Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-11-12

of the American spirit. Our duty, if
we are to do this great thing and show
America to be what be believe her to
be, the greatest hope and energy in
the world, then we must stand together
night and day until thes iobis finished.
Fighting for Freedom
"While we are fightingefgr freedom,
we must see, among heHthings, fhat
labor is free and that msWhs a number
of interesting things. Httheans NOTION
| ly that we must do what we haXa de-
clared our purpose toSao-sfe than the
conditions of labor afe n6i rendered
more onerous by the warA--htit alsagthat
we shall see to it that Che instrumen-
talities by which the conditions of la
Dor are improved. are not blocked or
| checked. That We must do. That has
been the matter about which L have
| taken pleasure in comforting from
| time to time with your president, Mr..
! Gompers. and, if / may be permitted
/ to do so, want to express my admira-
tion of his patriotic courage, his large
vision and his statesmanlike sense of
what is alongside of a mind that knows
how to pull harness. The horses that
kick over the traces will have to be
lput in a corral.
"Now, to stand together means
that nobody must interrupt the process
| of our energy, if the interruption can
possibly be avoided without the abso-
lutte invasion of freedom. ~
To put it concretely, that means this:
Nobody has right to stop the proces
ses of labor until all the methods of
conciliation and settlement have been
exhausted, and | might as well say right
here that am not talking to you alone.
i GU sometimes stop the courses of la
Dor, but there are others who do the
same. And that l am speaking of my
own experience not only, but that
am speaking of others, when L say that
you are reasonable in larger number
of cases than the capitalists.
No Spirit of Criticism.
81 am not saying these things to
them personally yet because 1 haven It
had chance. But they have to be
said not in any spirit of criticism, be-
cause | would like to see all the critics
exported. But in order to clear the at
mosphere and come down to business,
everybody on both Sides has gota TO
transact business, and the settlement is
never impossible wheD botlrisidesswa
to do the square and right, things.
Moreover, a settlement is always hard
to avoid when the parties can fbe .brot
face to face. can differ with a man
much more radically when he iisn It in
the room than | can wnen he j Is inSsthe
the room, because then the awkward
&C. Iak H. l.
and answer what L say. 1t is always
dangerous for a man to have the floor
entirely to himself. And therefore, we
must insist in every instance that the
parties come into each 6ter g presence
and there discuss the issues between
them, and not separately in places which
have no communication with the other.
81 always like to remind myself of
a delightful saying of an Englishman
of past generation, Charles Lamb. He
was with group Of friends and he
spoke very harshly of some man who
was not present. / ought to say that
Lamb suffered a little bity And one
of his friends said: why Charles, 1
didn t know you knew so-and-so. - OH
he said, L don t. I can't hate man
1 know
''There is a great deal of human
nature, of very pleasant human nature,
in that saying. 1t is hard to hate a man
you know l may admit parenthetically
that there are some politicals whose
methods l do not at all believe in, but
they are Jolly good fellows. If they only
would not talk the wrong kind of pol
itics, with me, I would love to. be with
them.
And so it is all along the line in
serious matters and things less serious.
We are all Of the same clay and spirit
and we can get together if we desire
to get together.
Plea for American ism
Therefore, my counsel to you is:
Let US show ourselves Americans by
showing that we do not want to get off
in separate camps or groups by our
selves, but that we want to cooperate
with all other classes and all other
groups in common enterprise, which
is to release the spirit of the world
from bondage. I would be willing to
set that up as the final test Of an Am
eriean. That is the meaning of demoe-
TaeY | have been very much distressed
my fellow citizens, by some of the
things that have happened recently.
The mob spirit is displaying itself here
and there in this country. 1 have no
sympathy with what some men are say
in. but | have no sympathy with the
men that take the punishment into
their own hands; and ] want to say 70
every man who does Join such a NOR