USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Official report of the centennial celebration of the founding of the city of Cleveland and the settlement of the Western Reserve > Part 10
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
MOSES CLEAVELAND MOVEMENT.
Probably not. For how much, then, shall it be purchased - at a valuation, say of ten thousand millions ? Imagine an addition of ten thousand millions to the national debt. What interest shall be paid upon such bonds? Three per cent ? The interest annually due would be three hundred millions of dollars. Where would it be obtained? I suppose the answer would be, from the earnings of the system. Who supposes that the central power of organization and execution will be as far reaching and intimately searching as it is when remaining in the hands of those whose subsistence and means of livelihood are involved in success ? The spirit that would impose this monstrous change would demand the fewest hours of labor and the highest wages. What is the business of all men is the business of no man. Those who must know most of the possibilities of such things will tell us that the result would be one universal receiver. ship, with enormous deficiencies to be supplied by general taxation. Imagine for a
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moment enlarging the already sufficiently complained of multitude of government employes by nearly Soo,ooo, not including the various ramifications of auxihary forms of industry.
Upon the grounds that justify the national conduct of the postal service it is further demanded that the entire telegraph and telephone systems be likewise taken up as a national possession. Not that only, it is insisted that it would be for the gen- eral good that the savings banks of the United States should likewise come under Federal control, with their $1,700,000,000 of deposits, which would be added to the railroad and telegraph and telephone debt. Yet there is supposed to be nothing in- consistent in this demand relating to the savings banks and the demand that the government shall entirely wash its hands of all forms or semblances of banking. Add to this a debased currency, with which not only our ancient and honorable war debt would be discharged, but the principal and interest of the monstrous additional national obligations we should assume, in comparison with which our present debts are but as the traditional drop in the bucket.
Add to all this and other forms of governmental reconstruction, the election of presidents and senators and federal judges by the popular vote.
There would also be a demand for the referendum of important statutes.
How enormously all this, or a fraction of these changes, would enlarge the statute book! What countless rules of organization and conduct and accounting would need to be elaborately studied and accurately set forth for the guidance of one or two mil- lions of public servants and the management of the various enormous industries!
Meantime, it is to be understood, of course, that the thing called government shall specifically define the number of hours that men may work. Will it then be essential to an equality of production and the general measure of success that men shall be compelled to work up to said limit of labor ? If they may not work more, why not say they shall not work less?
One of the difficulties in the wise government of a republic is the indifference of a large class of people, the neglect of political knowledge and action, sometimes especial- ly visible among those who by reason of education, position, perhaps large property interests, would naturally be supposed both, for selfish and patriotic reasons, to earn- estly seek to faithfully discharge their political obligations. It is the duty of every American citizen to be a politician. Before you deny it, wait until I read a definition of the word politics from the dictionary of Noah Webster, of West Hartford, Con- necticut. He says:
"The science of government; that part of ethics which has to do with the regula- tion and government of a nation or state, the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity, the defense of its existence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the protection of its citizens in their rights, with the preservation and improvement of their morals."
You perceive that, Webster started to make simply a definition and wrote an oration.
Next to the duty to one's God is one's duty to his country. Next in honor and dignity to the Priest of the Most High is the position of the able and sincere states- man. It is not intended that all men shall give all their time pr much of their time to attending to political affairs, but they should seek to have a good general unde. stand- ing of the nature of the government, the questions prominent in public consideration, and the duties of a citizen. It is necessary that every man should vote always, that he should take an interest in nominations to be made, and that he should be ready with his voice and his arguments to defend his opinions. The most discouraging of all Americans is the man who, with an air sometimes of superior virtue, declares " ] take no interest in politics, I seldom, if ever, vote."
Once upon a time in the House of Representatives, James A. Garfield amused and instructed us by saying in substance: "Suppose that every American citizen should deliberately absent himself from the polls on the day of the great presidential elec- tion." There would be no presidential electors chosen; after the 4th of March next ensuing there would be no president; one-third of the chairs of the Senate would be empty ; there would be no House of Representatives. After the last day of June next ensuing there would be no money to pay the president, the judges and officers of Federal courts, two-thirds of the Senate, the foreign ministers, the custom house offi- cers, the army and navy; none to conduct the postal service of the land offices or In- than affairs. In short, there would be nothing left of the great National Government except some minor dismembered fractions. The nation would be dead. But it is a nation of individuals. No one man is under a higher obligation to vote than another. If those who consider themselves good men stay away, it may be certain that those
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SENATOR JOSEPH R. HAWLEY of Connecticut.
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who are not good men will take charge of the nation. The result would be corruption and disorder, perhaps anarchy, perhaps a king. It would be the failure of the great- est experiment in government ever made, which is still the pride and the hope of thoughtful men the world over.
