MODERN BLACKSMITHING 23 



00.00 per year. But, when a ward-heeler wants 

 office he must have $5,000 per year. What induce- 

 ment is it, under such conditions, for a young- man to 

 learn a trade? Laboring men, wake up! 



But, as this will bring us into politics I shall leave 

 this side of the question, for it w^ould do no good. 

 Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence 

 said: "Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while 

 the evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by 

 abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." 

 The laboring people will, in my judgment, suffer quite 

 a while yet. In the meantime let ns build up a fra- 

 ternity on the ruins of the ancient guilds. Between 

 the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries mechanics of 

 all kinds prospered as never befoie, nor have they 

 done it since. The reason for this was not a high 

 protective tariff, or anything in that line, but simply 

 the fruit of the guilds and the privilege they enjoyed 

 from the state. 



What we now need is a modern guild. I anticipate 

 there would be some difficulty in securing the legis- 

 lation necessary, but we will not ask more than the 

 doctors now have. I cannot now go into detail ; that 

 Vv^ould take more room and time than I can spare in 

 this book. 



