VI To the People of Colorado[6]
Of all the many cordial receptions which have been accorded me since I was so fortunate as to enter your hospitable State, none has been more gratifying or more deeply appreciated than the one which you citizens of Denver have to-day tendered me. And I count it a most gratifying climax to my visit to Colorado that I should have this opportunity of meeting so splendid a gathering of the representative business men and citizens of this fair State.
As I have traveled about Colorado the past three weeks I have been charmed with the beauty and grandeur of the scenery; I have been inspired by the invigorating climate, the clear air, the blue sky. I have been impressed with the fertility of your soil, with the vast extent and richness of your mineral wealth. But above all, I have been captivated by the cordiality of your people.
And so I am very happy to have this opportunity to-day of expressing to you, and through you to the people of Colorado, my deep appreciation of the many kindnesses and courtesies which have been shown me during my stay among you.
These I have accepted as intended partially for myself, but largely for my father, whose representative I am, and in whose name as well as my own I thank you.
My father has been for many years a good friend of the people and State of Colorado. His friendship for you, his belief in you, his confidence in the future of this State, have been clearly shown by his having put considerable sums of money into the steel and coal industries of the State through his investments in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company; and, as many of you know, during the fourteen years since he made his first investment in that company, except for one payment made on the preferred stock on account of an accumulation of dividends, there has not come back to him or the common stockholders one single cent of return.
And yet my father has not lost his faith in the State of Colorado nor in the people of Colorado; he believes in you, and the fact that his interest in this company continues to be a very substantial one is a sure proof of his attitude.
I wish very much that he were here to-day himself. I have often had that wish as I have gone among you during these weeks.
Some of the papers have mentioned my democratic spirit. If my father had been among you as I have been, no comment in regard to my attitude would have been made, for of all men he is most democratic and approachable, as hundreds of those who know him will testify, and in that atmosphere of democracy I have been reared. Born and brought up in the country, at an early age he learned what hard work meant.
When his period of schooling had been completed he went into active business for himself, and during the many years following, when he was actively engaged in business, he was constantly in close personal touch with the working classes, among whom he found many of his best and truest friends.