86 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1902. 



watching the frolic with an eagle eye. Mr. Hedges evidently 

 believed that all enjoyment is by contrast, and although a noted 

 wit himself, he felt that the audience were prepared to receive 

 a serious message, and he gave it to them, and not only that, 

 but he received the most respectful attention and scored a 

 hit that will long be remembered by all of those present. Mr. 

 Hedges said in part : 



I am pleased to be the guest of a business organization, which, while 

 it progresses commercially, progresses intellectually. You have changed 

 an important noun indicative of your trade into a verb, and given that a 

 significance which, when applied to a certain portion of the human an- 

 atomy between the head and shoulders, indicates a stage of mind rather 

 than of body. Doubtless in the rubber trade, as elsewhere, you some- 

 times suffer from overproduction. The entire country is suffering from 

 an overproduction of men who know everything about every known sub- 

 ject, and I appeal to you on behalf of those men who do know so much 

 about anything. It is much easier to tell what might have been had 

 things been different than to do something that ought to be done imme- 



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diately, regardless of criticisms. No one is entitled to any credit for not 

 violating the law. Nobody but an idiot violates the penal code. All 

 that the law can do for us is to forbid wrong and prevent its commission. 

 It is entirely a matter of sentiment to create formative virtue. 



- - - - A distinguished gentleman in the early history of the repub- 

 lic wrote a world renowned document in which he said that all people 

 were created equal. So they are, and that equality lasts about a minute 

 and then conditions diverge. Our responsibility, therefore, isaccoid- 

 ing to our opportunities and our endowments. It is frequently said 

 that this is a country of law and order. So it is theoretically. There is 

 no power in all the country, including the police force of the nation, the 

 militia of the states and the federal armies, to preserve order if the peo- 

 ple do not wish it. The administrative forces of the nation could be 

 stoned to death by the citizens before they could strike a blow. 



We are a nation of sentiment. Precept and example are the staple 

 forces which alone can establish society. Every one is ambitious to 

 save the nation. Reform has come to be a matter of rhetoric. The 

 contentions of the public have resolved themselves into rhetoiical con- 



1 tests. What we need are people with red 



corpuscles in their blood. 



Recently there was a contest between the 

 two most strongly entrenched forces in the 

 country, a combination of capital and a com- 

 bination of labor. The executive of the na- 

 tion, Without authority in law, without any 

 official right by statute, and without any, 

 means of enforcing his opinion, compelled 

 these divergent interests to yield to a com- 

 mon sentiment, and, therefore, a national ca- 

 lamity was averted by sentiment and not by 

 law. 



- - - - I am not a pessimist, nor do I 

 believe that the republic is about to be de- 

 stroyed. It is much easier to remedy an evil 

 when you make the evil the creature of your 

 own rhetoric for the purpose of destroying it 

 and receiving public praise. Social diverg- 

 encies can only be remedied, by the associa- 

 tion of interests We do not do our duty 

 when we obey the law. We can only teach 

 the ignorant citizen his duty by letting him 

 observe our example and listen to our pre- 

 cepts. 



The papers recount that at the last elec- 

 tion 350,000 votes were cast by that number 

 of people, the tenet of whose political faith 

 was that disorder was better than law, and 

 that people of means should be compelled 

 to divide. No one would dare set a limita- 

 tion on the amount of money a man can ac- 

 quire. The man who acquires it owes a duty 

 to society for the ostentatious way in which 

 he uses it, if such ostentation has a tendency 

 to arouse social envy and jealousies. 



Personally, I have very positive political 

 convictions and am an adherent of my party's 

 principles. However, that may be, no harm 

 can come to the republic, whichever way a 

 majority of the votes of all the citizens is 

 cast, providing that majority vote is cast by 

 people as a result of moral and political con- 

 victions as to what is for the best interests of 

 the republic. If a man will not participate 

 in civic matters as a matter of duty, he must 

 participate therein as a matter of selfish self- 

 protection, or else expect to pay the price in 

 disorganized conditions, unwise administra- 

 tion and public profligacy. Not to have 





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