HARDWOOD RECORD 



19 



than rroni the nei-k up? Is it the biceps in liis arms or thi- foresight 

 and jiiilgnieut of his mind that is of greater value to humanity? 

 It was tlie statement of the 'president of a large Chicago liry goods 

 establishment that if a man had perfect judgment, he would pay him 

 $100,000 a year to sit by dis desk and give opinions. It mattered 

 not whether he was legless, armless, bliml and ileaf. Prom the neck 

 down a man is rated at the market value of labor, whether it be $1.00 

 or $3.00 a day. From the neck up he may earn from $0.00 to $5,000 

 a day. Business is conducted from the neck up. 



All over this country today there is a sweep of oi)iuion against 

 business. It is more serious than merely an attack against business 

 institutions. It is an attack upon property rights. Union Square 

 in New York City is the most critical spot in America today, not 

 because of any agitation that might be stirred up in Xew York 

 City; London and Paris have had agitations for 2,000 years or more, 

 and notwithstanding them, those cities have grown and i)rospereil ; 

 but because of the fact that it gives the soapbox orator in every 

 town and hamlet an ojiportunity to stand up and talk on ' ' jiropeity 

 rights," to cry out the doctrines of the unsucce.»sful and the failures 

 in life; to try to make the spavined nuile on the race track the abso- 

 lute equal of the pedigreed and thoroughbred trotter by law; to try 

 to make the peacock, with its raucous cry in the morning, the eqnal 

 of the nightingale in singing by legislation ; to attempt to cram Pier- 

 ]iont Morgan into a position at $65.00 a month, held by an accounting 

 clerk, anil to try to take the man who is suffering from arrested de- 

 velopment the equal of the creator of millions by law. You might as 

 well try to guide the planets in their course; you might as well try to 

 change the course of the earth while whirling on its orbit round the 

 sun, by the mandate of man, as to attempt to have a perfect division 

 of property and equal earning capacity divide up. Today, and to- 

 morrow, some will have the walk of fortune, and others will be sleep- 

 ing under the bridge and on the curb. It is the destiny of mankiml 

 and you can't have anything else. 



Kecently I was in Aberdeen, S. D. A man was talking with vigor, 

 making more noi^e than I am making now, and in the course of his talk 

 said: ''There are 288,000 automobiles manufactured in this country 

 every year. We all agree that a man is entitled to the product of 

 his own labor. How many workingmen own automobiles .' ' ' Nobody 

 asked him how many workingmen it took to make an automobile. 

 Nobody suggested that possibly if a man were entitled to the product 

 of his owu labor, a workingman might possibly have a sprocket, 

 another a spoke out of a wheel, and perhaps if fifty or one hundred 

 chipped in they might own a Ford car. (Laughter.) The unfortunate 

 fact about the situation is that a process of education is going on 

 amongst the people of this country that is one-sided. This year we 

 shall reach the high tide of the history of our country in immigra- 

 tion. More people will come from foreign countries, where they have 

 been trained to different ideas and different thoughts, this year than 

 in any other year of the history of this nation. I am the son of a 

 foreigner, an immigrant, and I do not decry immigration; but I want 

 to say that we have grown so tremendously in population that I do not 

 believe we are quite so able to digest what we are getting today as we 

 were fifty years ago. These people come to us with preconceived ideas 

 and notions. This is the "land of liberty," but they are all too ready 

 to misconstrue liberty for license; they are being taught by the soap- 

 box orator and by'the politician seeking their votes that they are to 

 vote for and support lum, "because you have the power." They 

 are told, "You people make circulation for newspapers," so that a 

 greater eireulation can be gained for the newspapers, enabling the 

 publishers to get better contracts on a<lvertising. They appeal to the 

 classes. It is not right, it is not just, it is not honest to take a man 

 who has just come into this country, trying to do the best that he 

 can, and pervert his judgment by instilling into his mind false ideas 

 and prejudices. These things are coming about because this process 

 of education has been permitted to go along in this way largely 

 through the indifference and the neglect of the business man. Y"ou 

 and I are under indictment for that indifference. Why? It came 

 about most naturally. After the Civil war a million men were 

 from arms; they swept out into the country everywhere. When I 

 born, forty-four years ago, in Indianapolis, St. Louis was practic: 



