ing to violence. New conditions necessitate new laws. In former years when one man employed a few men to work for him, there was an intimate acquaintance between employer and employe, and that intimate acquaintance developed a personal sympathy which regulated their dealings with each other. All this is changed. Now when one corporation employs thousands and even tens of thousands of persons, personal acquaintance between employer and employe is impossible. The law must therefore supply the element of justice which was formerly supplied by personal acquaintance and sympathy. Arbitration is not only good for employer and employe, but is necessary for the security of society. Society has, in fact, higher claims than either employer or employe. The whole people are disturbed by the conflicts between labor and capital, and the best interests of society demand that these differences shall be submitted to and settled by courts of arbitration rather than by trials of strength. I am not here to tell you what opinions you should hold. I am not here to discuss the measures which, in my judgment, would relieve present conditions. But as an American citizen speaking to American citizens, I have a right to urge you to recognize the responsibilities which rest upon you, and to prepare yourselves for the intelligent discharge of every political duty imposed upon you. Government was not instituted among men to confer special privileges upon any one, but rather to protect all citizens alike in order that they may enjoy the fruits of their own toil. It is the duty of government to make the conditions surrounding the people as favorable as possible. You must have your opinions, and, by expressing those opinions, must have your influence in determining what these conditions shall be. If you find a large number of men out of employment, you have a right to inquire whether such idleness is due to natural laws or whether it is due to vicious legislation. If it is due to legislation, then it is not only your right but your duty to change that legislation. The greatest menace to the employed laborer today is the increasing army of the unemployed. It menaces every man who holds a position, and, if that army continues to increase, it is only a question of time when those who are, as you may say, on the ragged edge, will leave the ranks of the employed to join those who are out of work. I am one of those who believe that if you increase the number of those who cannot find work and yet must eat, you will drive men to desperation and increase the ranks of the criminals by the addition of many who would be earning bread under better conditions. If you find idleness and crime increasing, it is not your privilege only, it is a duty which you owe to yourselves and to your country to consider whether the conditions cannot be improved. Now a word in regard to the ballot. I beg you to remember that it was not given to you by your employer; nor was it given to you for his use. The right to vote was conferred upon you by law. You had it before you became an employe; it will still be yours after your employment ceases. You do not tell your employer that you will quit working for him unless he votes as you desire, and yet you have as much right to say that to him as he has to tell you that you will have to quit working for him unless you vote as he wants you to. When I say this, I am not afraid of offending anybody, for it is impossible to offend an employer who thinks that he has a right to control the vote of his employe because he pays him wages. I have known men who thought that, because they loaned money to a man, he must vote as they wanted him to or risk foreclosure. I am not afraid of offending any man who entertains this belief, because a man who will use a loan to intimidate a citizen or deprive him of his independence has yet to learn the genius of the institutions under which we live. I cannot impress upon you any more important truth than this: that your ballot is your own to do with it what you please and that you have only to satisfy your own judgment and conscience. There is one citizen in this country who can prove himself unworthy of the ballot which has been given to him, and he is the citizen who either sells it or permits it to be wrested from him under coercion. Whenever a man offers you pay for your vote he insults your manhood, and you ought to have no respect for him. And the man, who instead of insulting your manhood by an offer of purchase, attempts to intimidate you to coerce you, insults your citizenship as well as your manhood. My friends, in this world people have just about as much of good as they deserve. At least, the best way to secure anything that is desirable is to first deserve that thing. If the people of this country want good laws, they themselves must secure them. If the people want to repeal bad laws, they alone have the power to do it. In a government like ours every year offers the citizen an opportunity to prove his love of country. Every year offers him an opportunity to manifest his patriotism. It is said that vigilance is the price of liberty. Yes, it is not only the price of national liberty, but it is the price of individual liberty as well. The citizen who is the most watchful of his public servants has the best chance of living under good laws and beneficent institutions. The citizen who is careless and indifferent is most likely to be the victim of misrule. Let me leave with you this parting word. Whatever may be our views on political questions, whatever may be our positions upon the issues which arise from time to time, it should be the highest ambition of each one of us to prove himself worthy of that greatest of all names-an American citizen. Dr. Barth, an eminent German monometallist, who visited this country during the campaign, was an interested spectator. The crowd was so demonstrative in its evidences of friendliness that our party had difficulty in making its exit. Going from the Labor Day celebration to the Burlington depot, I boarded the train for the West, and after brief stops at Aurora, Mendota, Galesburg, Monmouth, and a few other places, arrived in Lincoln on Tuesday morning. I give below a detailed statement of route: Mileage on Second Trip. Lincoln to Chicago, over Rock Island railway. |