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Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa 'CROWD SEES ROOSEVELT' A Large Crowd of Decatur County People Gather at Van Wert to See the President. Tuesday was a memorable day in the history of Decatur County, marking as it did the first visit of a President of the United States to this county, and while the visit was brief it was greatly enjoyed by a large number of Decatur County citizens. Van Wert was the town that was favored by a stop from President Roosevelt in his flying trip across the State, and a crowd estimated all the way from 5,000 to l0,000 people, but probably about 5,000 gathered in the vicinity of the Depot at Van Wert to greet him. The Presidential train arrived at Van Wert exactly at 11:45 being preceded by twenty minutes by the special train bearing Gov. Cummins and party, who stopped at Van Wert about fifteen minutes, short speeches being made by several of the State Officers. On this train the party consisted of the following: Gov. Cummons, Senator Dolliver, Lieut. Gov. Herriot, Speaker Eaton, Congressman Hull, Chief Justice bishop, Secretary Martin, Treasurer Gilbertson, Auditor Carroll, Supt. Barrett, Attorney General Mullan, Clerk Crockett, Reporter Cornwell, Commissioners Dawson, Brown and Palmer, Mayor Brenton, George W. Severs, Oskaloosa; A.B. Funk, Spirit Lake; H.W. Byers, Harlan; N.E. Kendall, Albia; Harvey Ingham and Allan Dawson, Des Moines; Private Secretary Briar; John Snure and Ora Williams, Newspaper correspondents. As the train bearing the President drew into the station, it was greeted by cheer after cheer, and President Roosevelt smiled and gave everyone an opportunity to see those terrible teeth as he stepped out on the car platform and addressed the people who had gathered to see him. He was dressed in a Prince Albert suit and wore a silk hat, which he took off and held in his hand while speaking. He looked brown and very much tanned as the result of his outing in Yellowstone Park, but had a very healthy appearance. Many people were disappointed in his speech expecting him to be a more gifted orator, for while he is a very forcible and earnest speaker he is not a flowery orator. The President spoke as follows: My Fellow Citizen: It is indeed a pleasure to meet you this morning and to come through your great and beautiful State, where I see not merely your soil, your farms, your products, but those best of all products -- the men and women. You have in the territory the raw material out of which to make the State, but it has been made because those on it have had in them the stuff with which to make it. At every place I have stopped I have seen men carrying the button which recalls to mind the fact that in the times that tried men's souls, Iowa sent her sons to the front to pour out their blood like water for the cause of the Union. The qualities that those men showed in military life, are after all, the same qualities which we need to bring success in civil affairs. Unless there is a fundamental spirit of decency, of honesty, of regard for right living, no success will come to the State any more than to the individual. Of all qualities to be abhorred in a republic like ours, the quality of what is sometimes called mere smartness, ability unaccompanied by scruple, is the worst. that is the quality which makes a bad neighbor and an evil public servant. The abler, the more fearless a man is, if he has not got the root of decent living in him the more dangerous he is to the State. We must have as the basis of citizenship a high ideal, a decent observance of the law and the relationships of human society. But such alone will not avail. In addition to virtue, if you are to make it count, you have to have strength and courage back of it. But little can be done with a man who is afraid. (Applause.) The timid man is not of use, I care not how good he is. (Applause.) And scant need be our patience with the virtue which sits at home in its own house and says how bad the world is. (Applause.) You want morality, decency, high thinking, and in addition you must have the qualities which we speak of when we say of anyone that he is not merely a good man, but a man; the qualities of manliness, of hardihood, of courage, the qualities that make a man fit to do his work, in the actual hurly burly of real life; the qualities which, if we are wise, each of us will try to instill into the minds of his sons, of his daughters, so as to teach the boy and girl that the thing to do in life is not to find some way of dodging difficulties, but to meet them and overcome them. In the great war, in addition to being patriotic, it was necessary to have the quality of staying put. (Applause.) You need in the army the men who loved their country, and you also needed the man who did not run, or if he ran, that he ran in the right direction. You had to have a combination of the two qualities. (Applause.) At the conclusion of his speech the Presidential train was whirled away and the vast crowd dispersed, happy in the thought that they had been permitted to see a real live President. Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert |
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Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa During the last twelve days of March MISS CLARA LUNBECK has placed in good homes eight children, four boys and four girls, ranging in age from four months to twelve years. One went to the home of a minister, one to a lawyer and six to farmers. In addition to this she has received four applications for children from good homes, investigated three others, visited five children previously placed, made several public addresses, secured $225 to help do this work and traveled l,350 miles. This has been an unusually full period, yet it serves to show something of the work done and the duties of a District Superintendent of this great Society, and MISS LUNBECK is one of the most efficient in the State. --MASON CITY GLOBE-GAZETTE. Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert |
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