the outpost ot civilization. To the west there was a vast territory 

 practically untenanted save by the hut of the trapper and the test 

 of the Indian; the silence was unbroken save by the hoot of the 

 owl and the scream of the eagle. One railroad wended its way across 

 the trackless prairies to the coast, and into that vast domain went 

 who? The workingman. Yes. The workingman who had power to 

 plan, to create works of genius. In those forty-four years more than 

 28,760 cities, towns and villages have sprung up in this country. The 

 capital invested has increased from four billions to twenty-two billions 

 of dollars. The outi^ut of our manufactures has increased from more 

 than five billions to more than twenty-three billions of dollars. Bail- 

 roads have gridironed the country. In almost every village, city and 

 tow^n you see the smokestack belching forth smoke, indicating pros- 

 perity. With one million men to start with, men using their brains, 

 planning and creating, today more than twenty-two million people are 

 engaged in the devel()j)ment of this empire. It was the business man 

 that accomplished it ; it was the business man that created this won- 

 derful developnu'nt. He had not nmch time to look down at Wash- 

 ington and see what was happening there. Your national councillor 

 said, ' ' Our statesmen have gone to sea. ' ' 



Some of you business men who are old enough, like myself, to re- 

 member when Mr. Bryan ran first for president, in 1896, scarcely any 

 business man would say whether he were a ilemocrat, a republican or 

 anything else. He would look around, and if there were no customer 

 near he would whisper that he was a Methodist, a Catholic or a Pres- 

 byterian, but would not tell you his political affiliation. He was afraid 

 to do so; but when the commotion of 1S96 was coming on and the 

 credit of the country was being attacked, as he thought, Mr. Business 

 Man got out and asserted himself and he has asserted himself every- 

 where ever since. A man not trained in business is helpless to under- 

 stand the necessities and complexities of business. A raUroad presi- 

 dent said to a committee investigating certain things in relation to 

 railroads: "Gentlemen, that is all right; you ask me these things 

 and put me on the grill and you have the newspapers publish these 

 things; but, tell me, you are a college graduate, Mr. So-and-so; you 

 have several degrees from foreign universities, Mr. So-and-so; you 

 are an accomplished lawyer in your community, but tell me, what 

 would you do to repair a brokeu bridge at midnight on a railroad 

 where you had sixty-five or seventy trains passing every day, if you 

 did not have anything but a crowbar and shovel?" 



Business men are being awakened and coming to a realization of 

 their responsibilities and duties. The day has come when the weleher 

 in business must show his colors. He must eliminate the yellow streak 

 and exercise a man 's courage. He must stand out even at the risk of 

 its costing him something and assert himself. The business men in 

 this country must strike out straight from the shoulder and say out 

 loud what they want Congress to do and back it up. We can't do that 

 playing the game indifferently and alone. As hardwood Imnbermen 

 you have your problems which you are working out year by year, and 

 you are doing great things. Y''ou all know that organization is a 

 great thing. Why, if you men in this association do not gain any- 

 thing else by reason of your organization and your convention, the 

 privilege that you have of getting acquainted with one another justi- 

 fies the existence of your association. (Applause.) If we all kuew 

 each other better this would be a bettor world to live in. If we could 

 reduce the word ' ' competitor ' ' to the definition of ' ' neighbor ' ' arul 

 ' ' colleague, ' ' in business and our contact with one another, all of us 

 would be happier and more prosperous. After all, men are not nearly 

 so black as they are painted. In our estimate of each other we are 

 not nearly so just as the beasts of the jungle toward each other. The 

 jungle beasts estimate the power of the lion at its true worth ; they 

 judge the power of the deer by its swiftness in running, and judge the 

 strength of the eagle by its powers of flight and its swiftness in 

 flying. I think that all men ought to be judged by the best things 

 in them. (Applause.) Y'ou can always find something of real worth 

 in every man. I don 't care who he is, I don 't care how wrongfully 

 a man is nor what his opinions may be, way down deep within him 

 you will find much of real value. 



We might aU be more like Mrs. Clancy, wlien she went to see Mrs. 

 McGowan. who was living in a tenement house. Mrs. MeGowan ha^i 



