414 Presidential Addresses 



surer way of destroying the capacity for self-gov- 

 ernment in a people than to accustom that people 

 to demanding the impossible or the improper from 

 its public men. No man fit to be a public man will 

 promise either the impossible or the improper; and 

 if the demand is made that he shall do so it means 

 putting a premium upon the unfit in public life. 

 There is the same sound reason for distrusting the 

 man who promises too much in public that there is 

 for distrusting the man who promises too much in 

 private business. 



The one indispensable thing for us to keep is a 

 high standard of character for the average American 

 citizen. 



AT CARSON CITY, NEVADA, MAY 19, 1903 



Mr. Governor, Mr Mayor, and you, my Fellow- 

 Citizens: 



It has been a great pleasure to be introduced in 

 the more than kind words the Governor has used, 

 because the Governor has been a genuine pioneer. 

 Here in this great Western country, the country 

 which is what it is purely because the pioneers who 

 came here had iron in their veins, because they were 

 able to conquer plain and mountain, and to make the 

 wilderness blossom, we are not to be excused if we 

 do not see to it that the generation that comes after 

 us is trained to have the sum of the fundamental 

 qualities which enabled their fathers to succeed. 



I want to say one special word to-day here in Car- 

 son City on a subject in which all of our people 



