_Mr. Chairman and my Fellow-Citizens_:
I have only time to develop one thought to you to-day, and that is
suggested to me by a letter sent me by a labor organization here in
your city thanking me for some of the work that has been done in
Congress this year, in connection with labor matters, in connection
with what is called trust legislation. All that we have been trying
to do, with a certain fair amount of success, through legislation
and through administration, has been to do square and equal justice
between man and man; to try to give every man a fair chance, to try
to secure good treatment for him, if he deserves it, be he rich or
poor, and to try to see that he does not wrong his fellow. After all,
that is about what must be the essence of legislation, if it is to
be really good legislation. Take such a matter as these so-called
anti-trust laws—I always hate to have them called anti-trust laws
or anti-corporation laws because they are not designed to hurt any
corporation, they are simply designed for such regulations and control
as will prevent the doing of ill. Take the anti-rebate law passed by
the last Congress. It was merely designed to make effective previous
legislation, to prevent any discrimination by any railroad in favor of
or against any particular shipper—not trying to favor the big shipper
or the little shipper; only trying to secure a fair deal for each, get
fair play for each, so that each man shall have the chance to which
he is entitled. That is not a bill aimed at the railroads, it is only
aimed at any railroad that does anything wrong, in the same way that
it is aimed at a shipper that does anything wrong—no more against the
big shipper than the little shipper. It is meant to do square justice
to each man, big or little, and to ensure, as far as by legislation we
can secure, that he will do fair justice in return.
Take the report of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission and the
spirit in which that commission went to work. They were not trying to
decide for the operators or for the miners. They were trying to do
justice to both the operator and the miner, and to secure justice for
the general public.
Legislation to be thoroughly effective for good must proceed upon the
principle of aiming to get for each man a fair chance to allow him
to show the stuff there is in him. No legislation can make some men
prosperous; no legislation can give wisdom to the foolish, courage to
the timid, strength to the shiftless. All that legislation can do, and
all that honest and fearless administration of the laws can do is to
give each man as good a chance as possible to develop the qualities
he has in him, and to protect him so far as is humanly possible
against wrong of any kind at the hands of his fellows. That is what
legislation can do, and that I think I may say we have successfully
tried to do both by legislation and by the administration of the law.
I have seen you grow up. I am proud of you. I can assure you that so
far as in me lies the efforts of the National Government, legislative
and administrative, will be to help you and all others of our people
in the only way in which they can be helped—to help them to help
themselves, to help them so that each man shall have the fairest field
to show the stuff that there is in him, the qualities that he has at
his command.
AT LAYING OF CORNERSTONE OF GATEWAY TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK,
GARDINER, MONTANA, APRIL 24, 1903
_Mr. Mayor, Mr. Superintendent, and my Fellow-Citizens_:
I wish to thank the people of Montana generally, those of Gardiner and
Cinnabar especially, and more especially still all those employed in
the Park, whether in civil or military capacity, for my very enjoyable
two weeks’ holiday.
It is a pleasure now to say a few words to you at the laying of the
cornerstone of the beautiful road which is to mark the entrance to
this Park. The Yellowstone Park is something absolutely unique in the
world, so far as I know. Nowhere else in any civilized country is
there to be found such a tract of veritable wonderland made accessible
to all visitors, where at the same time not only the scenery of the
wilderness, but the wild creatures of the Park are scrupulously
preserved; the only change being that these same wild creatures
have been so carefully protected as to show a literally astounding
tameness. The creation and preservation of such a great natural
playground in the interest of our people as a whole is a credit to the
nation; but above all a credit to Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. It has
been preserved with wise foresight. The scheme of its preservation
is noteworthy in its essential democracy. Private game preserves,
though they may be handled in such a way as to be not only good things
for themselves, but good things for the surrounding community, can
yet never be more than poor substitutes, from the standpoint of the
public, for great national playgrounds such as this Yellowstone Park.
