Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1902 — ONE LIFE'S MEANING [ARTICLE]

ONE LIFE'S MEANING

Senator Beveridge Gives An Estimate of Washington's influence On History. NEED OF AMERICAN CHARACTER The Cultivation of Discipline, That Force for Which Washington Stood So Largely, Is Urged in Eloquent Terms. Amid Fitting Surroundings. Following is the address delivered by the Hon. Albert J. Beveridge under the auspices of the Un on League Club, at the Auditorium, Chicago, on the afternoon of Feb. 22, 1902; Ladies and Gentlemen: The meaning of Washington in American history is discipline. The message of Washington's life to the American people is discipline. The need of American character is the cultivation of discipline. Washington did not give patriotism "to the American colonies. The people had that as abundantly as he. He did not give them courage. That quality was and is in the American blood. He did not even give, them resource. There were intellects more productive than his. But Washington gave balance and direction to elemental forces. .He was the genius of order. He was poise personified. He was the spirit of discipline. He was the great conservative. It was this that made all -otter -element* -ot- the Re volution effective. It was this that organized a nebulous independence into a nation of liberty. The parts of a machine are useless until assembled and fitted each to Its appropriate place. Washington did that. And so it is that we are a people. But w’e are not yet a perfect people any more than a youth is yet a perfect man. We are yet in the making. It is a glorious circumstance. Youth Is the noblest of God's great gifts. The life of a nation is like the life —ot-a man. Read the history of a people who have done things in their day. Read the life of a man who has done things in his day. They are as sim-! liar as sea and ocean. It is only a I question of magnitude. The American 1 people are young? Yes. Vital? Yes. Powerful? Yes. Masterful? Yes. Disciplined? Not entirely. Reserved? yet, but will be. Moderate? Not i yet, but growing in that grace. And ’ therefore on this, his day, i bear you the message of Washington—he, whose sanity, orderliness and calm have reached through the century, steadying us when untamed passions of riotous youth had all but reached the climax of chaos. •The American people have finally j overcome every convulsion? True.: The element of sobriety has never failed to master the maddest agita tions? True again But the cost of ■ the struggle in every Instance has been measured by the strength of the instinct of discipline at the time. Today we are calm, and are conscious of no need of sell restraint. Yes I Rut yesterday we were and the rumble of cannon on your streets and the rattle of maeketry at your doors was hailed with feelings of security and relief. And many crises may be recalled bj men not yet old. The political convulsion of five years ago is a peaceful example of popular overcome, by strenuous work that tested the powers of conservatism to the ultimate limit. Popular reserve. the self-restraint of the people, the fireside conference, would have lessened every excited circumstance In our history, and prevented many or most of them. Reason is better : than bayonets. Sober second thought Is better than the destroying violence of a campaign over passion-born propositions. The Labor and Capital Arbitration Committee. In the daily press we read of a cooperative council of capitalists, clergy, workers and publicists to settle the conflicts between labor and productive wealth. We applaud it, and we should. But not because it will be effective — for it may not be effective. But we hall it as an evidence that the spirit of forbearance is spreading among the yeople. It Is an expression of the f *fnct of order which must become 1 ’ling element in American clviliAnd this it is which, more and tno.i '1 settle strikes, and in the end ji. •’* them. This It is which, more aa2 ~e will take wildness out of our polu. until reasonable issues only remain. o remedy for friction between employ< 'nd employed is in the breasts of th men themselves and their employ s. The saving of the people Is !• the hands of the people themselves and nowhere i Ise. Better than councils and commissions and congresses Is the self-di-eipline, the reasoning reserve, the r gulated con science of a free peopb-. And congresses and councils are effective only as they are expressions of this. Indeed, we have awakened to the fundamental fact that written laws are not everything and that the people arc everything. Back of our statOtes stands our constitution, and back of our constitution stands our instltu tions, and back of our Institutions ptands our race. Let~qs remember that the people are the real founda Cion; not laws, not even constitutions. It is the people from which statutes, constitutions and even In gtltiitlons spring that give these form •f civil method their meaning. Thaonstltution of this republic woul Be a different instrument as the fu

