The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-09-06
GREETED WITH
ENTHUSIASM
EX-SENATOR cARMAcK DELIVERS
THE ADDRESS AT THE LABOR
DAY CELEBRATION AT
NASHVILLE.
Estimated That $4,000 People Visited
GlendaIe' Park To Participate
In The Exercises.

In the Labor Day celebration at
Glendale Park, Nashville. Monday it
/ is estimated that $4,000 people turned
out to participate in the exercises and
hear the speaker of the day, Ex-Sen-
ator Carmack.
! Mr.. Carmack was introduced by Mr..
Hill as one of the greatest friends OF
the laboring man today, and who al
ways has the interests of the laboring
man at heart Mr.. Carmack's speech
was delivered in a characteristic man
ner, and elected much enthusiasm. He
dwelt upon problems with which the
laboring man has to DEAL and spoke
briefly upon the corruption of the rail-
roads and other great corporations.
He was frequently applauded through
out his address.
Mr. Carmack spoke as follows:
MIR. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle
men: / am deeply honored by the
invitation which brings me here today.
I rejoice to meet here so large and
representative body of sturdy yeo-
men. whose toll creates the wealth OF
the world, and on whose honesty, pa
triotism and intelligence, as founda-
ton of adamant, rest the fabric of free
government and the hope OF free men.
say it in no spirit of idle compliment,
but as truth writ large on every page
Of history, that the condition OF the
working classes is, and has ever been,
the true tombstone by which we try
the quality of a nations greatness.
The grandeur of nation is not in the
splendor of its government, but in the
happiness of it's people.
"Yet age after age has repeated the
same story-a story of luxury and
pride, of vain splendor and hollow
pomp. of brilliant courts and dazzling
thrones, erected on an unstable foun-
dation of restless misery--a story that
of the lust of wealth and power gather
ing its inhuman harvest from the tears
and bloody sweat of the people. Sad
der still, the people themselves have
too often chosen for their heroes those
whose chief title to admiration was
the blood they had shed, the ruin they
had wrought and the misery they had
inflicted There was no hope for hui
ma nfreedom so long as this besotted
spirit of hero-worship made men con-
sent to be wretched that one might
be great.
Moving Steadily Onward.
But in spite Of all this, the world
has been moving slowly but steadily
toward the light, and new spirit IS
fast gaining ascendency over the
minds of men. Those who look only
to present conditions are often prone
to take a gloomy view of the future.
But let these look back at the aWfuf
deaths from which the world has
struggled up and then with new faith
and courage fix their eyes on the
heights above. We note today in our
own country the desperate battle be-
tween predatory wealth and the mass
es of the people, and we observe tnar
even in a government where all power
is with the people the laws are too OF
ten made for the benefit of the selfish
and the few.
.'But let him who is tempted to des-
pair compare these times with those
when there was no conflict except be-
tween rival freefooters; when the peo-
pie shed each others blood and filed
the land with wretchedness and woe,
in no cause of their own, but simply
to decide whether one tyrant or an-
other should rule and plumber them
Indeed my countrymen, 1t Is my
own faith that we are now approach
ing the grand climax of the harvest
time of history in which we shall pluck
the ripened fruit of the ages.
until comparatively recent times
the progress of civilization was By
slow and painful degree. But civil
lized man is now master of the earth
and the day is near at hand when for
the first moment since time began his
career every habitable spot will own
his dominion, when the world will not
contain one savage tribe or one desert
rlace.
WorkIngman's Age.
"This is prominently the workings
mans age, the Industrial age. The
nractical sense of men has come to
that Nation is strong and =
great and happy in proportion as the
great body Of its toilers are independ-
IN. intelligent and free.
Thomas Carlyle defines man as tha