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do that the foundation of all wealth and of real liberty lies at 

 the last analysis in the free human hand. The first practical duty 

 of citizenship was then, as now, to guard the rights of common 

 labor, and this cannot be done successfully through any selfish 

 material movement for personal gain. 



If you will stop and think for a moment, you will see that 

 every battle in the world's history which has led to a real reform 

 has been started in the country and carried on by plain country 

 workmen. These things come out of the hills and the silent places 

 where men have time for thought, and where they brood over the 

 injustice of society. From Moses to Lincoln the leaders in this 

 movement have been mostly farmers, or else farm bred men, who 

 carried into other work this rankling injustice which would make 

 the labor of the human hand inferior. 



If you look at him fairly, Moses will rank as a model for 

 good citizenship. I have often tried to picture in my mind that 

 wonderful scene where he stood before the Egyptian king. I can 

 see the listless king upon his throne with the gang of fawning 

 parasites and politicians around him. What a hopeless place ap- 

 parently for a plain man or farmer to enter, yet all at once that 

 crowd of sneering hangers-on parts as though someone had driven 

 a mighty cleaver through it. A plain man strides through the 

 opening and stands before the astonished king. And such a man! 

 He was a farmer, tanned by the sun and wind of the desert, clad 

 in rough skins, staff in hand. Had he been alone he would have 

 been laughed out of the room, if not torn apart. Yet no man dared 

 touch him, and he could look the king in the eye and say with au- 

 thority "Let my people go." He was not alone, because invisible 

 companions stood there at his side. They had come with him out 

 of the desert, over the mountains and through the rivers, to stand 

 there with him and silence that throng. These companions were 

 the courage and the faith which God puts into the hearts of those 

 who honestly try to do their duty. 



Perhaps you will say that I pay too much attention to this side 

 of the case. Why do I not spend my time giving specific direction 

 as to what a man may do ? No, for it is the foundation of it all. I 

 watched for three years the erection of a great building in New 

 York. For eighteen months there was nothing but a great hole in 

 the ground, with a high fence around it. It seemed as if the build- 

 ers were making no progress at all, and the public began to sneer 

 and laugh at them. Yet what they were doing was the most im- 

 portant thing of all, and that was to dig down and down until they 

 could lay the foundation of that great building solidly upon a rock. 

 In like manner it will be as I believe hopeless to take up the real 

 duties of citizenship until we can in some way understand and 

 recognize that our work is to be part of a genuine moral crusade. 



But granting that this is so, what is the need of any such ele- 

 ment in public life? We are told that the country is prospering, 

 and that conditions are as good as they ever have been. Who 



