The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-07-14
POINTED WORDS BY LlTTLETON.
New York Orator Says Pointed Things
Without Mentioning Names.

WITHOUT mentioning names.
The speech of Martin w. Littleton,
the New York orator, before a Buffalo
club recently, has attracted much inter-
est. Though he mentioned no names,
MIR. Llttleton's words-most admirably
put togetber-were plain enough and
there is no doubt at whom he aimed.
Whom do you think he meant? He said,
in part:
"Not very long ago little man sat
down amid the Allegheny hills and built
a fire that burned for days and years,
and when the smoke went up and the
fire went out he raked the ashes and
found $300,000,000 melted in the heat
of sweat and toll. His footsteps fell
upon continent of iron, his cunning
brought conquering army of Drawn
and grit, and with the two to serve and
sleep not he rose to be monarch crown
ed with steel.
His genius surely played it's natural
part; but government did most to make
him king. 1t furnished him with free
dom to combine, and over this it held
sheltering hand against the world, and
thus allied with the nations countless
wealth and the nations bounaless
powers, he took his toll of every
thing that thrift could tend or toll pro- =.
mote.
But when at last he saw the shadow
lengthening toward the east he turned
away from.the grinding metal and golden
greed to set up once again his lost ideal.
Granite galleries hung with art and
color, marble structures stuffed with
books. of cults and creed, rose upon this
base of solid gold.
"But all the granite in the undis-
covered earth and all the marble massed
in unmined mountains, and all the books
born Of hate and love, of thought and
passion. would fail to teach one half as
much as the aim confession coming
from this little man, that his gain was
wrongly got and his ideal lost in the got.
ing.
I'm the twilight of his elder days he
looks clear back across the reach of years
past forge and furnace; past mine and
mill-and still beyond the budding
crowd of earnest men, iblack with CRIME
and smoke, and yearns to feel again the
aspiration of the youth, to see again
w ho
rest again IN the calm content of
patriotism free Of greed.
But the footprints are in the rock re-
vealed, and only the tide that takes us
all to sea by running in and out can rub
them out.
"Ihe system stands, and by it's devious
ways another man holds hard in check
the surging commerce of the age. He too
found Natures boarded treasure in deep,
rich lakes of liquid wealth, and with a
privilege government guaranteed, he put
a plant together whose boundaries battle
all the skill of men, and whose powers
stagger all the resolute nerve of ma
ton.
ut owns by conquest actual or poten-
t1al, every petroleum pool in earth or
rock. It dominates by design or dread
every field beneath the sun. Invent out
side the we'll and drilled and took CON-
mend of the bank and till. 1t drew or
dragged every kindred power to it's secret
side, and ran through these the ma]ign
spirit of it's triumphant thrones, struts il
courts, kneels IN church, leads process
slons and battles at the polls; it makes
the ticker talk; it makes the ticker re-
veal the gamblers gain or makes it bar
rem of results.
1.-THE presidents message means not
half as much as this things tempera-
ture. A battle in Korean Straits, where
nations entire navy sinks upon the
sand, does not so much disturb the mar
ket place as does the secret wish of this
concern.
''At the top of this commonwealth of
gain there is lonely man surrendering
to the silent impact of the years. Look
ing down the winding way up which he
trod to fortune and to fame, he sees the
wrecks of his rivals, the ruin of his fell
lows, and PROSTATE states polluted by
his power. Mistaking the decay of ma
ture for the grace of God, he turns a
trivial stipend to the church, paltry
contribution to the schools, and, in re-
turn, he expects the pulpit and the
chair to apologize to God and all the
world for the system by which it came.
'"These two stand tip-toe on the top of
what the world is pleased to call sue
cess; but at the base are bleaching
bones. If they were only two, even with
the wealth that weighs them down. the
world could we'll afford to let them with
or ia their dread and discontentment.
ABut feebly following after them and
their careers are untold numbers making
headlong toward the open ditch. Greed,
.1nsatiate greed, greed for raw and vulgar
wealth, greed far more than need can