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Show Roosevelt's Great Speech in Utah I KNOW well the tremendous strain of undertaking a task as colossal as the organization of a now party, and I deeply appreciate disinterested disin-terested devotion and good citizenship which Is actuating those who are undertaking un-dertaking that task. I wish to ex-press ex-press my sen3e of personal obligation to them for what they have done. Friends, I would not have gone into it if it had not been borne on me that in no other way could we obtain substantial justice for our people as a whole. It is because, friends, both of the old partes are rotten at heart. Bach of them is boss-controlled' and privilege-ridden, and each is so organized or-ganized that it is incapable of facing in a serious spirit the serious problems of today. And I make my appeal to ex-Republicans and to ex-Democrats alike. I make my appeal for the new party to all good citizens, whatever their past political affiliations may have been, provided only they are loyal to the fundamental principles of our American political life. Wherever I have been on this tr' I have been greeted by men who wea the button that showa that tb ! fought in the great war. I have been 7 greeted by ex-Union soldiers and, even in the north here, by ex-Confederate soldiers, and, friends, it is fitting that the men of that great crisis, the men who proved their truth by their endeavor, en-deavor, should come forward to join the only party that is sincere In this crisis. Our opponents are fighting over again dead battle3, are reviving again vanished war cries that refer to issues that have passed away. We, and we alone, face the real issues of today, resolute to try so to bear ourselves our-selves that we may solve them, as the generation which saw the Civil War solved its issues. The first-of-all principle is the right of the people to rule themselves. And we are putting put-ting that forth, not as a mere Fourth of July oration, but as a platform which is a covenant with the people of the United States. In the Republican National convention conven-tion last June the right of the people "J to choose their own candidate was i denied them, and it was denied them . by the alliance of the boss of special privilege. I am sorry to say, denied I them in part, with the aid of repre- j sentative3 of yours from Utah, who I tfelped steal from the people the right of nomination, which was the people's. peo-ple's. And now, mind you, nominally that was a theft from mo. If It only 4 concerned myself, I should not nave J appealed to you to take any part in the matter. It was in reality a theft from you. It was the theft of your right to name your candidate. Their objection was not primarily to me. They don't like mo. They haven't any cause to and they will have still less cause to in the future. But, after all, their dislike of me was not what mainly Influenced them. They do not like mo, but they dread me. The rea- 1 son they objected to me primarily was ' because, for the time being, I repre- I' sented the movement which meant f enthroning in power the people thorn- ' sqlvos. Now, friends, I do not mean for a moment that when the people (that means you and I) get real control of 1 our government wo won't make mis- I takeB. Of course, wo will make mis takes now and then, but we will make them ourselves. We won't have any one else make them for us. If we make them ourselves we won't make the same mistakes twice. If we lot , somebody else make them for us, we , don't know how often he will make them. People, again, have sa'd that I have preached qlas.s hatred Nonsense! I have preached hatred of no class except ex-cept the claEH of crooks political 1 crooks, financial crooks, big crooks and little crooks. And even In that case, I do not really preach hatred of the crook; I preach hatred of the crookedness. crooked-ness. I do not mind the bosses if they will quit being bosses. If Archbold and Penrose will go into in-to private life and behave themselves, they will have my blessing, but I want them to quit governing me and you, and I want them to quit acting against the law. That is all. That Is a -perfectly moderate request. I would protect in every way the rights of property. Not only that, but I will protect the man of great wealth who Is honest, but I wish I could make that man of great wealth who is honest hon-est understand that he is his own worst enemy when he joln3 hands with the man of great wealth who Is dishonest, dis-honest, for the only man I am against is the man who is dishonest. As I said, I am against the big crook, not because he is big, but because he is a crook. And I am protecting them against themselves, I am protecting ip honest men of wealth against nemselves when I try to make It un-ierstqod un-ierstqod that wealth must behave Itself. It-self. I shall protect It, but as far as in me lies I intend to see that it does the justice which it requests, that the man of big mean3, who is protected in his rights, shall in return do justice jus-tice to the smaller rival, to the man who invests his "fortune, to the wage-worker, wage-worker, the employes and to the general gen-eral public with whom he deals. All I am asking, all I am endeavoring to secure Is ordinary justice, ordinary fair dealing, and that I intend to secure