Part 22

It has been indeed a pleasure for me to come to-day within the limits of your mighty and beautiful State. This afternoon I have been traveling through a veritable garden of the Lord. It is only a few weeks ago that I did my part in helping on the growth here when I signed the bill under which the Trinity River will be improved, which I was mighty glad to do. For I think that we Americans have learned the lesson that whatever is good for some of us is good for all of us. We are all going to go up, and not down, because we are going to go together. I have been impressed even more than by the beauty and fertility of your State by the character of its people. Surely no President could be more touched by any greeting than by a greeting such as this; and above all (I know the others of you will not mind my saying) to be greeted by the men who, when the hour of trial came in 1861, sprang to arms, and whether they wore the blue, or whether they wore the gray, proved the sincerity of their devotion by the valor with which they risked their lives. Oh, my fellow-countrymen, think what a blessed thing it is that now every man in this land can feel the same pride in the valor and devotion of those who fought for one side and of those who fought for the other! I can, in a sense, claim to be, by blood at least, a typical President, for I am half Southern and half Northern; I was born in the East and I have lived much in and learned much from the West.

The Civil War has left us as a heritage of honor not merely the memory of the mighty deeds done in it alike by the men of the North and the men of the South; it has left us also as an inspiration and a memory the way in which when the war was over those men turned to the works of peace, and wrought out in peace success exactly as they had wrought it out in war.

I come to Texas not for the first time. Seven years ago, again there was a call to arms, a call to arms against a foreign foe. It then fell to my lot to come here to help in raising a regiment, a regiment in which I think over half of the men had fathers who served in the Confederate army, and about one-third, perhaps somewhat more, fathers who served in the Union army. We were the sons of the men who wore the blue, the sons of the men who wore the gray, and our only desire was to show ourselves not wholly unworthy of the mighty men of the years that are past.

You of this State of Texas have behind you a history containing the deeds of which not only you but all of the country must be forever proud. My regiment was raised under the walls of that historic building of which it was said that “Thermopylæ had its messengers of death, but the Alamo had none.” You, the men of Texas, like the men of Oregon and California, like the men of Kentucky and Tennessee in a previous generation, did your part in changing this Nation from a string of Atlantic seaboard commonwealths into a people bounded only by a continent. No people more than the Texans have rendered it impossible for this country to be anything but great. It is not open to us to choose whether we shall play a small part or a great part. Your fathers helped to make that choice impossible. Play a great part we must. All that we can decide is whether we shall play it well or ill; and I know too well, oh, my fellow-countrymen, not to know what your decision will be.

The problems change. One generation faces different difficulties from the difficulties faced by its predecessors. But the spirit in which those problems must be faced is forever the same. You, the men of the Civil War, who wrought deeds of deathless fame, who left memories of honor that will last as long as this Nation endures, fought with muzzle-loading, percussion-cap muskets and rifles, with cannon that you could afford to put out in the open when you wanted to shoot at the foe. You fought still in the shoulder-to-shoulder tactics. Nowadays men must fight with different weapons; men must fight with different tactics; but the spirit in which they must fight if they are to win must be the spirit that sustained you alike in triumph and defeat. The outward problem changes, the outward means of solving that problem changes, but the heart of the man who is to solve it can not be changed. We must show as a Nation now the same spirit that has been shown by the mighty men of times past under penalty of failure; show it in war if the need arises; and we must also show it in peace; show it in the days that are with us all the time instead of waiting for the heroic days that may never come.

Just as in time of war the man who does his duty in camp, on the march, who does not throw away his blanket at noon because it is heavy, and then wishes that he had two at midnight, is the type of man who makes the best soldier in the long run; so it is true that in civil life the man who does his duty as a citizen in the long run is the man who does his ordinary work day by day, doing each day’s duty, great or small, behaving as he should toward his wife, toward his children, toward his neighbor, in his business, in his home; and if he does those duties well the sum of the duties performed means that he is a good citizen.

I want you men of Texas, you men of my age, to see to it that exactly as you lift your heads higher because of what your fathers have done, so your children have the right to hold their heads higher because of the way in which you handle yourselves. A glorious memory is the best of all things for a nation if it spurs that nation on to try to rise level with that memory. It is a poor thing for a nation if it uses the memory of the past to excuse it for inaction or failure in the present. Keep it before yourselves ever that the very fact that you are proud of those who have gone before makes it incumbent upon you to leave a heritage of honor to those who are to come after you, and to train up those who are to come after you so that they can do their work in the world. One of the things that has pleased me most in passing through the part of your State that I have passed through this afternoon was to see the care that you are giving to the education of the children, to see the public schools and the private schools that you have built and in which your boys and girls are being trained. Do not forget that besides the training of the school must come the training in the family. Take care the next generation is able to rise level to its duty. You can not make it rise level if you do not give it the proper training. Remember always that this life is certain to contain much that is hard, much that is unpleasant. It is not a kindness to the children, it is a curse, if you train them so that they can not meet any need that arises. I do not believe that we ought ever to try to delude ourselves with the thought that we can make life easy, effortless, and yet keep it worth having. For a nation as for an individual the life is the life of effort. You have made this great State of Texas what it is because your forefathers had in them the spirit which recognized in a difficulty something not to be flinched from, but to be overcome.

