The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-08

manfully to do his duty to himself. to his family, to his neighbor. to the state; who is incapable of the baseness which mani- fests itself either in arrogance or in envy, but who while demanding justice for him self is no less scrupulous to do justice to others It is because the average Amer ican 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 eonnivanee. at aw-breaking-whe the law-breaking take the form of a crime of greed and cunning or of a crime of violence-are destructive not only of order 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 over riding the laws, without regard to wheth- CT this spirit shows itself in the form of bodily violence by one set of men or in the form of vupine cunning by another set of men.
 Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing and common sense.
  essential to all of us. as we deal with the complex industrial problems of today, the problems affecting not merely the accu- mutation but even more the wise distribu- ton of wealth. We ask no mans permis- sion 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 o7 to Co. 4s ie, ,d support, and it is both foolish and pro foundly unpatriotic for him to fail in giv- ing 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
 One Must Help the Other.
 Men sincerely interested in the due protection of property, and men sincere ly interested in seeing that the just rights of labor are guaranteed should alike remember 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 emphaticalIy to that sides real inter- est
 There is no worse enemy of the wage worker than the man who condones mob violence in any shape or who preaches class hatred; and surely the slightest acquaintance with our industrial history should teach even the most short-sighted that the times for most suffering for our people as a whole, the times when busi- ness Is stagnant, and capital suffers from shrinkage and gets no return from its in- vestments, are exactly the times of hard et,I aad mt md irn fead the poor If all the existing instrument talities of wealth could be abolished, the first and severest suffering would come among those of us who are least well off at present. The wage-worker is well off only when the rest of the country Is well off and he can best contribute to this general well-being by showing sanity and firm purpose to do justice to oth- CTS.
 In his turn the capitalist who Is really a conservative, the man who has fore thought as well as patriotism, should heartily welcome every effort. legislative or otherwise, which has for It's object to secure fair dealing by capital, corporate or individual. toward the public and toward the employee. Such laws as the franchise-tax law in this state, which the court of appeals recently unanimous " decided constitutional--such a law as that passed in congress last year for the purpose of establishing a department cf commerce and labor, under which there should be a bureau to oversee and secure 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 commerce so as to keep these roads clear on fair terms to all producers in getting bei tp rr,o of 1a ofa in the interest not merely of the people as a whole, but of the propertied classes. For in no way is the stability of property better assured than by making 1t patent to people that property bears it's 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 community.
 Proper Legislation.
 In other words, legislation to be perma- nently good for any class must also be good for the nation as whole, and legis- lation which does injustice to any class is certain to work harm to the nation Take our currency system for example, This nation is on gold basis. The treas- ury of the public is in excellent condi- tion. Never before has the per capltn of circulation been as large as 1t is this day; and this circulation, moreover, ia of money every dollar of which is at par with gold. Now, our having this sound system Is of benefit to banks, of course, but it is of infinitely more ben- eft to the people as a whole, because of the healthy effect on business condi- tions.
 In the same way, whatever is advisable in the way of remedial or corrective cur rency legfslation-and nothing revolution- ary is advisable under present conditions must be undertaken only from the standpoint of the business community as a whole. that is, of the American body polite as a whole. Whatever Is done, we can not afford to take any steps backward or to cast any doubt upon the certain re- demption in standard coin of every circu- lating note.
 Among ourselves we differ in many qualities of body, head and heart; we are unequally developed. mentally as well as physically But each of us has the
 l-l-A