if it is in me to secure it. And, friend3, I feel that I have a peculiar right to come out here among you people of the west to ask your help In standing on such a platform. For many years of my life I lived in the western country, I worked with the western man; I know you. You can only know a man when you have worked with him and have not confined con-fined yourself to looking on while he worked. And it helped me more than I can say when I became president. Among the experiences to which I have felt I owed much, I have felt that probably my experience in the west was that to which I owed most in helping me to serve my countrymen when I was in the White Hou3e. And now, friends, I ask you, you of the west, you of Utah, to take your part In leading the new movement. I have been accustomed to look to the west for leadership. We got that leadership in this progressive movement move-ment from many of the states of the west. At first it was very, very difficult dif-ficult to start it in the ea3t. We have got it started, we are pushing it through in New York and Pennsyl vania, Massachusetts and Maine and New Jersey, and now I don't want you to fall out of the lead and tack along at the tail of the procession. And now here in Utah I want to say one thing, because of statements that have been brought to me from men who say they were very friendly to me personally but a3 a matter of principle were pledged to Mr Taft and so had to support him at the convention conven-tion last June. Friends, there is no principle that can pledge a man to theft. Any man could honorably take a position for or against mo prior to that convention, but no man uould claim to be an honest man and at the convention aid those who stole the convention con-vention from the people of the country. coun-try. No obligation, no pledge to Mr. Taft or any one else can servo as an excuse for taking part In or sanctioning sanction-ing rascality. And I use my words with scientific precision. To steal a nominating convention for president is a worse offense than to cheat at the tiolls In the election cf an alder- wmmKmmmummmmmmmmmHammMtmmmmmmmmmmm man, and yet we can put the man who cheats at the polls for alderman In the penitentiary, and we do put him in the penitentiary for such an offense, of-fense, whereas because the nominating nominat-ing convention 1b not a body known to law the men who take part in what is an infinitely worse offense against the people of the United States are able to go unharmed. Any man who took part in the theft of that convention, conven-tion, in the seating of the fraudulent delegates any man who benefited by It, any man who upholds It, all alike are guilty of treason to the spirit-of American institutions. They are committing com-mitting a worse offense against the people than is committed by the mere, ordinary malefactor who is brought into the courts for a wrong again3t a given individual, for their wrong was not against one Individual, It was against all of you. I said In my primary campaign that if the people decided against me I would have nothing to say, but that if they decided for me, and the politicians poli-ticians cheated me out of the result, I would have a great deal to say, and I am saying it now. And I will continue con-tinue to say It. And, friends, I appeal to the ex-Democrat and the ex-Republican alike, because the professional politician, the bosses, the beneficiaries of privilege the men responsible for the crooked alliance between crooked politics and crooked business, are opposing op-posing us. They do not care whether they elect Mr. Wilson or Mr. Taft. They may have some preference between be-tween them, but they do not really care, as long as thev can beat the Progressives, because the Proreeslvo party is the party of the people themselves, them-selves, and they know that their occupation occu-pation is gone if once the people come into power themselves. And, friends, when you see the powers that prey, without regard to politics, to beat us. I aV the p'aln, decent, honest citizens, without ie gard to politics, to come together nrd assist us. This is your fight. This is the fight to give you the right to do-cide do-cide your own policies. Any man who thinks that the boss cnn deliver his vote better than he can himself ought to go against us; he hasn't any nlace with us. Any man who Is afraid of h's fellows who thinks that the boss and the representative of prlvlleee should stand between him and the people, that man ought to go against us. that man belongs on the other side of the fence But any man who thinks that he is fit to do his. share in the difficult and responsible work of self-covernment, any man who thinks that his neighbors oueht to ho entrusted together with him in the work of deciding under common in terests, any man who believes that In the lone run the American pennle can povern themselves better than nnv outside bodv of men can govern them every such man should stand with us in thtq fight. And I ask vnn ptnnd with us. because we stnnd for the basic principles on which the Amer'cnn government Is founded: wo stnnd for the right of the noonle tn rule themselves, and for their duty to .o rule jib to bring nearer the dnv when social and Industrial justice slmll bo done tn overv man and evorv woman within this great country of ours. |