New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-09

treatise on astronomy instead of a
treatise on government. They speak
of the centrifugal and the centrlpltal
forces. and locate the President some
where i'm a rotating system. Ana the
whole thing is calculation OF power
and an adjustment OF parts.
There was a time when nobody but
q LAWYER could know enough to run
the government of the United States,
and distinguished English publiclst
remarked, speaking of the compleNlty
of the American government. that II
was no proof of the excellence OF the
American Constitution that 1t mad
been successfully operated, because the
Americans could run any constitution.
But there have been a great many
technical difficulties in running IT,
Slavery Question Arises.
"And then something happened. A
great question arose IN this country
which. though complicated with legal
elements, was at bottom human ques-
ton, and nothing but a question OF hu-
manity. That was the slavery queS-
ton. and is il not significant that II
was then, and then for the first time,
that women became prominent IN poll.
tics i'm America? Not many women.
Those prominent in that day are so few
that you can almost name them over IN
a brief catalogue, but nevertheless they
then began 20 play part IN writing,
not only, but in public speech, which
was a very novel part for women 10
play in America. Ard after the Civll
War had settled some of what seemed
70 be the most difficult legal questions
of our system. the life of the nation
80 fol ~
cumulate.
Life in the United States was COM
paratively simple matter at the time of
the Civil War. There was none of that
underground struggle which IS now so
manifest to those who look only little
way beneath the surface. Stories such
as Dr. Davis has told tonight were un-
common IN those simpler days.
Pressure Of Low Wages.
THE pressure OF low wages. the
agony of obscure and unremunerated
toll did not exist in America in any
thing like the same proportions that
they exist now. And as our life has
unfolded and accumulated, as the con-
facts Of il have become hot, as the
populations have assembled IN the
cities. and the cool spaces of the coun-
y
feverish urban areas. the whole nature
Of our political questions have been
altered
They have ceased to be legal
questions. They have more and more
become social questions, questions
with regard to the relations Of hui
man beings 10 one another not mere
ly their legal relations. but their
moral and spiritual relations to one
another.
And this has been most character
istic Of American life in the last few
decades. and as these questions have
assumed greater and greater proml-
hence, the movement which this as
ISOLATION represents has gathered
cumulative force SO that il any
body asks himself What does this
gathering force mean? If he
knows nothing about the history of
the country. he knows that il means
that something that has not only
come 10 stay. but has come with con-
qucring power.
Is Bound to Come.
~ get n little impatient sometimes
about the discussion of the channels
and methods by which it is to prevail.
/
superficial and ignorant view of IL
which attributes il TO mere social un-
rest. II is not merely because the
women are Disconnected. Il is because
the women have seen visions Of duty.
and that is somthing which we rot only
cannot resist. but. If we be true Ameri.
cans, we do not wish to resist. Because
America took its origin in visions OF
the human spirit. in aspirations for the
deepest sort of liberty of the mind and
Of the heart. and as visions Of that sort
come up TO the sight of those wN0 are
spiritually minded in America, America
comes more and more into her birth
right and into the perfection OF her
development.
$50 that what we have 10 realize in
dealing with forces of this sort is that
we are dealing with the substance OF
life itself.
81 have felt as sat here tonight the
wholesome contagion OF the occasion.
Almost every other time that | ever
visited Atlantic City came TO fgh.
somebody ! hardly know how 70 con-
duct myself when | have not come 20
fight anybody, but with somebody.
II have come TO suggest among other
things, that when the forces of nature
are steadily working and the tide is
rising 10 meet the moon, you need not
be afraid that il will not come TO it's
food. We feel the tide; we rejoice in
the strength OF il and we shall not
quarrel in the long run AS TO the meth
cd of It. Because, when you are work
ing with masses of men and organized
bodies Of opinion, you have got to car.
r. the organized body along The
whole art and practice of government
consists, not in moving individuals but
IN moving masses. II is all very we'll
TO run ahead and beckon. but. after all.
low.
IL have not come to ask you 10 he
patient, because you have been. but