New Britain herald., 1924-09-24


 Colonel Roosevelt with magnificent rhinoceros-foot tobacco-box, mount ed in silver and with silver replicas of rhinoceros and buffalo head upon the lid.
 Sir Frederick Jackson then pro- posed the health of Theodore Roose- welt. The toast was received with remarkable outburst Of wild en- thusiasm, everyone springlng to his feet and singing For he's aI jolly good fellow" with true Highland honors.
 Colonel Roosevelt was obviously deeply touched and moved by the genuine warmth of his. reception. This ovation was renewed when he rose to his feet to reply to the ad- dress >-of welcome, his long speech being listened to with rapt atten- ton and punctuated throughout with extraordinary outbursts of cheering and applause.
 CHAPTER XIV
 Roosevelt Speaks at NairObia
 Believe me, am very deeply touched with thn fresh' display of kindness and goodwill which have received ever since l. have set my foot in British East Africa. You, Sir Frederick. have been especially good. By far the major portion of the pleasure and success of my trip is due to your effort, and l am glad of the chance of thanking you all--the officials, settlers and mis- sonaries ahke--for the way in which I have been treated"
 Theodore Roosevelt's measured words feli-slearly on the ears of the representative gathering of East Africans who had assembled to do him honor. Every face was turned toward the speaker, and their aNen- ton was wholly centered>on his ut terances.
 From the very first time stood on the Kapiti Plains" continued Roosevelt, it struck me as familiar to the conditions as I knew them out west some twenty years ago; and l believe from my heart that the same wealth that has come to the west, during the last quarter of a century. will come here to British East Africa-so alike is the condi- tion of Fundamentals.
 T think few people realize, out side of Africa, that there is here in Africa, under the equator, real white mans country. Before I came out here people had told me that white children would not do well out here; but I have visited the homes of settler after settler, espe- ciallyy those from South Africa both British and Dutch, where I saw large families of children of every age, who had never been out of the country and who were as sturdy as anyone could wish to see them. At Kijabe, among the missionaries. saw children, and young men and women, who had grown up in Africa, not. having left it for a decade, and who were as healthy as possible. Of course, there are plenty of places which are un- healthy; and if you follow the career of a hunter you must now and again get into these places and must expect, in consequence, now and then to meet with sickness.
 But there are very large. tracts fit for a fine population of healthy and prosperous settlers; and, as this is one of the few regions of the world still left which is fit for new white settlement, it would be a real calamity to neglect it., <kg
 Here where we are now, the greatest need is to help white set- tlement. Of course, the settlers must be of the right type. There has been remarkable spread of the English-speaking race over the waste spaces of the earth.
 Credit is due to the people who stay at home. But the major DOT tion' of>the credits due to those who go out and conquer these wild continents. The frontier isn place for weak and shiftless people. and the Submerged tenth offers exactly the type of persons who cannot prosper in a new country. But the same kind of man who did well when he went to the far west. to the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, thirty years ago, can do well here. ,.
 From sugar and cotton to wheat and wool, |, apples and strawberries. you grow almost everything. And l believe that one or the feats which, in the. future, will be held especially to the credit of the white race dur ing the last decade is the building of the Uganda Railway.
 T am ever an expansionist, When we found that We had to build the Panama Canal, we did not consider whether or not it would pay. It had to be done. and it was up to us to do it. In the building of the uganda Railway you have thereby created a permanent highway be- tween fertile mid Africa. with it's genuinely tropical characteristics, and the ocean. Sa
 'I have not the slightest sympathy with those who expect an immediate money return on this railway. Speaking as an outsider. 1t is difti- cult to speak with patience of those who speak querulously and wonder if it is a good thing.
 Just as in our west the great railroads were built. not because the country already needed them, but to build up country which should in the future need them. so here with you the. railroad had been built to develop and build up the country; and ample time should be given before f can be expected to pay. }7
 "I believe this country has 8 great agricultural and industrial future: and, meanwhile. it occupies an lpique position as the most attrac-