The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1914-07-24

ed for the first time in his career to give a number OF
addresses, limited to ten, in the central west in the
summer of 1914. He will discuss the tendencies of
the times under the title Democracy" This address,
embodying the scholarship and experience of a great
life, will be one of the classics Of American oratory.
From an address delivered by Mr.. Cochran
in 1906 revealing the prophetic and lofty nature OF
his notwithstanding the questions Of the hour, and
stating his conception of the province of oratory in
the solution Of the problems of the race, we clip
the following:
"What is this modern civilization of ours? What
is its essential principle? 1t is Justice, that justice
according to the Christian conception of it, that holds
all men are equal before the law. 1t is but the appli-
cation to civil government of the Christian belief that
all men are equal in the eyes Of God. That equality
of men has worked the ambition Of %servitude, and it
must ultimately work the overthrow of d~espotism
throughout the world. Already it has substituted fires
labor for slave labor, and that change has accom-
plished the most marvellous revolution in the world
history Of MANKIND. 1t has wonderfully u%plifted the
conditions of every individual. II has reinforced the
productive power Of his hands; it has multiplied the
commodities available for his comforts; it has widened
the scope of his knowledge; it has heightened the
span of his days; it has b~roadened the horizon OF his
hopes; but, besides the successes it has achieved, 1t
has developed new dangers and new difficulties
which are born of the very s%plendOrs which it has
accomplished.
"The slave was ready to accept tie crust Of
bread from the hand Of his master as the reward Of
his days toll, glad to escape the lash. The free la
horer demands a fair share Of the property in the
commodity produced by his labor; and liking this fair
share is the great problem Of civilization. 1t has
provoked struggles more desperate and difficult than
any that heretofore have p~erplexed the craftsmanship
of the civilized world. The questions of the future
will not be to settle the boundaries of nations, but the
conditions Of the people who dwell in them. 1t will
no longer be a question of dividing the surface of the
earth among tie different powers, but of the correct
way of dividing the products of the earth among the
different elements that have created them.
"Tt.ese questions can not be settled by force
they NIT be settled by justice; and under the growth
of Christian civilization it is no longer necessary to
arm Justice. Justice is no longer something to which
men must be coerced; it is becoming the passion OF
Christians everywhere. The perpieXing problem is
not to obey justice, but to discover it; to ascertain
precisely where Justice lies. And how is justice to
be discovered? BY the interchange of human
thought, by comparison of human views, by the eX'
ercise and use Of that supreme power given to man
by that power which God himself invoked when he
proceeded to establish His law and to SOW the seed:
of His civilization in this land. 1t must be done BY
the word spoken or written. 1t must be done by aP
pealing to the conscience and the intellect Of men anC
pointing out before their eyes the pathway through
which their footsteps can reach the spot where justice
is often concealed"