Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1902-09-17

lawfully SHlilltu vs. W bhS tNSiS
child the right TO be educated and to
grow up to maturity without having
his mind and body stunted by unnat-
ural toll; to give to families the right
to have the mother at home serving
her family. instead Of working in a
mill or factory to produce them a
scanty dole of daily bread; the right
for men to have such wages as their
reasonable share of production enti-
ties them to. | presume that some
of the doctrines of Socialism have
a certain application, at least SO far
as relates to matters which are natur-
al m~onopolies. We will take the case
right here at home: The city of
Lewistown is putting in its own water
works; that | believe to be far better
than granting a franchise to some
corporation or individual; II we
would perform all our public services
in the same way, w would be bet
ter off; any city Is in a better condi-
ton which keeps its municipal
works. | cannot stop TO suggest a
prograY of this kind; you can all see
the obvious application. But | ask
you, ladies' and gentlemen. to take
home these few ideas that | have been
able to give you. ! have made no
attempt at oratory; ] have simply
tried to state to you a few of these
ideas which | believe should be the
common property of every American
citizen. and | ask you further to re-
member that all improvement must
come from the ground; it grows from
the bottom up and not from the top
downward; you cannot get reform in
high places; it won't start there; 1t
must start in low places. All the
great leaders of II race. Of our ma
ton. with very few exceptions, have
come from the masses Of the common
people. Jesus Christ was a carpen-
ter's son; Abraham Lincoln vas the
son of a rail-splitter and a r~ailSplit-
ter himself; and so we might go on
through the long list Of the men who
have been the saviors of mankind
they have nearly all come from the
breasts of the common people; re-
form must come from the bottom and
grow upward, and II must begin with
the individual. You cannot have a
good organization of any kind unless
you have good men to form it with:
We cannot have a permanent, dura-
BILE. just republic unless we have
good citizens; and we have got to
make the citizens goou by giving them
an opportunity to develop naturally.
to give every child his birth-right.
When we do this. affairs will begin
to improve. 1t will not do us any
good to legislate against Schwab and
Rockefeller and Morgan; when they
are gone there will be others to take
their place. There is scarcely a man
in this audience, who. if he had the
same power as those men, would not
use it in probably the same way, per
haps worse: the fault Is not with
those men, the fault is with the sys-
TEN. But we must begin by giving
right ideals to the boys and girls that
are growing up among us. When we
hold up a money king as the ideal for
the boy to pattern Gi,er. we are put
ting a wrong idea in that youthful
mind. We should pattern upon differ
ent men. | want my boys to look up
to George Washington, Thomas JEFF
~ferson. Hamilton and Lincoln, and
the scores of other great men that
have helped to make this country
what IL is. | do not care to have
them look up to Rockefeller and
Morgan; not because those gentle.
men are not very estimable men, but
because the ideal is a low one; 1t
makes the successful acquisition of
money the chief end of man. IL is
not the chief end of man; it never
can be the chief end of man in a
healthy. sound society, because health
and s~oundness do not form themselves
on such an ideal. You have got to
make 1t different. And there is an.
other thing to be remembered: That
the great men whom | have mentioned
could v have made this republic
what II is. had II not been for the
tens of thousands and millions OF
good citizens in the ranks. There
cannot be many generals command.
ing an army, but the best general in
the world can do very little If his
rank and file are not all right, and
if the rank and file are all right, they
will do pretty well sometimes with
out the commanding general, as men
here present could testify.
So. my friends. our work is simply
this: To do what we an. first, to
put ourselves right. and our neigh
bors right. so far as We can-although
that is rather a dangerous business
to undertake sometimes. If we see 10
it that the children of our community
are properly educated and have the
right ideals of citizenship. II we see