Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-08-06
VOLUME XXXVII.-NUlIBER So SO
I'RUE CITIZENSHIP.
PERSONAL RIGHTS OF AMERICAN
CITIZENSHIP.

T6n0OtNNI = MIN = VT NWGntSNN
CITIZENSHIP.
Lewis, Great Speech Before Tan. .
many, I'm New York City, on July
4th, 1897.
Mr.. Lewis, on being introduced to
the immense throng, spoke in part as
follows:
AS has been said to you, come from.
the far-away State of Washington,
that Empress Commonwealth which
sits guard at the west gates OF the Pa
citic seas. Far she may be from you
in distance, but nearer than a sisters
lover is her spirit, which on this hal
lowed day joins in the ceaseless prayer
for the deliverance of oppressed man.
kind. She bids me bring you greet
ing and present congratulations upon
the glorious achievement of that union
of peoples which promises the most
imperial municipality that has ever
crowned the genius of civilized govern
ments-your greater New York.
l come to offer you what to my
mind appears to be one of the great
grievances afflicted upon our present
form of government and to mention
the dangers which menace her future
and threaten the destruction of her
existence. 1t is, that the individual
citizen is no longer taken into the af-
fairs of government. Such rights as
he once possessed and as was the in
tent of the constitution to invest him.
he has been forced to surrender to
combinations and organizations. And
whatever remaining rights he dares
cling to as a sovereign privilege of his
own, the right Of competition with his
fellow man in the pursuits of trade,
the pursuits of happiness along the
avenues of his individual choice,
these are being crushed out of him by
the power of tie amalgamated associa-
tions, which, armed with the power Of
state, hold him up along the highways
of life, and in a manner no less das-
tardly and outrageous than that adopt
ed by the brigand and highwayman
upon the unsuspecting and inoffensive
traveller, extort his privileges from
him. This process, encouraged under
the forms of law, countenanced by the
present civilization, and justified by
the unfeeling demands of the corrupt
times, has go merged the individuality
of the individual citizen into the ag-
gregation of combinations, that he no
longer feels himself a sovereign and
necessary constituent part of this re-
public. His enthusiasm for the insti-
tutions which his fathers constructed
for the benefit of their children Ian.
guishes, his loyalty to his government
is measured alone in his mind by the
benefits that he personally obtains
from it, while his love of country fam
ishes for the want of that nourishing
water which can alone spring from a
heart animated with pride and filled
with glory at the contemplation of
what he delights to call his native
land. With this sad influence operat-
ing to fill him with dismay or indiffer-
ence, he only tolerates with an obed-
fence enforced by law his present con-
dition, and can see nothing in his
present status, feel nothing from his
past experiences, and hope for nothing
that the future promises, which could
impel him to make sacrifice for the
further maintenance of institutions
which have produced this result, or
strike response from his soul to the
call to arms, even in the hour of his
country's peril. We say with Pericles !:
"'Tis sad to see freeman
Yoked SO with burden that he no longer loves
to walk the way Of his country's cause"
If he be one of those who are of the
favored number within the organiza-
tion or combination fattening into in
dolence upon the favors he is fed upon,
he feels nc necessity for giving himself
meditation as to the governments fu-
ture, the welfare of its citizens, of the
permanency of its institutions. He
feels that it is the organization of
which he is a part, the combination
of which he is member, to which the
government or the individual will look
either for service to mankind or con-
tribution to the State. His entity and
individuality is never sought out, and
to those around and about him never
established. Thus as he feels no indi-
vidual responsibility, he neither antic-
ipates nor fears odium or resentment
for the avoiding or betraying it. That
which usually restrains the weak and
vain man-the fear of criticism from
his social order-no longer menaces or
deters this individual because of his
consciousness of the fact that it is the
artificial, intangible and elusive organ
ization or corporation of which he is
but component part, which must
bear the burden of duty to govern
ment or suffer censure and criticism
for any omission or deliberate neglect.
If the course of the institution should
be that of the persecution of individ-
uals, the extortion from the public
communities of private benefits, the