The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-11
SALOON B CLOSEO
 BY MAYORS ORDER
ADDRESS BEFORE
 THE TURN VEREIN
A. LEO o8ERDoRFER SPOKE ON SOME IDEALS OF DEMOCRACY" LITERARY PROGRAMME WAS RENDERED.

A. Leo Oberdorfer, well known young
 attorney, spoke on Some Ideals of De- mocracy'' before the Turn Verein last
 night at it's literary session. There were several other interesting numbers on the programme.
 In part MT. Oberdorfer said: e We have just witnessed the close of the most sanguinary and remarkable war
 in the history of the world; war whose
 battles eclipse the greatest battles of all time; whose siege of Port Arthur, whose Mukden, whose battle of the Japanese sea, were of far greater magnitude and
 moment than Marathon, Thermopolea, Waterloo or Trafalgar But costly in it's stupendous sacrifice of men and treasure as was the Russo-Japanese war 1t was
 not without it's compensatory lessons The
 Cossack, erstwhile unconquered and un- ! conquerable, haughtily disdained to com pare the virtues of his race and people
 with that of the almon-eyed people of the land of the rising sun. And who among us, at the outbreak of this war, did not make an unfavorable comparison of the resources and valor of the Orient as com-
 pared with the Occident; of the bravery
 and military prowess of Asia as com pared with that of Europe? Did ever vain race conceit receive a sharper or
 more deserved rebuke than that of the pompous boasting Slav at the hands of the yellow man, in the uninterrupted series of defeats from the Yalu to Muk- den? Was there ever a more complete ,l, | racy, so eloquently and tersely expressed | in our own declaration of independence, l That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- tain inalienabe rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap piness@ Again was 1t exempliied that l the greatness of a people consists not l in their own self-laudation, or self esti- | mate, but is the composite of the virtues,
 morals, thrift and frugality of the entire people; nor was this the only important l lesson.
 Tt awakened the world to the fact that l the spirit of liberty in the bosom of the people is so strong and irrepressible, that l though 1t may slumber and be apparent l ly dead for centuries, it but awaits the physiological moment when it arouses l itself with all the anger of an unfuriated | beast and throws off the shackles of it's l master.
 We are witnessing today a revolution
 in the land of the Czar as momentous, as
 existing and romantic as that of the great | French revolution at the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nine | 1 feature of this twentieth century revolu- l ton as compared with It's eighteenth cen- l tury protatype is that social organization and combination has suspended the mlli- tary regiment and brigade; that the
 weapon of this new democracy is not that
 of the bivouac, bayonett or the torch, but l the strike, the boycott, the stopping of the
 wheels of commerce; in this modern revo- ] lution the mob sezes not the bastile. nor
 the palace nor Versailles, but the tele-
 graph office. the railway station, the ar l teries and highways of trade
 "A great reactionary movement is on 1 foot throughout the breadth and length l of our great republic against a common
 practice known as graft which is the | bending of the law to serve the favored
 at the expense of the unfavored, for which the unfaithful trustee of the pub
 lie trust who thus unfairly administers
 his office, receives a part of the pro- l ceeds It is obviously wrong because it
 is dishonest; 1t is likewise wrong because it is inequatable and undemocratic
 l The conscience of democracy is be- l coming more sensitive and alert day by
 day; hitherto it has busied itself mostly l with the political problems of govern
 ment, with allowing every citizen an equal voice in the affairs of state, but | more and more 1t is giving attention to
 the social problems. Today 1t is becom- | ing recognized that political enfranchise-
 ment may co-exist with social and indus-
 trial slavery; to expect a single series
 of political movements to meet all the l evils of society is to place ones self be-
 side the ignorant prey of the quack who
 trusts a single nostrum to cure all dis | eases. Modern democracy Is not satisfied l with each citizen having an equal op- portunity to participate in the affairs of | government, but is concerning itself with the economic and social laws whereby each citizen may receive his share of the
 bounties of nature that lie so abundantly
 around him. In the great cities of this
 continent, with their congestion of popu-
 lation, with their ceaseless hurly- -burly
 of thrift and progress. where the prob
 lems of democracy have become the most
 complex, the municipalities are turning
 their attention not only to fair collec-
 ton and an honest count of the ballot,
 but to laws looking to the health and hap
 piness of the citizens, providing that the greedy landlord shall give to the poor
 tenant an adequate amount of room, light