The sovereignty concentrated in a king is here divided among twelve millions of men, more or less.
Every voter is indeed a sovereign and whoever fails to vote, does, so far as he is concerned, abandon his country to anarchy and invite the inevitable despot.
Continually and naturally enough, throughout all manner of printing and debate and conversation, comes up that which is known as socialism, in many varieties. Sometimes it is the generous and just desire to so co-operate and organize as to secure to all, peace, happiness, and industry, and to give, in due proportion to abilities and productive power, some more and some less, of the products of labor and invention. There come other claims that cannot so easily be assented to. Theoretically there ought not to be a hostile relation between capital and labor - the rich against the poor, or the poor against the rich. It is an idle fancy that by the compulsory power of volun- tary or statutory organization the inequalities of ability, intellect and wealth may be corrected and mankind brought upon a dead level of compensation, production and possession. There exist inequalities of desire, of enjoyment, of capacity and ambition that can never be removed. There is nothing in nature to teach us that an absolute equality in all things can be reached. No two men are exactly alike, no two things made by man are absolutely alike. No two watches, no two locomotives, though made from the same patterns and gauges, are alike. A thousand men may associate themselves to conduct a business and their first step will be to select chiefs and sub- chiefs, who by reason of greater natural quickness, keenness and effectiveness, can profitably and with great benefit to the average man, be put in command and paid a greater compensation than he shall receive. Among the leaders will be developed some men of supreme power and capacity of execution, collection and possession. We can find corporals and captains, colonels and generals of industry as we can find them in armies, and there will be some men that will make themselves Grants and Shermans and Napoleons, but they cannot be created by election or statute. To hold the mass of men to a dead level of pay and reward, or attempt to annihilate competition and suppress ambition, is to wage hopeless war against nature.
There has already been tried on a large scale and for centuries a system which would seem in some respects to fully answer the demands of an extreme socialist. There was a great mass of laborers who were usually comfortably fed and clothed and had fair shelter from the rains and the cold. Work was always provided. As a rule their labor was not sufficient to injure them physically. Of course the thoughtful and wise among the capitalists saw that good treatment was economy, as it is in the own- ership of beasts. They drew their food and their clothing from the common stock. They had no doubt about their being fed in their old age. Their wives and children were in like manner cared for. Indeed the raising of children was especially desired. In short, it would appear that all causes of anxiety, all occasion, or pretext for violent and selfish competition were removed, True, there were some drawbacks. In order to keep the laboring masses quietly within control of the system, it was necessary to forbid their learning to read and write, and it was also an economic necessity that the laborer should be hable to sale and transfer, even to the separation of families.
Great preachers of the gospel told us that this socialistic organization was sanc- tioned by Scripture. Alleged statesmen, in Congress and elsewhere, deliberately and solemnly set forth that the only true solution of the great industrial problem is found in the absolute ownership of labor by capital.
It was also said that the laborer was happy. But he was not a man. It laughed, it danced, it sang, but it was not a man. // was a negro slave and the system, " met at last God's thunder, sent to clear the compassing and smothering atmosphere." It was American slavery and with a tremendous explosion it went skyward, shuddering into the infinite darkness.
I heard a most excellent gentleman once say in discussing political duties, "I care nothing about questions of mere finance; " yet questions of finance always involve moral obligations and may lead to the honor or eternal dishonor of a nation. In the course of his remarks upon taking the chair at the opening of the Republican National Convention of 1868 the presiding officer said: "For every dollar of the debt the blood of a soldier is pledged; every bond must be held as sacred as a soldier's grave." The convention rose to its feet amid the warmest enthusiasm and long continued applause. The demonstration was received with satisfaction by the friends of liberty, and in this and all countries it affected the public credit. To this I add, whatever the civilized world
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accepts as full and final payment, is the only payment this nation will ever consent to tender. Uncle Sam will be a gentleman.
The shores of history are strewn with countless schemes of national taxation and finance. The crystallized common sense of centuries teaches us that the fundamental rule of all finance is, "tell the truth, keep your promises." It is a long time since the Psalmist promised an abode in the Lord's tabernacle, a dwelling in His holy hill, to him "that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not." He "shall never be moved."
