Theodore Roosevelt

“ From the standpoint of our material prosperity there is only one other thing as important as the discouragement of a spirit of envy and hostility toward honest business men, toward honest men of means, and that is the discouragement of dishonest business men, the war upon the chicanery and wrongdoing which are peculiarly repulsive, peculiarly noxious when exhibited by men who have no excuse of [21] want, of poverty, of ignorance for their crimes. ”

“ To these communities foreign capital now rarely comes, because it has been found [17] that as soon as capital is employed so as to give substantial remuneration to those supplying it, it excites ignorant envy and hostility, which result in such oppressive action, within or without the law, as sooner or later to work a virtual confiscation. Every manifestation of feeling of this kind in our civilization should be crushed at the outset by the weight of a sensible public opinion. ”

“ It is these men, the men of wealth, who more than any others, should in the interest of the class to which they belong, in the interest of their children and their children’s children, seek in every way, but especially in the conduct of their lives, to insist upon and to build up respect for the law. ”

“ Wrongdoing is confined to no class. Good and evil are to be found among both rich and poor, and in drawing the line among our fellows we must draw it [26] on conduct and not on worldly possessions. Woe to this country if we ever get to judging men by anything save their worth as men, without regard to their fortune in life. ”

“ I want you to understand that I will stand just as straight for the rights of the honest man who wins his fortune by honest methods [19] as I will stand against the dishonest man who wins a fortune by dishonest methods. ”

“ It would be hard to imagine an epitaph which a good citizen would be more anxious to deserve or one which would more happily describe the qualities of that great and good citizen whose life we here commemorate. ”

“ On the other hand, the poor and backward republics, the republics in which the lot of the average citizen is least desirable, and the lot of the laboring man worst of all, are precisely those republics in which industry has been killed because wealth exposed its owner to spoliation. ”

“ Surely this attitude of his should be the attitude of all our people to-day. It would be a cruel disaster to this country to permit ourselves to adopt an attitude of hatred and envy toward success worthily won, toward wealth honestly acquired. Let us in this respect profit by the example [15] of the republics of this Western Hemisphere to the south of us. Some of these republics have prospered greatly; but there are certain ones that have lagged far behind, that still continue in a condition of material poverty, of social and political unrest and confusion. ”

“ It is a rather more difficult proposition in the concrete. We can act upon such doctrines only if we really have knowledge of, and sympathy with, one another. If both [27] the wage-worker and the capitalist are able to enter each into the other’s life, to meet him so as to get into genuine sympathy with him, most of the misunderstanding between them will disappear and its place will be taken by a judgment broader, juster, more kindly, and more generous; for each will find in the other the same essential human attributes that exist in himself. ”

“ Many lessons are taught us by his career, but none more valuable than the lesson of broad human sympathy for and among all of our citizens of all classes and creeds. No other President has ever more deserved to have his life work characterized in Lincoln’s words as being carried on “with malice toward none, with charity [13] toward all.” As a boy he worked hard with his hands ”

“ Without exception the republics of the former class are those in which honest industry has been assured of reward and protection; those where a cordial welcome has been extended to the kind of enterprise which [16] benefits the whole country, while incidentally, as is right and proper, giving substantial rewards to those who manifest it. ”