The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-09-28
d a CT ARIOf i D,
Commencement Day Address Delivered
Oregon Before the Graduating Class
Washington, Seattle 1907 his Address
orousy Condemned by Certain ceroymen and


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brainless enough to die for their mast
ers. But the real progress of the
world, the real course of history, Is
the struggle of the submerged masses
against these masters; the struggle
against special privilege imposed by
the few upon the many, by law and
government and force Of arms. This
has been the worlds. history and this
is the worlds history today. And that
struggle Is founded In the primeval
truth that man must eat to live and
he must have leisure to think: that he
has the right to eat and the right to
have leisure to think. This is the
struggle, and whether you like it or
not you must enlist upon one side or
the other. This struggle is part Of
the evolution of the human mind, and
it can, never end till there be Freedom
In all things, everywhere.
The shield which I would give into
your hands today is Truth, the truth
that there must be change,-change in
the institutions of men as we'll as in
the elemental mountains; aid that he
who advocates changes, who attacks
the existing orders Of things: is more
likely to be right than he who would
hold them as they are. The. sword
that I would put into your hands is
Freedom, freedom not only for you and
for me, but for all men to work out
their own destinies in their own way.
Freedom not only Of body but OF
mind. Freedom not only of speech but
of thought. Freedom not only in labor
but in the whole struggle for exist
ence. If ever you are put face to
face with a problem, examine on
which side it falls toward Freedom
and choose that side. You can never
be wrong in aiding Freedom; you can
never be right in opposing it.
I understand that this city is so
much under police supervision that re-
Gently man who spoke on the d.
vorce and marriage question in oppo-
sition to the prevailing view was ar
rested and prohibited from speaking;
that no one can speak here upon any
radical topic without police censorship
and supervision. I want to tell you as
an eternal truth that there is no sub
ject which is not better discussed than
suppressed. If a thought be true you
cannot Jail it; you cannot kill it; you
cannot suppress it. 1t will spread by
persecution and live by attack for the
Truth never has been and never can
be obscured. If the thought be untrue,
the best and safest and quickest way
for it to reach oblivion is to discuss it
fully and freely in the open air. and in
the open light of freedom Of thought
and freedom of speech. I care not
what the subject is. l care not who.
the man is. So long as it is peaceable
discussion, there is no subject which
mankind should be by force and auth
GRITTY prevented from discussing,-even
though the subject be folly and error.
You lose more in violating the sacred
principle Of free thought than you
gain in plotting out somebody's alb
surdities, or what you may think to be
absurditfes. You cannot know whether
the diStasteful subject Of today may
not be the truth of tomorrow.
! I desire to insist to you that there is
no good obtained by restraint of peo-
pies natural inclinations, or by forcible
regulation itself; that the logic of the
universe is that nothing develops
which will live except as it develops
upon it's own strength. That, as Herb
ert Spencer puts it, the ultimate result
Of protecting men from the conse-
quences Of their follies is to fill the
world with fools; and that just as the
inflexible laws of Nature which some
times seem cruel to us in their relent-
less application are in reality the
greatest charity and the deepest mercy,
so the truest charity to mankind is to
leave each in freedom and each to take
the consequences Of his acts. The
same law which permits the fittest to
survive condemns the weakest to go
down and out, and this is precisely as
true of moral weakness as Of physical
weakness. The evolution of mind and
soul will continue to be retarded until
men and women are absolutely free
to control their own habits and their
own lives.
The trouble is that few OF US have
Natures courage-I will call it Gods
courage-to follow Truth to the very
end. We hurrah for freedom and then
we enact slavery. We say that the
LICE ~ IIlc OA1y Ol0 WHICH,
will develop the race, and then we
pass laws controlling the multitude in
order to save drunkard from himself
We are not free in commerce. We are
not free in the use Of land or air or
water, though more free in the use
of air and water than in the use of
land. We have not one single item
of economic freedom; and as economic
conditions are bread and-butter condi-
tons, they are the very foundation of
life,-the foundation of morals as well
as of body. You cannot get strong and
splendid offspring from weak, half
starved parents. You cannot, as rule
of breeding, get strong and healthy
mind from weak and decrepit body.
You cannot have boys and girls virtu-
Gus who begin their pitiful childhood
compelled to sell themselves for food.
Great as has been the progress Of man.
kind, splendid as have been the
achievements of the human race, there
is more to be done in the future than
ever has been done in the past. The
evolution of the body is practically