The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-09-03


finally coIES fair play for all.
In the country districts the surround
ings are such that a man can usually
work out his own fate by himself to the
best advantage. In our cities, or where
men congregate in masses, 1t is often
necessary to work in combinations; that
is through associations. by trade unions.
OF course, if managed unwisely, the very
power of such union organization
makes it capable of doing much harm;
but on the whole it would be hard to
er-estimate the good these organiza-
tions have done in the past and still
harder to estimate the good they can do
in the future if handled with resolution,
forethought, honesty and sanity.
It is not possible to lay down hard
and fast rule, logically perfect, as to
where the state shall. and where the in
dividual shall be left unhampered and
unhelped.
We have exactly the same right to
regulate the conditions of life and work
we have to regulate fire escapes and the
like in other houses. In certain COM
munitieS the existence of a thoroughly
efficient department of factory inSpec-
ton is just as essential as the establish
ment of a fire department. How far we
shall go in regulating the hours of labor,
or the liabilities of employers is a mat
ter of expediency and each case must be
determined on it's own merits, exactly as
it is matter of expediency to determine
what so-called public utilities the
community shall itself own and what
ones it shall leave to private or corporate
ownership, securing to itself merely the
right to regulate. Some times one course
is expedient, some times the other.
In addressing an audience like this,
do not have to say that the law of life
is work, and that work in itself, so far
from being any hardship is a great bless
ing, provided always that it is carried on
under conditions which preserve a mans
self-respect, and which allow him to de-
velop his own character and rear his
children so that he and they, as we'll as
the whole community of which he and
they are a part, may steadily march
onward and upward The idler, rich or
poor, is at best useless and is generally
a noxiouS member of the community.
To whom much has been given, from
him much is rightfully expected; and
heavy burden of responsibility rests
upon the man of means to justify by his
actions the social conditions which have
rendered it possible for him or his fore
fathers to accumulate and to keep the
property he enjoys. He is not to be ex-
cuSed if he does not render full measure
of service to the state and community
at large. There are many ways in which
this service can be rendered; in art, in
literature, in philanthropy, as a states
man and soldier; but in some way he
is in honor bound to render it, so that
benefit may accrue to his brethren who
have been less favored by fortune than
he has been. If he does not work he
fails not only in his duty to the rest of
the community, but he fails signally in
his duty to himself. There is no need
of envying the idle Ordinarily we can
afford to treat them with impatient
contempt: for when they fail to do their
duty, they fail to get from life the high
est and keenest pleasure that life can
give.
To do our duty; that is the summing
up of the whole matter. We must do our
duty by ourselves and we must do our
duty by our neighbors-
Before us loom industrial problems,
vast in their Importance and their COM
plexity. The last half century has been
one of extraordinary social and indus
trial development. The changes have
been far-reaching; some of them for
good and some of them for evil 1t is
not given to the wisest of US to see into
the future with absolute clearnesS. No
man can be certain that he has found
the entire solution of this infinitely
great and intricate problem, and yet each
man of US if he would do his duty must
strive manfully so far as in him lies, to
help bring about that solution.
1t is not as yet possible to say what
shall be the exact limit of influence al
lowed the state or what limit shall be
set to that right of individual initiative
so dear to the hearts of the American
people All we can say is that the need
has been shown on the one hand for ac-
tion by the people in their collective ca
pacity through the state in many mat
ters; that in other matters much can
be done by associations of different
and similar organizations; and that in
other matters it remains now as true as
ever that final success will be for the
man who trusts in the struggle only to
his cool head, his brave heart and his
strong right arm. There are spheres in
which the state can properly act and
spheres in which a comparatively free
field must be given to individual initia-
tive.
Though the conditions of life have grown
50 puzzling in their complexity, though
the changes have been so vast, yet we
may remain absolutely sure of one thing;
that now, as ever in the past, and as it
viii ever be in the future. there can be no
substitute for the elemental virtues, for
the elemental qualities to which we al
lude when we speak of a man not only
a good man but as emphat tically man.
We can build the standard of individual
citizenship and individual well being, we
can raise the national standard and make
by each of us steadfastly keeping in mind
that there can be no substitute Tor the
world old, humdrum, commonplace quail
ties of truth, justice and courage. thrift,
industry, common sense and genuine sym
The nation is the aggregate of the indi-
vidualS composing it, and each individual
when he so conducts himself to wrong
no man and as to suffer no wrong from
pacity for self-help and his readiness to
extend q helping hand to the neighbor
sinking under a burden too heavy for him
to bear.
The one fact which all of us need to
keep steadily before our eyes is the need
that performance shall square with prom
ise if good work is to be done, whether
in the industrial or the political world.
Nothing does more to prompt mental dis
honesty and moral insincerity than the
habit of either promising the impossible or
of demanding the performance of the i'm
possible, or finally of failing to keep a
promise that has been made. and 1t ma keS
not the slightest difference whether it Is a
promise made on the stump or off the
stump. Remember that there are two
sides to the wrong thus committed. There
is first the wrong of falling to keep
promise made. and in the next place there
is the wrong of demanding the Impossible,
and therefore forcing or permitting weak
or unscrupulous men to make a promise
which they either know or should know
can not be kept No small part of our
troubles in dealing with many OF the grav-
est social questions, such as the so-called
labor question. the trust question, and