The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-02-14
LINCOLN DEMOCRACY.

Oh the great cildhCipo'oi'
Lincoln, it is well to get back to the
fundamentals of our American democ-
racy. In many respects Lincoln is
the finest character in American histo-
~. He comes nearer the ideal OF the
genuine American democrat than prob
ably any man who has been called
upon to lead this people in Crisis.
He was always sane and practical,
withal moved by the highest ideals.
He was a democrat without demagog-
uery: an American true to every ideal
and every principle of his country
He was never an advocate OF class
ism but of Justice to all. He was the
friends of all classes; the advocate OF
no single one. He was an ideallst
but his ideals of public service were
in harmony with the evolution OF
his race. He was too intensely an
American ever to embrace any fad or
ism. What Lincoln said more than
half century ago applies as we'll to
existing conditions as they did to the
world about him then, because he held
true to the eternal verities of life.
His words will not appeal to those
"intellectuals" and destructionists
who proclaim that civilization to date
is one monumental blunder, that all
the energy, the enterprise and the toll
of the past have been expended in
vain, that not only the edifice which
our fathers defeated to free govern
ment should be abolished, but that
the very fundamentals of our social
structure should be overturned. They
are so certain of their own infalibility
that they would give to destruction
the slow creations of the ages and
build anew, taking nothing from mans
experience through the long and toll
some centuries of the past. These de-
structionists are agreed in nothing but
the destruction of all existing institu-
tions. Prating loudly about the rights
of man they would destroy the very
foundations of the freest government
upon the earth, where opportunities
and privileges are enjoyed as they are
y enjoyed nowhere else and in it's place
substitute a despotic and cruel class
ism that would condemn and make
outcasts of all who did not chance to
be of the favored class.
They are visionary, impracticable
and vague. They like nothing that is
old and embrace nothing save that
which is new and untried. In these
days when we hear 30 much about the
rights of labor" when the spirit of
unrest is spreading in land where
labor is better paid, enjoys better
hours and better living conditions and
greater opportunities for advancement
than in any country in this time or
in any time since the world was ere
ated, it is we'll to get the great Lin
coin definition Of the true relation
ship that should exist between capital
and labor, those landmarks who have
made our wilderness blossom as the
rose and have transformed our desert
places into veritable paradises.
Surely no one can accuse Abe Lin
coin of lacking in sympathy for the
tailoring man." of having any lack of
appreciation of his struggles. But his
life so well illustrates what the poor
boy can attain in this great free coun.
try OF ours and he was SO profoundly
impressed by that fact that he could
speak without partisan bias for either
side. He freely acknowledged the
part that both capital and labor must
play in the nations Development Con-
ditions have not changed since Lin
coins day. All about us we have ex-
amples of men who began in the low
est ranks of labor and because our in
situations afforded them opportunity
they have become employers of labor.
These words uttered by this mar
tyred statesman should be read and
pondered and re-read by every true
American patriot:
Labor is prior to, and Independent
of, capital. Capital is only the fruit
of labor, and could never have existed
If labor had not first existed. Labor
is the superior of capital, and de-
serves much the higher consideration.
Capital has its rights, which are as
worthy of protection as any other
rights. Nor is it denied that there is,
and probably always will be, a rela-
ton between labor and capital pro-
ducing mutual benefits. The error
is in assuming that the whole labor
OF the community exists within that
relation.
"The prudent penniless beginner in
the world labors for wages while,
saves a surplus with which to buy
tools or land for himself. then labors