Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1909-07-09

truth that these unaiienabie rights, even
to-day, exist tao much in theory aud
too little in practice. DO all persons
owing all-giauee to this country possess
an equal right TO life, an equal right TO
Liberty, ala equal right 10 the pursuit oi
happiness:
Picture tn yourself man, who, 10y
honest thrift aud old-fashioned integrity,
has built up a small, though prosperous,
business; another man of larger means,
10y dishonest practices aud novel trick
ely, drives the former Ia the wall, where
hrooding over his unmerited reverses in
cites him To murderous revenge, and his
life therefor is justly forfeited. Or the
man who shoots to death the seducer OF
his wife, yet retains his life on the plea
of the "u nwriiten law" aud eventually
saves his life by reason of claimed IN
sanity. II We discredit this claim-and
it is very generally Observation-Disclosures
men, in theory, equally, by their acts,
forfeited their lives yet in fact their
rights to life were unequal. ] might
cite to you the vast difference IN the
chances of life existing in the case OF
the infant born in the unwholesome
tenements of wealthy church corpora
ton and one boru in the well-appointed
home of a member of the same church
corporation. Theoretically, each has an
equal right to live; practically, the in
equality of their respective rights to life
is quite apparent.
And what of the right to liberty
The small shop-keeper, who defradds
his customers by false weights and
measures, is branded a cheat and as
likely as not given term of imprison-
ment; the responsible and guilty mem.
bers of great sugar corporation de-
fraud the government, by the use OF
false weights, of more than million
dollars, yet, in the repayment of the
fraudulent profits, the cheat is forgotten
and it is tacitly declared that in such
cases cheating is proper unless detected.
And as to the equality in the right to
pursue happiness, is it not sufficient to
say that which is too evident to need
argumeut-that thousands of human
beings in this country, some hardly yet
in their teens, each of them possessed
of the most-cherished hopes and aspira-
tons of humanity, are today necessarily
wholly occupied in pursuing the materi-
ais for food, clothing and shelter? But,
you say, there should be pleasure il
such pursuit. Granted, yet pleasure is
is far less thing than happiness. And
| ask you, can there be even pleasure to
reasoning human being in performing
day by day and year by year, the same
identical mechanical motion? To be
sure, trades-unions and child-labor laws
have done much to bring this unalien-
able right nearer realization, yet the fact
that trades-unions are still actively mill
tant and that child-labor laws are still
inadequate, is proof that inequality in
this right still exists.
If it is true that inequality exists in
these unalienable rights, it is equally
true that absolute equality therein can
never be reached. Socialism uses the
illustrations | have drawn, not to point
out wrong tendencies merely in our ma
tional development, but to argue for the
absolute equality, and,
thereby causing unrest, defeats proper
and natural growth toward that ideal.
Mankind may set up ideals that are per-
feet, but its practices can only approx
mate such ideals; and because we as
country, even after century and third
OF national life, have not come up to
those ideals, is no cause for discourage
ment. On the whole, we are TODAY
nearer realizing the ideals of the declar-
alton of independence than were the
of this republic.
If, on the one hand, we fall short of
possessing, in everyday life, this equali
ty OF rights, on the other hand am
equally impressed with the truth that
we are claiming too much under those
tights. Equality in fundamental rights
may not yet exist--and it cannot, in any
human institution, exist in perfection
yet that is no warrant for demanding
md claiming all manner of equality in
he smaller details of life. The expires
non, 81 am just as good as you are,' is
lot uncommonly heard but what fall
acy All men, good and bad, wise and
gnorant, able and incompetent, Jealous
md lndolent, are entitled to and do
neasurably enjoy the same fundament-
i rights our forefathers declared for:
ct it must be apparent that, in the
out of the social scheme, the
God man is not only equal to, but SUI
error to, the bad man, the wise man to
he ignorant man, the able man to the
Incompetent man, the Jealous man to ,
he lndolent man, not because his funda-
rental rights are greater, but because
e is fitted to be, and is, a more useful
lember OF society. Today we are |
'onderfully dense in observing this dis $
notion. The man of evil practice too t