damental law of a Latin nation even though that nation copied 1 it word Con ward. It would be interpreted by their racial spirit, expounded In the light of their racial institutions. Every day since our ebnstitution was adopted we have been acting beyond the limits of its written word, but within the limits of its institutional meaning. If we had not done so we would not now -be a nati&n. -t Word of the Constitution Inadequate. More and more this will be so. The growth of modern industry, the gradual . change of competition into co-operation, the manifold and Infinitely interwoven activities of modern business, the steady knitting together of ail the agencies of production. distribution and exchange, until the whole nation is well nigh an industrial unit as tt is a political unit, the extension of this process until international relations are so interlaced that no nation, even by war, can entirely cut the golden cords of commerce and. culture that bind her to her sisters*—the processes of' civilization, in short —bring into play national necessities and national powers as much greater and tuore complex than those exercised by the fathers, as the nation and its activities today are greater and more Complex than they were a century ago. We can not adopt new constitutions to meet those new conditions. They •would be Inadequate if we did adopt them, and each decade would make the constitution of the preceding decade obsolete if its letter alone were read. And so we rely on a law more permanent and more vital—the institutional law with its roots springing from the very soul of our race, by whose living meaning our written laws and constitutions are interpreted. Our hope is in ourselves. Our safety is in bur racial customs and-tenden-cies. Our salvation and supremacy is in the character of our people. I do not mean that we should bind ourselves to custom. I am only a limited believer in the philosophy of precedent. Precedent becomes paralysis, if observed when customs no longer fit conditions. Conservatism does not mean adherence to existing order merely because it is existing order. Conservatism means the adaptationufmeans to ends naturaHyand without violence. Reason is the touchstone of conservatism. And so it is that we must foster the element of conservatism in American character as we would tan the spark of life itself, for it is that vital spark. Let the American people write over the fireside of every American home those words of inspired direction: “Prove all things—hold fast to that which is good.” Time is the greater reasoner. Patience is the eternal method of accuracy and truth. Time and patience, patience and time —these are the ancient counsellors who never err. These are the sages to consult when perplexing situations seem unsolvable. Beware of instantaneous processes.

Hot-House Laws Ineffective. There can be no instantaneous settlement of any large Ijuestioti. To say that there could be. is to say that civilization itself could be completed by piecemeal. But that is not the method of civilization’s progress. Society is a growth—not a creation. And all social, industrial and political questions are related as a tree’s branches to the common trunk. They are not, therefore, to be determined permanently by cure-all measures and put aside as settled, as you pack art! cles In a box and put it on a shelf, sealed and labeled. Conditions undergo ceaseless change, and measures made for those conditions must also undergo ceaseless change. But if the change is wise it must be slow, and not sudden. The wrenching of the vast and delicate machinery of the nation's business, the straining of the nerves of the whole people in unnecessary campaigns, has been due to impossible propositions to instantly en act felicity. This is not discipline', not sanity. It is not reason, but passion; not reserve, but rashness.

On the other hand, measures once enacted are not immortal. No economic statute can be perpetual. To say that it can never be bettered is to say that human conditions can never be bettered. But they can be bettered. Yesterday we lumbered in stages; today we fly in palaces. And the change from stage-coach to railway has required a new body of laws, which are themselves perpetually changing. Yesterday both capital and labor were individualized; today both are consolidated, systematized, co-op-erative. The old laws no longer fit the case. But these new conditions grew out of the old conditions —they were not suddenly created. And bo we must let the new laws, regulating those new conditions, and not suddenly create them. Quick crea tions always are ineffective. Conditions make laws, not laws condition. And when this order is reveised both the law-made conditions and the law which makes them are. unhealthy, Irritating and dangerous. Events are the greatest of law-makers. Deliberation, patience and the self-regulation of our activities are the surest of safeguards. Put not your faith in written w’ord alone; put your faith In your own steady self-restraint. “The letter killeth but the spirit glveth life. As in your relations to morals, you remem ber the Mas and strive to he tike Him; so In your rtlftflOiis to the* state and your attitul-r toward all questions that present themselves to you as one of a self-govi. ulag people, rem ft n’’er Washington and strive to be like him —reserved, cons! lei ing, consf;lerate and calm.