This Park was created, and is now administered, for the benefit and
enjoyment of the people. The government must continue to appropriate
for it especially in the direction of completing and perfecting an
excellent system of driveways. But already its beauties can be seen
with great comfort in a short space of time and at an astoundingly
small cost, and with the sense on the part of every visitor that it
is in part his property, that it is the property of Uncle Sam and
therefore of all of us. The only way that the people as a whole can
secure to themselves and their children the enjoyment in perpetuity of
what the Yellowstone Park has to give is by assuming the ownership in
the name of the nation and by jealously safeguarding and preserving
the scenery, the forests, and the wild creatures. When we have a
good system of carriage roads throughout the Park—for of course it
would be very unwise to allow either steam or electric roads in the
Park—we shall have a region as easy and accessible to travel in as
it is already every whit as interesting as any similar territory of
the Alps or the Italian Riviera. The geysers, the extraordinary hot
springs, the lakes, the mountains, the canyons, and cataracts unite to
make this region something not wholly to be paralleled elsewhere on
the globe. It must be kept for the benefit and enjoyment of all of
us; and I hope to see a steadily increasing number of our people take
advantage of its attractions. At present it is rather singular that
a greater number of people come from Europe to see it than come from
our own Eastern States. The people near by seem awake to its beauties;
and I hope that more and more of our people who dwell far off will
appreciate its really marvelous character. Incidentally, I should like
to point out that some time people will surely awake to the fact that
the Park has special beauties to be seen in winter; and any hardy man
who can go through it in that season on skis will enjoy himself as he
scarcely could elsewhere.
I wish especially to congratulate the people of Montana, Wyoming, and
Idaho, and notably you of Gardiner and Cinnabar and the immediate
outskirts of the Park, for the way in which you heartily co-operate
with the superintendent to prevent acts of vandalism and destruction.
Major Pitcher has explained to me how much he owes to your
co-operation and your lively appreciation of the fact that the Park
is simply being kept in the interest of all of us, so that every one
may have the chance to see its wonders with ease and comfort at the
minimum of expense. I have always thought it was a liberal education
to any man of the East to come West, and he can combine profit
with pleasure if he will incidentally visit this Park, the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado, and the Yosemite, and take the sea voyage to
Alaska. Major Pitcher reports to me, by the way, that he has received
invaluable assistance from the game wardens of Montana and Wyoming,
and that the present game warden of Idaho has also promised his hearty
aid.
The preservation of the forests is of course the matter of prime
importance in every public reserve of this character. In this region
of the Rocky Mountains and the great plains the problem of the water
supply is the most important which the home-maker has to face.
Congress has not of recent years done anything wiser than in passing
the irrigation bill; and nothing is more essential to the preservation
of the water supply than the preservation of the forests. Montana
has in its water power a source of development which has hardly yet
been touched. This water power will be seriously impaired if ample
protection is not given the forests. Therefore this Park, like the
forest reserves generally, is of the utmost advantage to the country
around from the merely utilitarian side. But of course this Park, also
because of its peculiar features, is to be preserved as a beautiful
natural playground. Here all the wild creatures of the old days are
being preserved, and their overflow into the surrounding country
means that the people of the surrounding country, so long as they
see that the laws are observed by all, will be able to ensure to
themselves and to their children and to their children’s children
much of the old-time pleasure of the hardy life of the wilderness and
of the hunter in the wilderness. This pleasure, moreover, can under
such conditions be kept for all who have the love of adventure and
the hardihood to take advantage of it, with small regard for what
their fortune may be. I can not too often repeat that the essential
feature in the present management of the Yellowstone Park, as in all
similar places, is its essential democracy—it is the preservation
of the scenery, of the forests, of the wilderness life and the
wilderness game for the people as a whole, instead of leaving the
enjoyment thereof to be confined to the very rich who can control
private reserves. I have been literally astounded at the enormous
quantities of elk and at the number of deer, antelope and mountain
sheep which I have seen on their wintering grounds; and the deer and
sheep in particular are quite as tame as range stock. A few buffalo
are being preserved. I wish very much that the government could
somewhere provide for an experimental breeding station of cross-breeds
between buffalo and the common cattle. If these cross-breeds could be
successfully perpetuated we should have animals which would produce
a robe quite as good as the old buffalo robe with which twenty years
ago every one was familiar, and animals moreover which would be so
hardy that I think they would have a distinct commercial importance.
They would, for instance, be admirably suited for Alaska, a territory
which I look to see develop astoundingly within the next decade or
two, not only because of its furs and fisheries, but because of its
agricultural and pastoral possibilities.