Read Roosevelt’s Words Before Voting (part 2 of 3)

The people behind the Progressive Movement, which had its beginnings around a century ago, aspired to lofty goals. U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt was instrumental in its creation. As we go into national elections this fall, it would be helpful to us voters to compare his thinking to the practices of our government leadership in Washington today.
In 1910 he delivered a speech to the Sorbonne in Paris entitled “Citizenship in a Republic.” Below, I have quoted and paraphrased from his address, extracting the jewels that relate to us today. Before laying my work before you, I asked my wife to read it; when she saw the length she said, “It’s too long; nobody will finish it.” I responded that I found his thoughts so interesting and encouraging, that I did not want to cut it any further. After she read it, she said, “I agree. Break it into parts.” Here we go:
• Individual initiative should be encouraged.
• We ought to bring about justice and equality of opportunity, to shift burdens so that they can be more equitably borne.
• The deadening effect of an extreme socialistic system could not be overstated; it would spell sheer destruction; it would produce grosser wrong and outrage. But this does not mean that we may not with great advantage adopt certain of the principles professed by some who happen to call themselves Socialists.
• We should not say that men are equal where they are not equal, nor proceed upon the assumption that there is an equality where it does not exist; but we should strive to prevent inequality due to force or fraud. Abraham Lincoln, a man of the plain people, blood of their blood, and bone of their bone, who all his life toiled and suffered for them, at the end died for them, who always strove to represent them, who would never tell an untruth to or for them, spoke of the doctrine of equality with his usual mixture of idealism and sound common sense. He said (I omit what was of merely local significance):
“I think the authors of the Declaration of Independence intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal-equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were actually enjoying that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all – constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and, even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, everywhere.”
• Where there is unequal service there must be unequal reward. We may be sorry for the general, the painter, the artists, the worker whose misfortune rather than whose fault it is that he does his work poorly. But the reward must go to the man who does his work well; for any other course is to create a new kind of privilege, the privilege of folly and weakness; and special privilege is injustice.
• If a man stumbles, help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping hand now and then. But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to try and carry him; and it is a very bad thing for every one if we make men feel that the same reward will come to those who shirk their work and those who do it. On the other hand, it is foolish to reject a proposal merely because it is advanced by visionaries. If a given scheme is proposed, look at it on its merits. It does not matter in the least who proposes it, or why. If it seems good, try it. If it proves good, accept it. There are plenty of good men calling themselves Socialists with whom, up to a certain point, it is quite possible to work. If the next step is one which both we and they wish to take, take it, without any regard to the fact that our views as to the tenth step may differ. But, on the other hand, keep clearly in mind that, though it has been worthwhile to take one step, this does not in the least mean that it may not be highly disadvantageous to take the next.
From the Bible: What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete—as complete as God’s knowledge of me. From 1 Corinthians 13