Photo of the Day

It is April 14, 1906.

President Theodore Roosevelt has traveled to the grounds of the US Capitol

where he will lay the cornerstone of the Cannon House Office Building.

Roosevelt addresses the large crowd gathered for the cornerstone ceremony. Photo at right is an enlargement of the center portion, showing Roosevelt beneath the flag.

He had been reelected to office in a landslide sixteen months before

as the champion of progressive reforms

intended to regulate industry and mitigate the effects

of industrial capitalism on individuals and communities.

Now, in a new Gilded Age, Roosevelt’s words have renewed relevance.¹

Left: a dairy farm. Right: a log-rolling in Louisiana.

“[T]he wild preachers of unrest and discontent,

the wild agitators against the entire existing order,

the men who act crookedly,

whether because of sinister design or from mere puzzle-headedness,

Black schoo in Virginia, c. 1900.

the men who preach destruction

without proposing any substitute for what they intend to destroy,

or who propose a substitute which would be far worse than the existing evils,

all these men are the most dangerous opponents of real reform.

Ellis Island hopefuls.

“If they get their way they will lead the people into a deeper pit

than any into which they could fall under the present system.

Left: railroad workers. Right: passengers in a first-class train car, c. 1900.

If they fail to get their way they will still do incalculable harm

by provoking the kind of reaction which,

in its revolt against the senseless evil of their teaching,

would enthrone more securely than ever

the very evils which their misguided followers believe they are attacking.

Immigrant family in New York City, c. 1910.

“More important than [anything] else

is the development of the broadest sympathy of man for man.

Left: wealthy city women. Right: Grandma on the farm, c. 1900.

The welfare of the wage-worker,

the welfare of the tiller of the soil,

upon these depend the welfare of the entire country;

their good is not to be sought in pulling down others;

but their good must be the prime object of all our statesmanship.

Children of immigrants play on the streets of New York City, c. 1910.

“Materially we must strive to secure

a broader economic opportunity for all men,

so that each shall have a better chance to show the stuff of which he is made.

Spiritually and ethically

we must strive to bring about clean living

and right thinking.

Young boys working as "breaker boys" in a coal mine. Hired for their small, nimble fingers, their job was to separate good coal chunks from detritus.

“We appreciate that the things of the body are important;

but we appreciate also that

the things of the soul are immeasurably more important.

“The foundation stone of national life is,

and ever must be,

the high individual character of the average citizen.”

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

1. The speech has been edited for brevity.