The Topeka state journal., 1897-09-06
LABOR DAY.
A Picnic at Garfield Park This
Afternoon,
The Principal Formal Observ-
ance of the Day.
THE PARK is DRIED UP
But a Considerable Number of
People Seek Enjoyment.
Speech of Edward G.. Little on
Labor Topics.

Labor day today was not as general
1y observed as usual. Public offices
were closed in many instances, and some
shops and stores. The only formal cell
ebration of the day was by a picnic
at Garfield park. At o'clock the at
tendance at the park was not large but
it grew steadily as the afternoon went
on. The park is in bad condition. The
hot weather following the grocers' and
butchers picnic, destroyed nearly all
the grass and large patches of the
park are as dusty and wretched look
ing as the road in front of the gate.
Most of the sports and pastimes are
being carried out this afternoon, and
speeches are being made.
The address of Edward c. Little, the
governors private secretary was in
part as follows:
Civilization began when the first
blacksmith forged the first tool. He
was the author and father of all human
progress. The only material difference
between man and other animals is that
he uses tools. The one who originated
that distinction was the greatest bene-
factor the race has ever had. That man
discovered a greater America than Col
umbus ever imagined. A mechanic
built the first house, a miner dug the
f1rst pit, tailor made the first suit of
clothes. The men who built the house
and made the clothes and dug the
mine,-they and they alone established
the distinction between a man and an
hattering orang- -Outang running wild
in the woods. The only sensible histo-
ry of civilization would be record of
the discoveries and inventions made by
the long line of mechanics and artisans
which has followed in the footsteps of
the first tool maker. Every discovery
and every invention lifted the race one
degree. Each of these men was child
of genius whose ilIustrious fame should
gild the pages of history with the ef-
fulgence of its glory, but they are lost
O1N1T Ion In ln6 writ h
their hands, while the silly pages of
the records of human life are filed with
the deeds of lying diplomats and con-
Quering cut-t thFOatS. They have uSurp-
ed the honors that should have fallen
to those who have advanced human
kind. If any should have ruled by divine
right it Is they who were divinely gifted
and equipped to take wild men from
the woods and transform them into
civilized human beingS,-maSterS of the
globe. Armies make kings, kings make
lords, property makes millionaires,
votes made presidents. but God Al
mighty made Thomas Edison himself.
EVERY resource of the law, every de-
vice of the statute, every ingenuity of
the courts has been taxed to protect
capital, until instead of the divine right
of kings we have a divine right of prop
erty. The rights of man have sometimes
been lost sight of in the eager desire to
protect the rights of property. Vast
fortunes have been accumulated. Craft
and ShrewdnesS have by every pOSSi-
BILE device taken advantage of the con-
dftions to secure for their possessors the
possession OF wealth and power-the
greatest material gifts that our civiliZa-
ton offers as rewards. The genius of
the inventor has constantly offered new
fields for the exploration of the. pro-
mOter. The growth of this civilization
has neceSsitated the accumulation of
vast stores of wealth for the purpose of
conducting certain forms of business.
Thus we have bred a horde of million
aires as menacing to the state as was
ever a band of Scandinavian adventur-
ers. Instead of the House of Bourbon
we have the House of Gould, for the
House of Stewart there is the House of
Vanderbilt, and with astonished eyes
we see the coal oil duke. the sugar mar
QuiS, the railroad earl, the coal viscount
and the stock exchange baron Supplant
the European aristocracy and dominate
the state, while the marriage of their
daughters to their European contem-
poraries forms union between the two
ariStOcracieS of the new and old world
in which the people have part AS
there were men peculiarly adapted to
the pursuits of war, so there has arisen
a type of man peculiarly adapted to
taking advantage of his fellow men in
the conduct of business, and this is his
harvest day. He takes for his motto,
"a sucker is born every minute and
with pernicious and pestiferouS activity
he lives up to his opportunities sheer
parasite on the body polite, serving no
useful purpose In his selfish and un-
ScrupulouS pursuit OF wealth he has
necessarily deprived men more honest,
more scrupulouS and less crafty, of that
which should have been theirs under
the protecting eye of the law which he
continually invOkes. But che that
makes many poor to make a few rich
suits not a commonwealth" said Oliver
Cromwell, and the people are getting
deVilish tired of the methods which en-
able Mrs. Bradley Martin to give a
three hundred thousand dollar ball,
while according to the metropolitan pa
perS, three hundred thousand men, wo-
men and children on her very little
Manhattan island are cold and hungry.
One of the House of Vanderbilt said:
THE people be damned" and the peo-
pie are about ready to retort in kind.
cause he lives in a better house, wears
better clothes and gives his children bet
ter advantages than others receive. We
wish that every one could attain the op-
but we do object to law which permits
one man to grow rich at the expense of
another. that he may step in and become
the master OF the state. the dictator of
The martial chief with battalions at his
back who made terms with emperors and
kings was no more potent factor in the
government of the Germanic Empire than
within their power on an hours notice
to stop the wheels that carry the cars
that hold the business of the nation
These by virtue of the that
power of their filthy lucre, by reason of
the weight that their influence has
the possessor of such wealth. on ac-
count of the absolute powers they exer-
else acquire position under the Law
which makes it absurd to say that al
men are equal before the law. That is
why we object to their system and their
methods.
f.If we are to have in this republic the