I can not sufficiently thank you for the way you have greeted me to-day. I am more touched than I can express by it. I come to the soil of this State, hallowed by the great deeds of great men, I come knowing your people already and believing in them with my heart and soul. A couple of years ago I went from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I have now come down to this mighty State, this wonderful commonwealth, which borders on the Gulf, and I shall go away with the feeling that after all, while there are small differences among us, the fundamental fact is that wherever you find the average American, the average American is a pretty good man. It is our unity, not our divergency, that is the great fundamental fact of our national life. I shall go away a stronger and better American for having been in this State of strong and good Americans, this mighty commonwealth of Texas.

AT THE BANQUET AT DALLAS, TEX., APRIL 5, 1905

_Mr. Toastmaster, and you, My Hosts_:

Before I came to Texas I knew the generous hospitality which is one of your chief characteristics, and I anticipated a good reception, but neither I nor any one else could have anticipated such a reception, and it has touched me and pleased me more than I can well say. I think I was a middling good American before I came here, but I go away an even better one.

Mr. Simpson spoke of the fact that nearly seven years ago I came to this State to take part in raising a volunteer regiment. Many among you who served on one side or the other in the Civil War will remember the number of things that you did not know at the beginning. If you will take that lack of knowledge and multiply it by two you will get a fair estimate of what I and the regiment did not know when we started. That we learned something I hope is true.

I want to say a word of serious thanks to you, and a word as to my accountability as a steward to you. No man is fit to hold the position of President of the United States at all unless as President he feels that he represents no party but the people as a whole. So far as in me lies I have tried and shall try so to handle myself that every decent American citizen can feel that I have at least made the effort. Each man has got to carry out his own principles in his own way. If he tries to model himself on some one else he will make a poor show of it. My own view has been that if I must choose between taking risks by not doing a thing or by doing it, I will take the risks of doing it.

I have been a very close student of Texan history. The history of your State has always held a peculiar fascination for me. I had begun certain historic studies connected with the growth of our Western people many years ago, before I took much of a part in public life.

However little some of you may now agree with me, when you come to take into account what I have done in the Caribbean Sea, in future you will find that I have been carrying out the doctrine of the Texans who made Texas what it is. Especially as regards what was done in Panama, I want to say that while I was most anxious to deserve the approval of my countrymen, and while I was very glad to be elected President, I would without one moment’s hesitation have given up the second term in the Presidency rather than not to have begun the Panama Canal.

Now in the same way with our internal affairs; take what the toastmaster was kind enough to say as to my standing for a square deal. I want that understood literally. I do not want it exaggerated on one side or the other. When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean, and nobody who speaks the truth can mean, that he believes it possible to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall not be any crookedness in the dealing. In other words, it is not in the power of any human being to devise legislation or administration by which each man shall achieve success and have happiness; it not only is not in the power of any man to do that, but if any man says that he can do it, distrust him as a quack. If the hand of the Lord is heavy upon any man, if misfortune comes upon him, he may be unable to win; or even if fortune favors him and he lacks the courage, the nerve, the common-sense, the ability, to do the best with the chance given him, then he will fail. All any of us can pretend to do is to come as near as our imperfect abilities will allow to securing through governmental agencies an equal opportunity for each man to show the stuff that is in him; and that must be done with no more intention of discrimination against the rich man than the poor man, or against the poor man than the rich man; with the intention of safeguarding each man, rich or poor, poor or rich, in his rights, and giving him as nearly as may be a fair chance to do what his powers permit him to do; always provided he does not wrong his neighbor.

This is not in the least a partisan question. It is one of those questions that affect all our citizens, a question that goes to the root of our citizenship; and when it comes to a question like that you citizens of this country have the right to expect your representatives in public life to join hands and work for the common good and without regard to any mere party differences. As to the details of carrying out those general principles we can not expect everybody to agree. My own views are pretty definite, both about foreign and domestic policies. In foreign policies, for instance, I have this strong belief, which I am sure will appeal to every cow-man present—never draw, unless you mean to shoot; and that implies, of course, that when you draw it shall not be an empty gun. Do not speak impolitely, disrespectfully of other nations. Always treat them with courtesy. Remember that nobody likes to be insulted. One would rather be wronged than insulted; and this is just as true internationally as among individuals. Always speak courteously; be dead sure you are right before going into trouble; being in, see it through.

As a corollary to that, if you need a weapon which you can not possibly improvise, get it ready in advance. The individual who gets into trouble and then thinks he will go and buy a six-shooter is left. He does not want to get into trouble unless he has the six-shooter. It is just so with us. We have built up and are building up a pretty good navy. If we had not done that and were not doing it, I for one would not have recommended going into the Panama business, and I would not advocate the Monroe Doctrine, for I do not intend to go into anything and make a bluff and then have the bluff called and not be able to make good.

