The record-union., 1891-09-08

characters and add to your Intelligence,
and thus become a better man and citi-
zen.
You the laborers of this country
nave very high calling. You have q
great opportunity and n corresponding
duty. Your fathers and you have heard
this call and have entered on this work.
desire TO contribute my mite to aid you
IN this grand endeavOr. You head the
list OF laborers of this age, and of all
countries and of all times. You can to-
day outdo in work any generation OF men
that ever lived on this earth. You can do
more, and do it better, than any others;
and you can do many things which for
merly were not thouhht of as possible.
Look at the department OF invention.
80 to the Patent Office in Washington.
No building can hold the models. The
Government has found it impracticable
to undertake to house them. Go TO our
State Library and ask for the thickest
volumes of recent publication, and you
Will be shown the monthly publication of
the Patent Oliice, a volume several inches
tnCk, on thin paper, and in not very
large type. Every month one of these
volumes is issued, and sometimes a second
volume. This shows the activity of the
minds of labOrerS, the fertility of Ameri-
can genius under free institutions, where
everybody has the right and an incentive
to think
As an inventive people we lead
the world. Fifteen years ago, at
the Worlds Fair in Philadelphia,
i'll Machinery Hall, was the finest
exhibition of mechanical skill the world
ever saw. The most enlightened nations
put on exhibition their best displays In
that magnificent exhibition, American
genius, American intelligence American
handiwork, took the lead Out of six
teen hundred exhibits, in Machinery
hall more than one thousand were
from the United States, or two TO
one against the world. In watch making
we surprised the old-time watch-makers
OF Europe. When the Swiss Commits
sloner took home our machine-made
watches and showed to his workmen
their time-keeping qualities, he said their
day was up. Even their attempt to in
troduce machinery into their own coun-
Try to manufacture watches was not at
least at first, successful. How they
have succeeded since l know not In
the manufacture of sewing machines
Americans have hardly q competitor
The man who at the Worlds Fair took
the premium for doing the most of any
man to send the sewing machine over the
world, had his pamphlet in thirty-four
languages, was reared as an American
citizen in New York, though he manu-
t;lctured in Canada to save duty. He,
however, was located at Hamilton, near
the line, and had all his leading
Workmen from the United States.
His largest sales were in Europe and
/ Sweden was his distributing point. /
asked him why he did not manufacture
III England. He replied: 1.-The English
workman is not adapted to work in a
sewing machine factory" 1t seems that
while American geniuS is most prolific
in inventions, American fingers can most
deity make and handle them.
There underlies these facts reason for
them. In this country, as nowhere else,
the labOrer has q free mind, and he has
free schools, and is more generally edu-
Gated. He breathes the air of freedom and
catches the inspiration Of mental activity
Fie has eyes and he sees and studies
everything he handles.
In countries where the old idea still
obtains that some men are born to rule
and others to labor, the one class who
claim to do all the thinking and none of
the working, do not handle machinery
and hence DO not understand it. What
does the lady, who never does q stitch of
her own sewing. know about the sewing
machine? What use has she for one
only as a piece of ornamental furniture?
But the intelligent woman or man who
operates the sewing machine, who is con-
stantly using it, is also constantly study
ing it. She reads it, knows it through
and through, feels it, handles it, knows
how 1t runs, fast or slow, easy or hard
and narrowly inspects it's work, and can
compare one with another. She or he is
the person to point out defects and Sug-
gest improvements. But in aristOcratic
countries the class of people who are born
to simply labor, breathe a different air
from what we have in this country. They
get no inspiration of free intelligence
their minds are not sprightly, their eyes
are not quick at seeing, nor are their
minds alert to think, to observe and
reason. Such country, with this class
population, where the deadening weight
of caste is on everything, cannot compete
with this land of universal freedom and
universal education. The world is only
beginning to realize the results, the bene-
fits, the fruits of American civilization.
when the proposition that it is good, that
it is safe, that 1t is beneficial for every
body to think and be be intelligent is
IS everywhere; no one knows
what 1t may bring forth, be-
fore this days sun shall set.
We see its fruits in the lowest forms of
labor. l knew a man who &nUented q Su2U-
buck. He sawed his own wood. He got
a patent. The other day l saw a Califor-
nian using this very Improvement made
of two boards. There was no stick con-
Meeting the two crutches at the center,
which the saw would always strike as it
went through the stick of wood.
By careful attention to the laws of
health, by intelligent economy, by obey
ing the wise suggestions of strict temper
ance, the labOrer may usually have some
time for self-improvement in reading
and study.
IN this country of freedom labor has
already achieved the grandest triumphs
of genius and industry the world ever
saw. It was seen in Philadelphia fifteen
years ago, it will be exhibited again with
increased magnificence next year in Chi
cago, and upon this line of universal
freedom and universal education it will
go on and on, and no man can set any
limit TO its outcome. With this increase
Of intelligence will come new discoveries
and new improvements, and new inven-
tions without end.
Labor has gained much. With
intelligence and union and harmony it
will gain more; it will advance till the
laborer will have what he ought to have.
The sentiment on yonder monument,
Labor is entitled to its just reward
viii come to read, Labor receives it's
just reward
say labor has gained much. 1t has
achieved victory over that oppression
when government fixed the price OF
labor. The laborer is getting in sight of
the position, is largely now in it, where
ne can say, Let not another man set a
price on my work."
1t has achieved victory over that un-
just decision of human, and so an
erring Judiciary, that union of labor
ers to increase their wages is q felony,
indictable by law. By the progress of
freedom and Intelligence that decision
has been relegated to the past, as a relic
of an inferior civilization. Labor APP
pealed from that decision and won, and
it viii not have to fight that battle again.
In applied electricity we are leadinp