The Washington bee., 1911-12-09

3OO,OOO,ooo or 100000, 900 at least
Ioo,oooooo never had enough to eat"
He saw the wealth of the world in
the hands of comparatively few, and
he saw that this wealth had been
created not by the few, but by the
many. With brave, unhinching logic,
he announced his principle, Labor,
the creator of wealth, is entitled to
all it Creates" and ayowed himself
willing to follow it to its ultimate
conclusion, to the utter abolition of
the wage system and the substitution
for Cut-thrOat competition of a fair
and just cooperation. He had begun
his study of the labor question as
early as 1861 or 1862, when no journal
would give an inch of space TO its dis
cussion. But in 1871 the working
men of Massachusetts had formed a
party and invited him to be their can
didate for Governor He consented,
not because he wisehd or was willing
to be elected, if that were possible,
but only to advance the agitation.
To the labOring men he gave this
characteristic advice: Write on your
ballot boxes: We never forget. If
you do us a wrong, you may go down
on your knees and say, | am sorry |
did the act, and it may avail you in
heaven, but on this side the grave,
never! SO that a man in taking up
this labor question will know that he
is dealing with a hair-trigger pistol,
and will say: 1 must be true to jus-
tIce and TO man, otherwise | am
dead duck. " And so far as working
men have succeeded in their poIiti-
cal aims, it has been because they
have followed that advice 1t would
require another address to recount his
services to other causes. In the last
fifteen years of his life he fulfilled
more perfectly than any other Amer
ican his own definition of the agita--
tor: The agitatOr must stand out
side of organizations, with no bread
TO earn, no candidate to elect no
party to save, no object but the
truth-tO tear question open and
riddle it with light If he were liv-
ing today, how he would rejoice over
the six stars in the suffrage banner,
six States that have risen above the
bigotry of sex. How he would be
fighting for the initiative and refer
endum and OverthrOwing every argu-
ment against them. arguments that
have no foundation save in the old
Tory distrust of the people We have
not begun to come up with Wendell
Phillips, but such achievements are
signs that we are on his trail
Not many men deserve to be re-
membered on their hundredth birth
day. But Wendell Phillips second
centennial may be better observed
than his first. We may be sure his
name will be written far higher
hundred years hence than it is today
When the reforms he advocated have
become accomplished facts; when
cities have sloughed off the grog-shop
and the brOthel; when prisons have
been turned into moral hospitals and
society has learned to erect a guide
post at the beginning of the road in
stead of a gallOws at the end of II:
when women has been summoned into
civil life and has become the yoke
fellow of man, no longer his play
thing or his drudge; when the hands
THAT create the wealth of the world
have learned to hold it and to handle
it IN the good of all, and every child
born in America has an even chance
i'll life; when the dark-browed multi
tudes for whom he toiled and planned
have joined the enfFanchised millions
that are yet to trample all oppression
under their feet-do you think that in
that day the name of Wendell Phillips
is likely to be forgotten? If it is, it
will be no matter. He will live III the
grand changes that have been
wrought, and that is all he would ever
have desired.
Whatever we may say tonight so
you imagine it will be the judgment
of coming times that he denounced
the tyrants of his own age too severe
ly- The word of the Lord came to
him as to the prophets in all ages,
l"Cry aloud, and spare nOt!' Thank
God for every bitter, biting, blasting
speech that woke a sluggard land to
its duty and made the ears OF re
creant statement tingle with shame.
Would that in this day another might
arise like unto him to rebuke the
towards and OppressOrS of our time.
Wrong still walks the earth, the eX-
pectation OF the poor perishes, and
the needy are forgotten, Oh, that
HC ulllSti were mere TO uCIGHu TIC
mighty bulwarks of liberty he labored
to build up within the constitution
Oh, that he were here to shame his
own race into honest dealing with the
black-to lay open to scorn the sneak
ing cOwaTdice that makes laws to give
white ignorance and vice the ballot
and deny 1t to the black. not daring
to meet its rival in the open field and
lay down one equal test for all, but
sulking behind grandfather clauses.
while it taxes the black man for parks
and libraries and shuts him out from
both Oh, that he were here to damn
as it deserves the hellish hatred that.
North as we'll as South, condemns
men unheard because they are black,
tortures innocent and guilty at the
stake, yes, even in the Quaker COM
mOnwealth, drags the wounded black
boy on his pallet and burns him in his
blood; the shameless perjury, that
acquits the lynchers; the impudence
that finds unwritten law to clear cold
blooded murder with sanction of the
court. Oh, that he were here to find
some fitting name for states that, pre-
tending to be democratic, hold seats
in Congress for millions of black men
whose political rights they have fllCh-
ed away, voting now, not as in old
days for three-ffths of the Negroes.
btrt for all He should he here f0