When the rebellion had been suppressed and the work of reorganization was un- der way, it became apparent that the financial question was one hardly second in im- portance to that which confronted us in 1861. The enemies of republican government, believing that its failure would be a blessing to the world, and disappointed by the success of the Union armies, said: " Now we shall see how these people can bear the burdens of peace. It is in one sense easy to rally a nation to a bloody war, but when passions shall have subsided and men have entered upon the dull drudgery of peace, with resources reduced, with no drum and bugle to arouse in them a pleasure in pay- ing taxes, no democratic government will cheerfully shoulder a debt of three thousand millions." Yet the American people carried it as if it were a knapsack, reduced it more than two thousand millions, and are anxious to continue the payment. Had it been otherwise and we had offered to discharge our debt in a degraded currency, had we postponed it, had we scaled it down, what was won for the future of republicanism in the world by the bloody war, would have been lost. A government that will not pay debts, cannot borrow, and one that cannot borrow, cannot conduct a long defen- sive war. A failure in that regard would have shown that the true essence of honesty was not in us, and that our beautiful patriotism and self-sacrifice were born for a love for the alleged glories of war.
By a failure in America, the grand experiment of free government would have been postponed indefinitely. Yet, it was to some "a mere financial question." And there were eloquent men, assuming to be speaking for the masses and for the op- pressed and overburdened people, advocating that which would have fallen far short of our honorable obligations.
Those in Connecticut, who have studied her history, fancy that the multitude of men who from first to last have come to this western land carried with them the prin- ciples of thorough democracy, ideas of the highest integrity in public affairs, and no little training in practical government. The Reverend Thomas Hooker, graduate of the English University of Cambridge, eminent preacher, pastor, and I may say, political leader; who led his congregation through the wilderness to Hartford and founded the colony of Connecticut, not long after, in 1638, in a sermon delivered on a special occasion, set forth these doctrines:
'I. That the choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people, by God's own allowance.
"2. The privilege of election, which belongs to the people, therefore must not be exercised according to their humors, but according to the blessed will and law of God.
"3. They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power. also, to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them. Because the foundation of authority is laid, firstly in the free consent of the people; and because, by a free choice, the hearts of the people will be more inclined to the love of the persons chosen, and more ready to yield obedience."
From that time to the present we have continued the ancient subdivision into com- paratively small townships, wherein all the voters assemble in a free parliament to settle many matters of local concern. In all the earlier years there were four prin- cipal men in each of these miniature states-the pastor, the first selectman, the school- master and the captain of the military company.
The colony was in a singularly effective way fully organized. Whenever Governor Trumbull - Brother Jonathan of the Revolution - found it necessary to appeal to his people, he found them massed in minor subdivisions already led by the most capable men. It was an organization that made the raising of troops and the collection of sup- plies comparatively easy. The youth grew up knowing how to hold a meeting, a simple thing but almost peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race. In the hastiest emergency, upon the instinctive assembly of a mass of Americans, some one calls to order, some one nominates a president, a secretary is chosen, a committee on resolutions is ap- pointed, its report is debated point by point, laid on the table or indefinitely postponed. or adopted as "the sense of the meeting," to use the New England phrase. This seems to us nothing unusual, but there are nations untrained in the minor machinery of government, to whom systematic action of this description would be impossible. Possibly by reason of the popular system of education insisted upon among us from
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the beginning, and our somewhat peculiar Connecticut experience, its sons moving westward upon their own lines of latitude carried with them the essential principles of free government, and a high sense of their moral obligation to their states and their country, and in a remarkable number of cases, became the useful and leading men of new communities.
Among other things indispensable to the success of a republic is a sense of the majesty and authority of laws made by a free people. Nowhere else does law have so high a sanction. Always in theory, and mostly in fact, our statutes are the result of popular consideration and deliberate representative legislative enactment. The true American people in general respect the law because it is their law; not thrust upon them by a king-they made it themselves. A contemptuous or defiant disregard is an insult to every sovereign citizen. For statutory changes our system furnishes an op. portunity for every individual. That which ought to be law, soon or late comes to fruition. To secure our liberties and our progress we need no conspiracies, no secret organizations, no mobs.
These things are all but commonplace truisms, yet there come times when their
· reiteration is required. Passionate action, sometimes founded in selfishness and in- justice, sometimes in sincere belief and honest desire, threatens to upset the founda- tions of society. It is sometimes painful to remember, but impossible to forget, that behind all law, everywhere, there is provided the element of force. When our great courts of justice, after due argument by able men, contesting, decide that an injune- tion ought to bar some unjust or irregular or riotous proceeding, some men fancy that it is wholesome to treat the courts and their decrees with contempt and defiance. When the unhappy time comes, after due kindly entreaty and solemn warning, it must be made known that behind the constable and the sheriff and the marshal, stands the colonel and his regiment. Law cannot, must not, shall not, be persistently defied and trampled under foot. We cannot live otherwise than by saying that the law must be obeyed on every inch of soil and in every second of time. Otherwise any government is but a rope of sand. The overwhelming suppression of a miniature rebellion is but justice and mercy.
