BANQUET. 241 
the creature, and government is not the creator, and if we have a great government, 
it is only because we have a great people and that people has created the Government. 
The people have not relied on the Government in the past, but the Government has 
relied on the people, and if we change the emphasis from the people to the Government, 
we will change not only the character of government but the character of our people 
as well. 
Our Americans have never been a leaning, clinging race, but they will become 
such if the constant emphasis on legislation as a cure-all is continued. 
Do you know, men, in contemplating some of the things asked for by law at first 
blush they seem to be worthwhile, but after you have examined into them you find 
that they are dangerous. During the anthracite coal trouble all the people of the 
country clamored for a law to curb the miners. Somebody said:—‘‘Jail them, jail 
them, jail them,’’ never stopping to think that if you can extend the arm of the law 
out to jail the miner, some day you will extend the arm of the law out to jail the mine 
owner. 
You cannot emphasize in this republic the obligations, responsibilities or liabil- 
ities of one group one day, without having a corresponding agitation for obligations, 
responsibilities, and liabilities for another group another day. Today you have the 
same problem—people crying aloud for industrial courts to curb the workingman, 
as it is said, and what do you see as the result? You see in the morning papers that 
in Kansas they have haled the manufacturers before them, so as to investigate why 
there has been a lock-out and the workers laid off. The danger is, if we call on legis- 
lation for a specific purpose at a given time, that specific purpose will be lost to view, 
and general control will be substituted for special control at a given time. We face 
in this country at the present moment a danger of $4,000 clerks attempting to regu- 
late industry and enterprise that requires brains worth $50,000 to $100,000 a year to 
guide. 
If we look at the creature called the government and we say the government is 
perfect and can make no mistake, we have lost an American conception, because our 
forbears never believed in the total perfection of governmental agents. Neither did 
they believe in the total depravity of the people, but there is an emphasis now on the 
depravity of everybody else except those who want a special law passed. There was 
a law written thousands of years ago that cannot be abrogated and cannot be repealed 
by any legislative body, and that was:—‘‘In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy 
bread,”’ and just as soon an our American people realize, as did our forbears, that sweat 
on the brow means more than ink on the legislative page, we will solve our problems. 
(Applause.) 
But the trouble is that many people want to count the sweat drops on your brow, 
but do not want to sweat themselves. Washington is filled with men and women 
who want to card index what everybody else is doing. Wherever you turn there is 
somebody with a scheme to save society by establishing a card index and putting in 
six assistants, with one chief at $10,000 a year. . You cannot increase production by 
taking producers out of productive life and putting them at a desk in Washington or 
in any other capital in this country. We must keep our people producing without 
unnecessary interference from people who do not know anything about the business 
in which our people are engaged. 
T have often wondered why it was that there was not a better understanding between 
