Teddy Roosevelt

But in endeavoring each to be his brother’s keeper it is wise to remember that each can normally do most for the brother who is his immediate neighbor.

In the next place the white man who, if only he is willing, can help the colored man more than all other white men put together, is the white man who is his neighbor, North or South.

The stability and purity of the home is vital to the welfare of the black race, as it is to the welfare of every race.

If the standards of private morality and industrial efficiency can be raised high enough among the black race, then its future on this continent is secure.

Law-abiding black men should, for the sake of their race, be foremost in relentless and unceasing warfare against law-breaking black men.

The colored man who fails to condemn crime in another colored man, who fails to co-operate in all lawful ways in bringing colored criminals to justice, is the worst enemy of his own people, as well as an enemy to all the people.

Laziness and shiftlessness, these, and above all, vice and criminality of every kind, are evils more potent for harm to the black race than all acts of oppression of white men put together.

The colored man’s self-respect entitles him to do that share in the political work of the country which is warranted by his individual ability and integrity and the position he has won for himself.

In the first place, it is true of the colored man, as it is true of the white man, that in the long run his fate must depend far more upon his own effort than upon the efforts of any outside friend.

The ideal of elemental justice meted out to every man is the ideal we should keep ever before us.

But above all else we need for its successful solution the sober, kindly, steadfast, unselfish performance of duty by the average plain citizen in his everyday dealings with his fellows.

It is a problem demanding the best thought, the utmost patience, the most earnest effort, the broadest charity, of the statesman, the student, the philanthropist; of the leaders of thought in every department of our national life.

Nor is it only necessary to train the colored man; it is quite as necessary to train the white man, for on his shoulders rests a wellnigh unparalleled sociological responsibility.

To deny any man the fair treatment granted to others no better than he is to commit a wrong upon him—a wrong sure to react in the long run upon those guilty of such denial.

Every generous impulse in us revolts at the thought of thrusting down instead of helping up such a man.

Our effort should be to secure to each man, whatever his color, equality of opportunity, equality of treatment before the law.

We are now one people, a people with failings which we must not blink, but a people with great qualities in which we have the right to feel just pride.

We are for every man, rich or poor, provided he acts justly and fairly by his fellows, and if he so acts the Government must do all it can to see that inasmuch as he does no wrong, so he shall suffer no wrong.

We are not for the poor man as such, nor for the rich man as such.

It is based on the recognition of the individual.

Ours is not a Government which recognizes classes.

Therefore, this control over the railroads must come through the National Government.

He will not and can not do this if our laws are so defective that in the sharp competition of the business world the conscientious man is put at a disadvantage by his less scrupulous fellows.

It is not only just, but it is in the interest of the public, that this man should receive the amplest payment for the masterful business capacity which enables him to benefit himself while benefiting the public; but in return he must…

The man who controls its use can not be permitted to control it in his own interest alone.