Teddy Roosevelt

I want to add a word as to the creation of a national forest service, which I have recommended repeatedly to Congress in my messages and especially in the last.

It is a pleasure to greet the members of the American Forest Congress.

Unless the men from the West believe in forest preservation, the Western forests cannot be preserved.

Wood is an indispensable part of the material structure upon which civilization rests.

The great significance of this congress comes from the fact that henceforth the movement for the conservative use of the forest is to come mainly from within, not from without.

The forest is for use and its users will decide its future.

Mrs. Evelyn M. Ford may be reinstated to the position of clerk in the office of the Secretary of War without regard to the provisions of Rule IX limiting the period of eligibility to one year from the date of separation.

I transmit herewith the report of the Commissioner of Corporations, covering the period from the organization of the Bureau to June 30, 1904.

I transmit herewith, for your consideration, a report and recommendations from the Secretary of State of the United States on the subject of the naturalization of aliens in the United States.

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a report by the Secretary of State resubmitting a claim of the owners of the British steamship Lindisfarne, amounting to $158.11, for demurrage to that vessel while undergoing repairs…

Attention is invited to the accompanying report of the Secretary of State.

I transmit herewith, for the information of the Congress, the fourth annual report (with appendices) of the governor of Porto Rico, covering the period from July 1, 1903, to June 30, 1904.

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State covering statements showing the receipts and disbursements of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company for the months of March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and…

Of course any violence, brutality, or corruption, should not for one moment be tolerated.

Such prosperity is of course primarily due to the high individual average of our citizenship, taken together with our great natural resources.

The safety-appliance law, as amended by the act of March 2, 1903, has proved beneficial to railway employees.

Our peculiar form of government, with its sharp division of authority between the Nation and the several States, has been on the whole far more advantageous to our development than a more strongly centralized government.

Many times peoples who were slothful or timid or shortsighted, who had been enervated by ease or by luxury, or misled by false teachings, have shrunk in unmanly fashion from doing duty that was stern and that needed self-sacrifice.

The cost of doing Government business should be regulated with the same rigid scrutiny as the cost of doing a private business.

The Nation continues to enjoy noteworthy prosperity.

There should be severe child-labor and factory-inspection laws.

They have under no circumstances the right to commit violence upon these, whether capitalists or wage-workers, who refuse to support their organizations, or who side with those with whom they are at odds.

It is an absurdity to expect to eliminate the abuses in great corporations by State action.

Wage-workers have an entire right to organize and by all peaceful and honorable means to endeavor to persuade their fellows to join with them in organizations.

They are not against the rich man any more than against the poor man.