The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1902-07-03
TRIBUTE TO LABOR
Eloquent Speech of Congressman
Brick of Indiana.
WORKERS OF FACTORY AND FARM

Form the Basis of the Structure OF
American Prosperity - Maintenance
of the American Standard % Wages
and Living Should Be the First Con-
Germ of the American Legislator.
One of the most notable cOntribu-
lions to the recent debate on the Chi
nese Exclusion bill in the house of rep
resentatives was the speech of Repre-
sentative A. l.. Brick, one of the most
able and eloquent members of the In
diana delegation. In the course of his
speech he took occasion to pay a no
table tribute to the American working.
man. In part Mr.. Brick said:
l vote for and support this bill be-
cause believe it will effectually con.
serve the honor and dignity of the
American worker from all competition
with foreign or insular Chinese cody
labor, because 1 believe it fully meets
the new and delicate condition of af
fairs in Hawaii, Porto Rico and the
Philippines. 1t prevents Chinese i'm
migration of labor into any of these
possessions of ours. 1t restricts all
Chinese migration from one insulaI
possession to the other. But more
than this. it says, in emphatic terms
that not single Chinese laborer shall
set his foot upon American soil. II
promises the men of America that
they are not only protected in their
employment here, but also against
cheap labor and its every result. di
rectly or indirectly, from our island
territory.
Question Of SeIf-Preservation.
This legislation is not directed
against these persons because they
come from China or from any other
country. America has always been the
refuge of TIE oppressed from every
where. The torch of its liberty has
shed a flood of light and life into the
dreary homes of all the sons of men OF
all the world. But it is a political
social, economical and self-preserving
proposition.
They would not only supplant Amer
lean wOrkmen and degrade American
labor, but they would come to us in
multiplied thousands, devoid of all "a.
cial and political homOgeneity, bring
ing with them social vices and national
habits that would surely contaminate
the clear stream of Christian civiliza-
ton and American institutions that
must inevitably lower the standard of
citizenship and eventually undermine
the republic.
Dangerous as are their peculiar
vices, their very virtues are still more
perilous. Intelligent in their own way
pertinaceous. crafty, patient, diplo-
matte. they are painfully Industrious,
brutality frugal and fanatically fatalis-
tic; people to be feared; as change
less and unrelenting as eternity; the
immutable progeny of ages gone and
civilizations passed away. They never
think of what a real man needs, of
what he ought to- have in this world
of smiles and tears, to uplift himself
and glorify his race and nation; but to
him the sole query is, How can bare
ly live in the lowest stratum of animal
existence and save the excess to carry
back to the crumbling home of the an
cestral graveyard?
Basis of National Greatness.
A country is great, not so much in
the extent of it's territory MOI in the
number of its inhabitants, but it is
great, and great only, in the character
of it's people.
A republic must endure, if it live at
all, in the intelligence and patriotism
of its sons and daughters. That in
telligence and patriotism is conceived
and born in the university of the
American home, the grandest educa-
tional institution in the world. In that
school is taught the virtue of our
daughters, the valor of our sons, and
round it's hallowed walls cling all the
vines and flowers of our country's
hope and joy. Within its sacred pre-
cincts dwell the sons of liberty, every
one of whom holds the scepter of a
king.
/ want him to look and feel like a
king; l want him to know enough to
be a king. And l will never consent,
by any act of mine, to have that home
degraded. polluted and impoverished
| by people in whose lexicon there is