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Show 1 !i0 ROOSEVELT CONTINUES HIS IR SPEECHES Addresses Illinois Bar Association As-sociation on Preparedness and Urges Western Men to Lead. SAYS HE STANDS FOR PROTECTION Not Alone to American Industries, In-dustries, but for Honor, Self-respect and Position Posi-tion Among Nations. IP CHICAGO, April 29. Americanism is on trial, with the national character in the balance, Theodore Roosevelt said in a preparedness appeal here tonight to the people living in the territory "between "be-tween the Alleghenies and the Hockies. M The former president, speaking before the Illinois Bar association, discussed "National Duty and International Ideals," alluding to conditions in Mexico Mex-ico and in Europe and urging industrial and social as well as military preparedness. prepared-ness. "I ask you of the west," he said, "to. take the lead in the effort for a rust and virile nationalism, fit 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 it to quicken the national conscience, to help the national discipline. I ask you to prepare so that r may secure peace for ourselves and for others; oth-ers; not the peace of cowardice nor the peace of selfishness, but the peace of righteousness and of justice, tne peace or brave men pledged to the service of this mighty democratic republic, ind through that service pledged also to the service of the world at large. "Our national character is in the balance. bal-ance. Americanism is on trial. If we produce merely the self-seeking ease-loving, ease-loving, duty-shirking man, whether he be a mere materialist or a mere silly sentimentalist; if we produce only the Americanism of the grafter and the mollycoddle and the safety first, get-rich. get-rich. quick, peace-at-any-nrif-e man, we will have produced an American faithful faith-ful only to the spirit of the Tories of 1776 and the Copperheads of 1S61, and fit only to vanish from the earth.'' Colonel Eoosevelt said he did not agree with those "prophets of ffloom who have said that the west, prosperous prosper-ous and Indifferent, secure in her fancied safety because she is in the middle of the continent, cares nothing cf the dangers dan-gers that might befall the cities on the Atlantic or tbe Pacific coast, cares nothing for what has befallen the dwellers dwell-ers along the Mexican boundary." Products of the West. "If I did," he declared, "I should despair of the republic. The west is to a peculiar degTee the democratic, the intensely and characteristically American Amer-ican section of our land. The west produced pro-duced for the service of the whole nation na-tion Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, and I know that their spirit is" still the spirit of her sons. I appeal to the men of the west to take the lead in the movement for the genuine nationalization na-tionalization of our people. ' Discussing industrial preparedness, Colonel Roosevelt said he stood "heartily "hear-tily for protection." "By that I mean not only protection to American industries indus-tries and to the material interests of American workingmen, farmers aid business men," he explained. "I also mean, with even greater emphasis, protection pro-tection for the whole American nation, protection for American honor, protection protec-tion for America's self-respect, protection protec-tion for America's position anions the nations, protection for her when she strives, as she ought to strive, to bring peace to the rest of the world. And there can be no such protection without thoroughgoing preparation military, social aoid industrial. Colonel Roosevelt pointed to Tvhat he declared to be the nation 's failure to prepare since the European war bepan, declaring that the house of representatives representa-tives ' ' has taken what measures it could to interfere with the organizations on which we should have to rely in any belated and hurried efforts to meet our needs should we have to act in support of our note (the first American note to Germany), and has passed legislation excellently ex-cellently designed to prevent rII efficiency effi-ciency from the military standpoint." Reiterates Assertions. "If now there is no war,'' Colonel Roosevelt continued, "it will be proof positive that if fourteen months ago we had made it evident that we meant what we said, Germany would have abandoned her submarine policy and the lives of. thousands of non-combatants would have been saved, so that their blood is at our doors because we failed, when we sent that note, to show that we meant what we said. "If, on the other hand, war does , come, it will be a cruel and a dreadful thing that, having had the amplest opportunity op-portunity and time to prepare for it on the largest Bcale, we drifted into it sternforemost, having shown ourselves helplessly unable to provide in tho smallest degree to make our vast strength effective." Colonel Roosevelt reiterated his previously-uttered opinions regarding need for a larger army and navy, and pointed to conditions in Europe and Mexico as illustrating the country's needs in this respect. Discussing industrial preparedness, Odone Roosevelt declared that