The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-09

certain tendency to softening of the national fiber; there is a certain tendency 10 forget, in consequence of their disuse the rugged virtues which lie at the back of manhood; and I feel that professions like yours like the profession of the rail- road man of the country, have a tonic ef- feet upon the whole body politic
 'It is a good thing that there should be large body of our fellow citizens-that there should be a profession whose num- bers must year in and year out display those old old qualities of courage dar- ing, resolution, unfiinching willingness to meet danger at need. l hope to see all our people develop the softer gentler virtues to an ever-increasing degree, but hope to never see them lose the stern CT virtues that make men men (applause) l feel that the profession of railroadlng is fine antiscorbutic-that 1t does away with the tendency toward softness A man is not going to be a fireman or an engineer, or serve well in any other ca pacity on a railroad long, if, to speak technically, he has a streak of yellow In him Qaughter). You are going to find 1t out and he is going to be painfully conscious of it very soon. It is a fine thing for our people that we should have these qualities in evidence before us in the life work of a big group of our citi- zens. In American citizenship we can succeed permanently only upon the basis of standing shoulder to shoulder, work ing in association, by organization each working for all and yet remembering that we need each so to shape things that each man can develop to best ad- vantage all the forces and powers at his command.
 Tn your organization you accomplish much by means of the brother, but you accomplish it because of the men who go to make up that brotherhood. If you had exactly the organization, exactly the laws, exactly the system and yet were yourselves a poor set of men, the sys- tenn would not save you l will guar antee that from time to time you have men go in to try to serve for the nine months which prove they do not have the stuff in them out of which you can make good men. (Applause) You have got to have the stuff in you and if you have got the stuff you can make out of it much finer man by means of the association-but you have got to have the material out of which to make 1t.
 Need Citizenship.
 ''So it is in citizenship. We need good laws, we need a good fundamental law of the type that we call the constitu- tion, but back of it all lies the need for the lack of which nothing else can
 
 individual citizenship. (Applause). That we have got to have. It is just as it is in war. hen we went into the Spanish war lot of our national guards were armed with the black powder musket. a weapon which makes the cross bow rather recent by comparison. It always irritates me to see any of our troops armed with such a weapon. l want to see each man have the best weapon; but if the man is a poor creature. no matter how good his weapon Is. he will be beaten by good man with a club daughter and applause). I want the best type of weapon, but I want the man be- hind the gun (Applause) It is so in our civic life, citizenship. I want to see a good framework of labor organization; I want to see good laws on the statute books for all of us: I want to see our admirable constitution, whenever the need comes rendered still more admir- able, even if it is necessary to amend 1t. (Applause). But remembering the import ance of all that, my friends, what I hope we never forget is that in the last resort the problem of good citizen ships is the problem of producing good men and women. (Applause). That is the fundamental principle All the organiza- tion the best development of the brotherhood will not make a coward or a shirk a good engineer or a good fire man: and the best law, the best con- stitution will work but i'll if we have not in the average citizen that which counts for more than intellect and stands far above intellect, stands above mere brute strength-character character that
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