The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-12

of domination.
May l not say that it is amazing
TO me that any group of people should
be so Informed as to suppose. as
some groups in Russia apparently sup
pose. that any reforms planned in the
interest of the people can live in the
presence of a Germany powerful
enough to undermine or overthrow
them by intrigue or force2 Any body
of free men that compounds with
the present German government is
compromising for its own destruction.
But that is not the whole of the story
Any man in America or elsewhere
who suppoSeS that the free industry
and enterprise of the world can con-
tinue if the pan-German plan is
achieved and German power fastened
upon the world is as fatuous as the
dreamers of Russia.
What I am opposed to is not the
feeling of the paeifists bat their stu
pidity. My heart is with them, but
my mind has a~contempt for them l
want peace, but I know how to get it,
and they do not.
You will notice that I sent a friend
OF mine. Colonel House, to Europe.
who is as great a lover of peace as
any man in the world; but 1 did not
send him on a peace mission. I sent
him to take part in a conference as
to now the war was to be won. And
he knows, as 1 know, that that is the
more than a few minutes
All of this is preface to the confer
ence that I referred to with regard
to what we are going to do. If we
are true friends to freedom-our own
or anybody elSe's-we will see that the
power of this country and the produc-
t1Vity of this country is raised to its
absolute MAXI UNI and that absolute
ly nobody is allowed to stand in the
way of it.
When I say that nobody is allowed
to stand in the way, I don't mean that
they tn y shall be prevented by the power
OF the government. but by the power
of the American spirit. Our duty, if
we are to do this great thing and
show America to be what we believe
her to be, the greatest hope aRd en-
ergy in the world. then we must stand
together night and day, until the job
is finished.
While we are fighting for freedom,
we must see, among other things, that
labor is free and that means a num-
Der of interesting things. 1t means
not only that we must do what We
have declared our purpose to do-see
that the conditions of labor are not
rendered more onerous by the war
but also that we shall see to it that
the instrumentalities by which the
conditions of labor are improved, are
not blocked or checked That we must
which have been pleasuring in con-
ferring from time to time with your
president, Mr.. Gompers. And, if I
may be permitted to do so, l want II
express my admiration of his patriotic
courage, his large vision and his
statesman-like sense of what is
alongside of a mind that knows how
to pull in harness. The horses that
kick over the traces will have to be
put in a corral.
that nobody must interrupt the pro-
cesses of our energy, if the interruption
can possibly be avoided without the
absolute invasion of freedom. To put
it concretely, that means this: No
body has right to stop the processes
of labor until all the methods of con-
Citation and settlement have been eX-
hausted and I might as well say right
here that l am not talking to you
alone. You sometimes stop the courses
of labor, but there are others who do
the same. And that l am Speak king
that 1 am speaking of others when
say you are reasonable in a larger
number of cases than the capitalists.
I am not saying these things to
them personally yet, because I have
not have a chance. But they have to
be said not in any spirit of criticism,
because l would like to see all the
critics exported. But in order to
clear the atmosphere and come down
to business, everybody on both sides
has got to transact business and the
settlement is never impossible when
both sides want to do the square and
right things. Moreover, a settlement
is always hard to avoid when the par
ties can be brought face to face.
can differ with a man much more
radically when he is not in the room
than 1 can when he is in the room
because then the awkward thing is
that he can come. back and answer
what l say. 1t is always dangerous
for man to have the floor entirely
to himself. And, therefore, we r77ust
insist in every instance that the par
ties come into each others presence
and there discuss the issues between
them, and not separately in pIa ces
Whlch nave no communication with
each other.
l always like to remind myself of a
delightful saying of an EngIishman of
past generation, Charles Lamb. He
was with group of friends and he
spoke very harshly of some man who
was not present. Il ought not to say
that" Lamb suffered a little bit. And
one of his friends said, why, Charles
l did not know that you knew so and
so ," Oily he said- 4 don't. I can't
hate a man 1 know
There is a great deal of human ma
ture, of very pleasant human nature in
that saying. 1t is hard to hate a man
you know. I may admit parentheti-
cally, that there are some politicians
whose methods I do not at all believe
in, but they are Jolly good fellows.
If they only would not talk the
wrong kind of Politics with me, I
would love to be with them. And, so
it is all along the line on serious mat
tiers and things less serious. We are
all of the same clay and spirit and
we can get together if we desire to get
together.
Therefore my counsel to you is:
Let us show ourselves Americans by
showing that we do not want to go
off in separate camps or groups by