The national habit of self-control exercised in the current developments of each day, when times are not hot

with friction, will act without effort In the hour when events flame with excitement. If the people will adopt this formula of conservative thought: Everything is. not bad because -it is new, and everything is not good because it is old—and upon that formula base conservative procedure, we shall always end with conservative results. And conservative results are safe results; and safe progress is permanent progress. Let us beware of rebounds. Treatment of Trusts of Labor and Capital. We are in a period of growth which is itself a proof of our youth and enlarging vitality. It is inevitable that each year, almost each day, shall behold unheard-of developments in our industrial, commercial, financial methods. Let us be not startled at them. They may be beneficent or they may be malevolent, but denunciation, hasty action, conclusions which are jumped at instead of being thought out, are no proper test. The habit of mind which leads us bitterjy denounce or unreservedly praise, is not the temper which a free people should foster. For be it remembered that a free people must depend upon themselves and not upon some separate power which attempts to solve every problem for them, as is the the ease in autocracies. We are fond of saying that in a republic each citizen is a king. But saying so does not make it so. Each of us can be a king, and therefore the nation itself clothed with majesty as po people ever were arrayed; but only by each citizen acting as a king should act; thinking as a king should think, steadily, calmly, with balanced judgment and well-considered action. The new developments in the combinations of capital call for just such popular treatment; the increasing development in combinations of labor calls for just such treatment. We behold millions of money which yesterday • were acting separately, today massed in mighty organizations for the production, the transportation, the distribution of national products. Let us not be alarmed at their magnitude. Let us not te paniced at their novelty. It is not helpful to slap on the statute books hasty screeds and call them laws. It will throw no light upon the real question for excited meetings to grow frenzied over excited appeals. No great problem was ever illuminated by the torch of a mob; and between the conflagrations of the Commune and fiery talk of agitators who feel they must carry the next election at any cost, there is little difference. Both may be useful in revolution; both may be useful in the bloody overthrow of tyranny; but neither are the method of a free people, who hold their own destiny in their-, own hands. "

Work of the Trusts.

it is apparent to the shallowest observer and certain to the profoundest, that the great combinations of capital recently developed are based upon some of the fundamental principles of progress. It is equally apparent and certain that in their development, evils and crudities have attended them. But Uns is true of everything. It is even true of of a child into a boy and of a boy into a man; and constant care is exercised in the training of the infant mind ancT character. Maturity is a hard process and slow, but it is a simple process. Let as simple a process be exercised in the new development of our social economy. As violence and hot words and stormy conduct spoil the vision of the parent, so will the same savage methods spoil the vision and make foolish the action of the people in the regulation of the development of capital and labor. The great combinations of capital devoted to the production of steel or flour or meats or oil, systematize the industry, reduce the expense of production, simplify and make easy distribution, invade and conquer foreign markets. The organization of wealth devoted to the preparation of meats and other foodstuffs sell their products abroad as well as here. Their vast resources enable Ahem to put refrigerating ships upon rhe sea and furnish the breakfast tables of London and Berlin. And to supply that foreign demand the farmers of Illinois, Dakota and Kansas are called upon for cattle at profitable prices which otherwise they could not sell at all. So we see that this golden shuttle of modern enterprise shooting backward and forward, not only through our own land, but across the seas and into Europe and Asia, too, weaves occupation and prosperity for our citizens in its ministry to the wants of our fellow-men abroad. The same Is true of other illustrations of this same development. The diggers of iron and coal, the molders of steel, the workers in factories of cotton and wool are kept employed by the wrestling of the markets of the world out of the hands of our national competitors.