without it "there can be no full preparation for military servico. " What Should Be Done. "Unless our industries are highly efficient," ef-ficient," he said, "and, moreover are trained for this particular work in advance, ad-vance, the penalty will inevitably be paid in the shape of dreadful loss oi life j among our soldiers. Such a need cannot be met by government-owned and managed man-aged plants, although there should be some f.ucli to serve as checks and regulators. regu-lators. The need is to train, to educate many business firms by means of giving giv-ing them orders in time of peace for the I various things which the government I would need in enormouH quantities in I time of war. There should be a survey of the producing resources of the country coun-try and the development and practical working-out in time of peace of plans for minimum annual educational orders to be placed by the army and navy withi thousands of firms widely distributed geographically, and the enrollment in time of peace of the skilled labor which it is necessary to keep on the jobs in time of war. We shall need organizod business in time of war just as in time of peace. Our duty is to encourage it, but also to see that its activities are for the henefit of the whole countrv. The government should provide against ex- cessi vo profit-making in time of war; and it can only do this as a sequence to reasonable encouragement or tho mauy private plants which, in the event of war, could bo trusted to do public business. These plRnts, through Bonie such system as the annual educational orders above referred to, could be made ready for efficient munitions work in timo of war. Tho government encouragement encour-agement could be also used to secure as ono of its features those things for labor which it is most necessary to secure; se-cure; proper working and' living conditions condi-tions and provisions for insurance compensation com-pensation against sickness, accident and old age. No Steps Taken. 1 ' Xot one step has been taken by congress to help secure these industrial conditions. Not one stop has been taken to secure tho nationalization of industry in time of war. The railroad business in particular, in bo far as interstate commerce and everything directly or indirectly in-directly connected with it is concerned, should be made a national matter, with a national incorporation law, and the whole power of regulation (which should itself be part of a process of encouragement) encourage-ment) lodges in the federal commission, the purpose being to encourage the business busi-ness in every legitimate wav, while also seeing that it is managed hi the interest inter-est or the public, no less of the investors, invest-ors, managers and wage-workers. We can have no national economic programme pro-gramme until we make ourselves really a nation. Nation a I needs cannot be met by conflicting locality actions. This is the age of co-operation, tinrely if we really are a business people, this means that there should be co-operation and not hostility between the government and the mightv agencies through which atone modern business, especially international inter-national business, can be managed. Let the government regulate the corporations, corpora-tions, but let this regulation be an incident in-cident of hearty co-operation with them, to Fccure their well being and also the well being of those who work for them and of those for v.-horn they work. Capital Cap-ital must be organized on a large scale, just as labor must be organized on a large scale, but both forms of organization organiza-tion must justify themselves by showing show-ing that they are not only beneficial to themselves, but to the people as a whole. Must Be Efficient. "No form of government will survive . unless it can justify its existence. Boast-I Boast-I ing about democruey won t make democracy de-mocracy succeed. Yc are the greatest democratic republic, and we are false not only to our own country, but to de-'inocracy de-'inocracy everywhere if we" do not seriously se-riously endeavor to show by our actions ac-tions and success that with us the many men can .make a nation as efficient as elsewhere nations have been made efficient effi-cient by a few men. "We cannot afford to leave this democracy de-mocracy of ours inefficient. If we do it will assuredly some day go down in ruin. We cannot afford to tolerate with cynical indifference the pork-barrel theories of government so clear to the hearts of politicians of the baser sort. With a wealth of billions of dollars and a population of one hundred million, we I cannot afford to be in a condition of I utterly unstable nocial and industrial equilibrium, nor to see our sons grow up steeped in a spirit of mere selfish individualism, in-dividualism, without self-control or discipline dis-cipline or sense of co-operation, or firm- . noFS of purpose. We have great individual indi-vidual capacity. This we must keep. ' But we must train it so that we shall have great collective capacity, so that there may be that collective democratic power and discipline without which nO ereat modern democracy can permanent- j ly subsist." t |