Evening star., 1903-09-07
CHIEF At SYRACUSE
Continued from First Page.)

ing his duty by his neiehbor; nor yet does
this line of cleavage divide the unscru-
pulous wealthy man who exploits others in
his own interest, from the demagogue or
from the sullen and envious being who
wishes to attack all men of property,
whether they do well or i'll. On the con-
trary, the line of cleavage between good
citizenship and bad citizenship separates
the rich man who does well from the rich
man who does i'll. the poor man of good
conduct from the poor man of bad conduct.
This line of cleavage lies at right angles
to any such arbitrary line of division as
that separating one class from another,
ona locality from another, or men with a
certain degree of property from those of
less degree of property.
The good citizen is the man who, what
ever his wealth or his poverty strives man.
fully to do his duty to himself, to his
family, to his neighbor, to the state; who
Is incapable of the baseness which mani
tests itself either in arrogance or in envy,
but who while demanding justice for him
self is no less scrupulous to do justice to
others. 1t Is because the average American
citizen, rich or poor, Is of just this type
that we have cause for our profound faith
in the future of the republic.
Ours Is a government of liberty, by,
through and under the law. Lawlessness
and connivance at law-breaking-whet
the law-breaking take the form of crime
of greed and cunning or of a crime of vio-
lenCG-dr6
but of the true liberties which can only
come through order If alive to their true
interests rich and poor alike will set their
faces like flint against the spirit which
seeks personal advantage by overriding the
laws without regard to whether this spirit
shows itself in the form Of bodily violence
by one set of men or in the form Of vulpine
cunning by another set of men.
watchwords Of Our People.
Let the watchwords of all our people
be the old familiar watchwords Of honesty,
decency fair dealing and common sense
The qualities denoted by these words are
essential to all of us, we deal with the
complex Industrial problems of today, the
problems affecting not merely the accumu-
lation but even more, the wise distribution
of wealth We ask no mans permission
when we require him to obey the law:
neither the permission of the poor man
nor yet of the rich man. Least of all can
the man of great wealth afford to break
the law, even for his own financial advan-
tage; for the law Is his prop and support,
and it Is both foolish and profoundly un-
patriotic for him to fail in giving hearty
support to those who show that there is in
very fact one law, and one law only, alike
for the rich and the poor, for the great and
the small.
Men sincerely interested in the due pro-
lection of property, and men sincerely in
terested in seeing that the just rights Of
labor are guaranteed, should alike remem
Der not only that in the long run neither
the capitalist nor the wage-worker can be
helped in healthy fashion save by helping
the other: but also that to require either
side to obey the law and do it's full duty
toward the community is emphatically to
that sides real interest.
Worst Enemy Of Wageworkers.
There Is no worse enemy of the wage
worker than the man who condones mob
violence in any shape or who breaches class
hatred and surely the slightest acquaint-
ance with our industrial history should
teach even the most short-sighted that the
times of most suffering for our people as a
whole. the times when business is stagnant,
and capital suffers from shrinkage and gets
no return from it's investments. are exactly
the times of hardship, and want, and grim
disaster among the poor. If all the existing
fnstrumentalities of wealth could be abol-
ished. the first and severest suffering would
come among those of us who are least well
off at present. The wage-worker is we'll off
only when the rest of the country is we'll
off: and he can best contribute to this gen.
eral well-being by showing sanity and a
firm purpose to do justice to others.
In his turn the capitalist who is really
conservative. the man who has forethought
as we'll as patriotism. should heartily well
come every effort, legislative otherwise,
which has for it's object to secure fair deal
ing by capital. corporate or individual, to-
ward the public and toward the empIoye
Such laws as the franchise-tax law in this
state. which the court of appeals recently
unanimously decided constitutional-such a
law as that passed in Congress last year
for the purpose of esta blishing a Depart
ment of Commerc and Labor under which
there should be a bureau to oversee and Sc
cure publicity from the great corporations
which do an interstate business-such law
as that passed at the same time for the
regulation of the great highways of COM
merce so as to keep these roads clear on
fair terms to all producers in getting their
goods to market-these laws are in the in
terest not merely of the people as a whole,
but of the propertied classes. For in no
way Is the stability of property better as
sured than by making it patent to our peo-
pie that property bears its proper share of
the burdens of the state: that property is
handled not only in the interest of the
owner. but in the interest of the whole COM
munity.
Legislation to Be Permanently Good.
In other words, legislation to be perma-
nently good for any class must also be
good for the nation as a whole. and legisla-
ton which does injustice to any class is
certain to work harm to the nation. Take
our currency system for example. This
nation is on a gold basis. The treasury of
the public is in excellent condition. Never
before has the per capita of circulation
been as large as it is this day; and this
circulation, moreover, is of money every
dollar of which Is at par with gold. Now,
our having this sound currency system is
of benefit to banks, of course, but 1t Is Of
infinitely more benefit to the people as
whole, because of the healthy effect on
business conditions.
In the same way, whatever Is advisable
in the way of remedial or corrective cur
rency legislation-and nothing revolution
ary is advisable under present conditions
must be undertaken only from the stand
point of the business community as a
whole, that is, of the American body po-
litic as a whole. Whatever is done, we can
not afford to take any step backward OF to
cast any doubt upon the certain redemp-
ton in standard coin Of every circulating
note.
Among ourselves we differ in many quail
tiles, of body head and heart; we are un-
equally developed. mentally as well
physically. But each of us has the right
to ask that he shall be protected from
wrongdoing as he does his work and car
ries his burden through life. No man needs
sympathy because he has to work, because
he has a burden to carry Far and away
the best prize that life offers is the chance