to be worth dying for"
Fifteen thousand persons heard
Colonel Roosevelt, and more than fif-
teen thousand were turned away. 1t
W. a sight and a message to gladden.
the eyes and the ears and to thrill the
hearts of an American.
| Appeals to American Spirit.
Appealing, he explained, to 1.-The
| nit Of AmarinaniSm
in all our people, the former presi-
dent declared that those who assert
that there is no danger of the United
! States ever being attacked are either
| ignorant or forgetful of the multitude
of examples which show how interna-
tional conflicts arise, and that sit is
likely that if we are not strong
| enough to maintain our rights, in
Guiding the assertion of the Monroe
| doctrine the United States will be
subject to aggressions which it would
be obliged to resent, or else abandon
it's national greatness.
1.-The people must choose as their
executive and legislative leaders at
| Washington" Colonel Roosevelt said,
men absolutely national in spirit,
men whose theory of government is
| as far as the poles from the pork-bar-
| rel theory-and this, whether the pork
| barrel be considered from a personal
political or sectional standpoint; mel
who look forward and not back; men
who face the facts as they actually
are.
after this war we shall see a new
Europe; a Europe energetically de
veloping new social and economic
means of meeting new problems.
eff, under the circumstances, we
take refuge in formulate dug out from
the wreckage of principles in the past
instead of developing these principles
so as to meet the future, we shall be
as foolish as if we were to arm oul
soldiers with f1intlocks and send then
against an army possessing machine
guns, high power rifles and moderI
artillery.
One of the Great Years.
t "The time for flintlock theories o
craftsmanship in this country is past.
Colonel Roosevelt said his address
was directed with equal emphasis tt
t the soul qualities of the men who fol
lowed Grant and of the men who fol
lowed Lee,'' but that he made no ap
peal s'to the memory of the copperhea,
pacifists, who put peace above duty.
This is one of the great years of de
i cision in our national history" h
: said. 1.-THE way in which we now de
: eide will largely determine whethe
we are to go forward in Righteousness
and power or backward in degrada
l ton and weakness. We are face t
face with the elemental facts of RICH
and wrong, of force or feebleness. AZ
cording to the spirit in which we fac
these facts and govern our actions, w
shall enjoy a growing national life O
suffer lingering national decay"
! Colonel Roosevelt urged the natio
I to beware of the false prophets
\ professional pacifists, who, he d.
! clared, do not serve high ideals. 81
/, actual practice" he said, THE profe:
n sional pacifist is merely the tool of tn
I sensual materialist who has no ideal
. whose shriveled soul is wholly al
:, sorbed in automobiles, and the movie
and money-making, and in the policie
. of the cash register and the stoc
ticker, and the life OF fatted ease"