Among the very important instruments of civilization is the modern corporation for the benefit of every form of industrial effort. It is invaluable, it is indispensable and it is very powerful. It has certain characteristics, perhaps not always sufficiently considered. The world of the English language and civilization has grown intensely jealous as the ages pass on, of orders of nobility and the laws of entail, and the per- petual titles of ecclesiastical property. The modern corporation is greater than any order of nobility, for entails may be cut off, and families may vanish, but the corpora- tion theoretically lives forever. It holds perpetually all the land it needs and perhaps . more. It acquires by foreclosures lands which it is not always commanded by statute to dispose of.
It often, even holds land in large quantities not needed for the purposes of its incor- poration. It has the power, which in the case of great corporations for certain pur- poses is immense, of acquiring by condemnation lands for its special needs, and the title is perpetual. It has no heirs and there is no division of its estate upon anybody's death. There is seldom a limit beyond which it may not grow. If it be a railroad, led by men of far-reaching views and eminent ability, it is apt to be incessantly desir- ous of acquiring connecting or parallel or competing roads, extending its possessions and power enormously. Where combination is possible, competition is impossible.
It obtains these powers under the theory that it is a great public benefit in which the people share. Indeed they do, but it too often happens that there is no one to de- finitely allot said share, and the corporation holds its own counsel. With the growth of the population in its vicinity, its franchise becomes more and more valuable. Its earning power grows greatly and the vast unearned increment based upon its earning powers appears in stock dividends for itself, not the public.
A steady control of legislative bodies is not unprecedented. , The methods through which it exercises political power are not always praiseworthy. Whatever of wrong it does is sure to be exaggerated in the public mind.
Here or there, but somewhere always, bitter controversies rage around the great industrial corporations. In short, the relations of capital and labor, employer and employed, are perpetual sources of dissatisfaction and agitation, and often of danger. We suggest industrial co-operation. That sometimes succeeds, but, where it does so, it is with an exercise of trust and faith and good will, that if applied everywhere would end all difficulties. We suggest arbitration. There have been eminent instances of the success of boards of arbitration consisting of co-operating delegations of capital and labor. But there has been no method found of compelling the acceptance of the
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judgments of such boards. The degree of success is again found to be dependent upon the degree of concession, faith and trust.
Legislatures and congresses from year to year continue to propose and discuss and sometimes to enact, but no sovereign panacea has yet been discovered. The true and final solution will never be total and complete while human nature remains as it is. But we can by slow processes approximate harmonious relation. There has unques- tionably been a great growth in good things that conduce to social and financial peace and prosperity. As the individual is educated to think patiently of his case, as the capitalist is educated by public opinion and experience to a more careful remembrance of the fact that he is but a trustee and that all men should be his neighbors and his friends, the difficulties will disappear. There are establishments long in existence where there never has been a ripple of trouble, and as time passes and all men advance morally and intellectually violent clashing will diminish.
There is a rule, not statutory, but applicable everywhere, "Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you." Generosity, patience, faith, a sense of brother- hood, will bring us nearer and nearer to universal peace and happiness in this as in all things.
It is a serious era the world over. The great nations of Europe have many mil- lions in arms, organized reserves, full arsenals, and railway service always detailed in advance, ready at the tap of drum, after nineteen centuries of the gospel of peace, to charge into battle. Every known agitation and mischief abroad has its counterpart and coadjutors in America. The generous and chivalrous young man doubtless some- times wishes that he had lived in some of the great days of the past, perhaps under Lincoln and Grant, perhaps under Washington or say Cromwell or Luther, or, rever- ently, in Judea when Christ was on earth. But the Christ is always on earth, if one will have eyes to see and ears to hear. There is always a wrong to be righted and a right to be defended. To the eye of the body the field he dreamed of does not pre- sent itself.
But the wrong is as aggressive as ever, the right as much in need of champions. We shall need in America the steady sense and devotion of our ancestors. We cannot say just how nor when. There is an incessant demand for change, but change is not always reform. There are many things that must stand as they are. It is hardly worth while to reform the ten commandments, nor the Lord's Prayer, nor the Sermon on the Mount. Agitation cannot improve the multiplication table nor the law of gravitation.
If the republic is to be perpetuated, it must be by much hard and not very romantic work continuously for generations. It will call for the best that rich and poor, gentle- men and scholars and plam people can do. By conversation, oration, and print, sound doctrine must be spread. There must be enrollments and rallies, the wise man- agement of caucuses and conventions, the promotion of good candidates and a full and honest vote, securing good legislatures and congresses and courts and presi- dents.
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