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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AT
KEOKUK, IOWA
small title decorationOCTOBER 1, 1907

large title decoration

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1907


[3]

Men and Women of Iowa:

I am glad indeed to see you and tospeak to you in this thriving city of yourgreat and prosperous State. I believewith all my heart in the people of Iowa, forI think that you are good, typical Americans,and that among you there has beendeveloped to a very high degree that body[4]of characteristics which we like to regardas distinctively American.

During the last few years we of theUnited States have been forced to considervery seriously certain economic problems.We have made a beginning in the attemptto deal with the relations of the NationalGovernment—that is, with the relations ofthe people of the country—to the huge andwealthy corporations, controlled for themost part by a few very rich men, whichare engaged in interstate business—especially[5]the great railway corporations.You know my views on this matter. Youknow that I believe that the National Government,in the interests of the people,should assume much the same supervisionand control over the management of theinterstate common carriers that it nowexercises over the national banks. Youknow furthermore that I believe that thissupervision and control should be exercisedin a spirit of rigid fairness towardthe corporations, exacting justice from[6]them on behalf of the people but givingthem justice in return.

Recently I have been reading the workof the eminent Italian scholar Ferrero onthe history of the Roman Republic, whenthe life of the Roman state had becomethat of a complex and luxurious industrialcivilization. I am happy to say that thedifferences between that civilization andour own are more striking than the resemblances;and there is no warrant for ourbeing drawn into any pessimistic comparison[7]between the two civilizations. Butthere is every reason why we should studycarefully the past in order to draw from itlessons for use in the present. One of themost striking features of the years whichsaw the downfall of the Roman Republicwas the fact that the political life of Romebecame split between two camps, one containingthe rich who wished to exploit thepoor, and the other the poor who wishedto plunder the rich. Naturally, undersuch circumstances, the public man who[8]was for the moment successful tended tobe either a violent reactionary or a violentdemagogue. Any such condition of politicallife is as hopelessly unhealthy now as itwas then. I believe so implicitly in thefuture of our people, because I believethat the average American citizen will nomore tolera

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