In the same way when you come to internal affairs; I have advocated giving the Interstate Commerce Commission increased power; power that will enable it to work effectively and quickly. I should not do that for one moment if I believed that there would be injustice done to the railroads by the Interstate Commerce Commission. I wish it understood definitely that if I find any subordinate of mine doing an injustice against a railroad, or doing an injustice for it, I will cinch him just as quickly in one case as in the other. I shall expect him to do the square thing, both by the railroad and by the public. If the railroad wants more than it is entitled to have, then he must decide against it; if the public ignorantly demands that the railroad shall do more than it can with propriety do, then just as fearlessly he must antagonize public sentiment, even if the public sentiment is unanimous.

These are the general principles. It is much easier to lay down general principles than it is to work out those principles in detail. But I have told you substantially what are, as I regard them, the main features of the platform upon which I stand, and I think that you agree with me that it is a pretty straight American platform.

TO THE LEGISLATURE OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TEX., APRIL 6, 1905

_Governor, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President pro tem., Senators, and Members of the House of Representatives, and all of you, men and women of Texas, those whom I am so proud to call my Fellow-Americans_:

No President of the United States, no good American proud of his country, could enter this Capitol and stand in this hall without feeling a certain thrill of pride in his citizenship, and in the history of the country’s past. This building in which we are now is not only one of the largest but one of the most beautiful of its kind throughout the world. It is eminently fitting that so great a State should have so fine a capitol building.

There are one or two things that I would like particularly to say in this chamber, and to the members of the Texas Legislature. I received a copy of the resolution passed by your body, introduced, I understand, by ex-Minister Terrell, in reference to the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act. I wish to thank you most heartily for what you did. I think, Governor, Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen, that the longer our experience in public office is, the more we realize that at least ninety-five per cent, if not more, in importance, of the work done by any public officer who is worth his salt has nothing whatever to do with partisan politics. The things that concern us all as good citizens are infinitely larger than the matters concerning which we are divided one from the other along party lines. Fundamentally our attitude in our foreign affairs and in reference to foreign nations must in the long run, if we are to be successful as a people, be based upon certain common-sense rules of conduct, the identical rules upon which every self-respecting citizen must base his private actions.

This is equally true as regards all questions dealing with capital and labor; and especially with those dealings with the great aggregates of capital usually to be found in corporate form through which so much of our business at the present day is conducted. It is essential, in dealing thus by legislative action with corporate wealth, or indeed with wealth in any form, that we remember and act upon certain rules simple enough and commonplace enough to state, but not always easy to act upon. Most emphatically we can not as good Americans bear hostility to any rich man as such any more than to any poor man as such. My experience has been that the man who talks over-loudly of his hostility to corporate wealth can not be trusted even to antagonize corporate wealth when it is wrong. Let us be moderate in our statements; but let us make our deeds bear out absolutely our words.

With this preliminary I would like to say in brief just what my position is as regards the particular question with which I had to deal and as regards which the Texas Legislature took the action I so much appreciate.

On the whole there have been few instruments in the economic development of the country which have done more for the country than the railroads. I do not wish in any shape or way to interfere with the legitimate gain of any of the big men whose special industrial capacity enables them to handle the railroads so as to be of profit to themselves and of advantage to all of us. I should be most reluctant—I will put it stronger than that—I should absolutely refuse to be a party to any measure, to any proposition, that interfered with the proper and legitimate prosperity of those men; and I should feel that such a measure was aimed not only at them, but at all of us, for any attack upon the legitimate prosperity of any of us is in the long run sure to turn into an attack upon all. With that proviso (as to which I ask you to remember that I mean literally every word) let me further add that the public has the right (not a privilege, but in my view a duty) to see that there is on its behalf exercised such supervisory and regulatory power over the railroads as will ensure that while they get fair treatment themselves, they give it in return. The proper exercise of that power is conditioned upon the securing of proper legislation, which will enable the representatives of the public to see to it that any unjust or oppressive or discriminating rate is altered, so as to be a just and fair rate, and is altered immediately.

I know well that when you give that power there is a chance of its being occasionally abused. There is no power that can be given to the representatives of the people which it is not possible to abuse. As every one knows, the power of taxation, which must of course be given to the representatives of the people, is the power of death, for it is possible to kill any industry by excessive taxation. There must be a certain trust placed in the common-sense and common honesty of those who are to enforce the law. If it ever falls, and I think it will, to my lot to nominate a board to carry out such a law, I shall nominate men, as far as I am able, on whose ability, courage, and integrity I can count, men who will not be swayed by any influence whatever, direct or indirect, social, political, or any other, to show improper favoritism to any railroad, and who, on the other hand, if a railroad is unjustly attacked, no matter if that attack has behind it the feeling of prejudice of ninety-nine per cent of the people, will stand up against that attack. That is my interpretation of the doctrine of the square deal.