These are a few of the benefits visible to all. On the other hand, the arbitrary raising and lowering of prices, the unjust exaction of unfair profits from our own consumers, are the evils. But the benefits are fundamental, and the evils Incidental. And you cannot shear away the good from the bad by some measure evolved over night from an excited brain and adopted next day as a party measure to t arry an election the day after. The whole field of national and even international Industry and trade must be considered. When you reflect, that you cannot do the simplest thing without involving every activity of industrial civilization all over the world, you can appreciate how dangerous makeshift measures are. The simplest act of civilized life affects all human Industry. Take, for example,

your journay home this afternoon in the cab or railway or street-car. It involves the growing and felling of forests. It calls into play the energies of miners searching out the ore from which are made the wheels that carry you. It Involves the cattle from whose hides are made the harness of your horse, of the leather used in cars. It involves the activities, the lives and the livelihood of 10,000 men immediately at hand; and broadening from this center of focused activity, it circles out to the remotest confines of the world’s industry. If so simple an act as your journey home this afternoon, to which you give no heed, so commonplace has it become, is thus far-reaching, how infinite in consequence are measures controlling these industries, and how vastly greater even is the policy of a people with reference to them. Do I say, therefore, that no measures should be taken; no policy be formed? No, I say the reverse. But I say with greater earnestness, caused by the danger of unthoughtful and undisciplned action, that those measures and that policy should be well considered, cautiously adopted, executed with sanity and judgment

Change in Character of Capitalists. On the other hand, this development is having its beneficial effect upon the capitalists themselves. Responsibility always brings a broader understanding and a gentler consideration, of others. And dealing, as the managers of these vast agencies of production and exchange are with all the people of the nation, and wellnigh with all the world, a new comprehension of those people is forced upon the capitalist, whether he will or no. The financier of the 20th century has got to be more than a financier. The modern financier must be a statesman. The day of the local Wall street capitalist is passed. The hour when the wizard of tricks sat in his office and considered that the world of money was compassed by his eye-sight, was struck yesterday, and that hour is no more forever. Today the capitalist can no longer indulge in the legerdemain of mere stock speculation. He must build machinery; he must erect mills; he must construct railroads; he must buy steamship lines. Therefore he must understand the people, he must consider the people. The financial rashness of the Black Fridays of our history was as much a manifestation of our undisciplined and capricious mode of undevelopment as was the burning of railroad properties at Pittsburg in the reu days now almost forgotten. Capitalists Must Consider the People. And so we see capitalists have got to umlerstand that the opinion of the jpeople Is as definite a factor In their great plans as the quantity of • coal remaining In the mine or the producing capacity of a mill. As much a factor? Yes, Infinitely more of a sac tor. For, after all. It is the consuming and producing capacity of the people unon whick a il Industries are built

