Address of Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, delivered at Boston, Mass., Saturday, April 27, 1912Roosevelt, Theodore
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Address of Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, delivered at Boston, Mass., Saturday, April 27, 1912
Roosevelt, Theodore
Politics, Practical -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc.; United States -- Politics and government -- 1909-1913
Now, I want to give you certain examples, concrete cases of just what
I mean, because I have always found that a concrete case explains my
position better than a general statement.
Almost as soon as I left Harvard I went into the New York Legislature.
And my education began. [Laughter.] Now, I did not come to my present
position as a result of study in the library, in the closet.
I came to my present position as the result of living in a world of
men. It is because I have associated with them, I have worked with
them, and I know my fellow Americans in many a different part of this
Union and in all grades of life. [Applause.] I have worked with them.
[Applause.]
TO THE MEN OF THE WEST.
Gentlemen, I am just going to give these one or two examples just to
show you what I mean; that is all. For instance, I lived out West, in
the cow country, quite a time, the short-grass country [laughter], and
we would ship trainloads of cattle East. I and three or four other men
who were going would go in the caboose at the end of the cattle train.
If the train stopped we would jump out with our poles, and we would run
up along the length of the cars to poke up the cattle that had lain
down, because if we let them lie down the others would trample them to
death.
And usually about the time we got near the engine the train would start
again. Then we would have to climb up on the first car and dance along
back from car to car until we got to the last car and climb down to the
caboose.
KNOWS THE BRAKEMAN.
Now, once or twice I had to perform that voyage in a late fall or early
winter night with snow on the roofs of the cars and the wind blowing,
and I was thoroughly contented when it was through.
And now, friends, when a workman’s-compensation act comes up and the
question arises whether a brakeman, a switchman, any man of the kind
should be compensated for the loss of life or limb in taking charge
of the trains in which you and I travel in comfort in the Pullman
cars――when that comes up I think of my feelings when I jumped from car
to car on the top of that cattle train, and when a miss or slip meant
the loss of a leg or an arm or the loss of my life, and I know how the
brakeman feels in such a case. [Applause.]
THE JUDGES DON’T KNOW.
Now in New York those worthy, well-meaning, elderly judges of the court
of appeals have never had such an experience in their lives.
They don’t know. They don’t visualize to themselves how that brakeman
feels. They are not able to present to their minds the risks incident
to the ordinary, everyday performance of his duties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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