Part 1

A Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt

The matter contained is this book has been carefully prepared from the many addresses by the President, the aim being to bring under each specific head the ideas expressed on many occasions.

With New Photogravure Portrait

Allendale, N. J. The Allendale Press

Copyright, 1906

By Horace Markley Entered at Stationers Hall

All Rights Reserved

A Square Deal and

Ideals of Citizenship—p. 8 The Dignity of Labor—p. 18 The Workingman—p. 28 Labor Unions—p. 36 The Business Man—p. 46

Success in Life—p. 52 The Man Who Counts—p. 58 Education—p. 64 The School Teacher—p. 74

The Nobility of Parenthood—p. 82 Great Riches—p. 96 The Farmer—p. 104 The Trusts—p. 114

The Problem of the South—p. 126 Lynch Law—p. 134 The Indians—p. 142 Immigration—p. 148

The Chinese Question—p. 160 Official Corruption—p. 164 The Monroe Doctrine—p. 172 The World’s Peace—p. 184

The Essence of Christian Character—p. 198

With granite, once a genius bridged a stream. A builder once a rugged temple wrought; On canvas once a painter fixed a thought; A sculptor once in marble carved a dream; A queen once built a tomb, and in the scheme Of gold and bronze the quivering sunbeams caught; Then came oblivion, unseen, unsought, Contemptuous of thinker and of theme.

And some one wrote a book. Palace and Hall Are gone. Marble and bronze are dust. The fanes Are fallen which the sun old sought. The rook At morn, caws garrulously over all. All! All are gone. The book alone remains. Man builds no structure which outlives a book.

By HON E. F. WARE Late U. S. Pension Commissioner

FOREWORD

If it were possible to place this volume in the hands of every American citizen I feel profoundly convinced there would follow an uplift toward right-living and right-thinking which would affect the destiny of our race more than anything which has yet occurred in our history.

There is here presented a fearless expression of views upon the paramount problems of the age, social, economic and political, by a citizen who has been exalted to the highest office in the world—expressions of opinion made upon many occasions during his term of Presidency. But it is an unparalleled spectacle to see a man who has risen to such greatness dare to discuss some of the questions which are here treated, and still more rare to find them handled with such great wisdom.

I ask the reader to go a little deeper than a mere reading of these varied subjects of such vital moment to him; that he permit his mind to be receptive of the powerful and subtle influences which run like a holy pattern through the woof and warp of the whole design.

Here are the eternal truths limned in a new light by one of the most forceful personalities of the day. It is true that the views expressed here are held by a large proportion of our citizens who will rejoice to find what they have long felt so cogently expressed by an exemplar of what he preaches, who adds to the simple truths he has been inspired to expound, the dignity of the high office he holds—the highest that has been attained by man since the dawn of the world—that of the Presidency of the new and dominant race of the Western Hemisphere.

I bespeak of every reader the kindness of doing whatever lies in his power to make known to his fellow citizens this volume; speak of it whenever you can; or, still better, present a volume to any friend who has your sincerest good wishes.

HORACE MARKLEY

“We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.”

A Square Deal and Ideals of Citizenship

Mankind goes ahead but slowly, and it goes ahead mainly through each of us trying to do the best that is in him and to do it in the sanest way. We have founded our Republic upon the theory that the average man will, as a rule, do the right thing, that in the long run the majority will decide for what is sane and wholesome. If our fathers were mistaken in that theory, if ever the times become such—not occasionally but persistently—that the mass of the people do what is unwholesome, what is wrong, then the Republic cannot stand, I care not how good its laws, I care not what marvelous mechanism its Constitution may embody. Back of the laws, back of the administration, back of the system of government lies the man, lies the average manhood of our people, and in the long run we are going to go up or go down accordingly as the average standard of citizenship does or does not wax in growth and grace.