which we, aieregatamg tne ngnts oi a weaker people, overthrew. We have the authority of Dr. Schurmann, president of the first Philippine commission, for the statement that the ‘Tagalog Insurgents and the Philippine republic did not represent the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, but only a minority of them.* The Filipino republic was nothing mote or less in fact that an Xguinaldian dictatorship. Is this the republic which the United States has overthrown? I am wot unaware-of the fulsome tributes which have flown from the lips of gifted senators in this chamber upon the character and services of Aguinaldo. Agulnaldo’s Purpose. “In a message dated June 23, 1898, Aguinaldo declared the purpose of his revolution. ‘And now they [the Filipinos] no longer limit their claims to the assimilation with the political constitution of Spain, but ask for definite separation from her; they are fighting for their independence, firmly convinced that the time has come when they can and must govern themselves.’ This is a distinct recognition that prior thereto the Filipinos did not entertain the thought of independence and that the effort for independence was not attempted until after our victory in Manila. The thought of independence undoubtedly took its root in the vanity and ambition of Aguinaldo. “In his declaration of July 15 Aguinaldo, addressing the admiral of the squadron of the United States in the islands, said: ‘The revolution having taken possession of the various provinces of the archipelago, this government has found it necessary to adopt the form and organization best suited to the popular will. I have therefore the pleasure and honor of placing in your hands the inclosed decrees.’ “These proclamations are sufficient to indicate the general character of the government which, it is alleged, was exercising sovereignty in the Philippines at the date of the treaty of Paris;- this indicates the character of the republic which challenged the sovereignty of the United States, and which we overthrew. Statesmanship appeals to the sound judgment of men, and its conclusions are predicated upon fairly chosen premises. Whoever says that the course of the majority is inspired by sordid and ungenerous motives grossly misjudges men. Blood Not on Our Hands. "Aid of the government in its effort to maintain the laws wherever its jurisdiction extends and wherever it is assailed is not censurable, it Is not criminal and it never will be. Opposition to the efforts of the government to assert Its lawful authority has never been regarded with favor. Wood has, Indeed, been shed, but it has been shed in an effort to establish the lawful authority of the government in territory which Indisputably belongs to it by virtue of the law. I regret most sincerely that blood has been shed, but I am gratified to know that it is not upon our hands. “Mr. President, so long as a vestige of insurrection remains in the islands, opposition in this country means an increase in the death list of our soldiers and seamen. It means an increase of the money required to support the army and navy; it means an increase in the pension roll; it means hindrance in building up the waste places in the Islands and in the establishment of civic government. Granted that such opposition springs froqj exalted motives, and I do not question it for a moment, we can only regret that there are those who so erroneously, though honestly, read their national duty. “The suggestion that our attitude is governed by ‘the greed for gain and the lust for power* is unfounded and ungenerous. Our responsibility .came unsought and without any desire whatever for the extension of our commercial dominion. All parties recognize that we are under certain obligations and duties which we cannot rightfully or honorably abandon. We are in the'Philippines and must continue there, in the discharge of our solemn duty. All parties seem in accord as to this. The divergence of opinion is with respect to a proclamation as to the length of our stay. • • When will these eight or ten millions of people, unskilled In statecraft, untutored in self-government, composed of many hostile tribes, attain to that degree of -'self-restraint and capacity to furnish ‘sufficient guaranties for the performance of our treaty obligations with Spain,’ and when will they. In the language of the substitute, be able to furnish sufficient guaranties ‘for the safety of those Inhabitants who have adhered to the United States, and for the maintenance and protection of all rights which have accrued under their authority?’ Who among us has wisdom profound enough to approximate the time which will necessarily elapse before all of this will be properly accomplished? "The Philippine commission advises us that ‘One fact which Is clear above every other is that these people are not, either the small minority, of educated people, or the very large majority of ignorant people, prepared to establish a government which would hold together for any length of time, and which would not. In a very short time, present all the'evlls and oppression which were known in. Spanish times. “But the substQfle of the minority, after laying down so well the broad principles upon which we must proceed and pronouncing the wholesome end we must accomplish by our advocacy (regardless, it would seem, for the time being, of their solicitous retard for the consent of the governed).

proceeds to deciare mat 'ab soon as the results above mentioned have been accomplished, it Is ’declared to be the purpose of the United States, which the president is directed to carry into effect, to withdraw from said islands and leave the government, control and sovereignty thereof to the inhabitants of the same, retaining only such military, naval and coaling stations as may be designated by the government of the United States.’

“Sir, we have now beeu.engaged in the work of pacification and of erecting civil government, in the islands during the brief period of but three years. We are in the lawful and rightful possession of the archipelago, and, as we have observed, but a small minority dispute our sovereignty, yet the minority demand our withdrawal under the conditions indicated in the substitute and the retention of certain military, naval and coaling stations. Is this, Mr. President, in the interest of a majority of the Filipinos? Is.it in the interest of the United States? Are the terms of withdrawal such as the Interests of both peoples should dictate, when all within the intendment of the substitute has been accomplished by our occupancy? Is there any demand for such present declaration of our future purpose? Is It the part of wisdom, in the present posture of affairs, to put upon the statiite books expression of our national purpose in the Indefinite and possibly remote future? “I do not consider that it is the part of sound and wise statesmanship to adopt the substitute of the minority. I db not entertain this opinion because of any desire to abridge the rights of the Filipinos or to leave open the way for future imperialistic rule In the United States. I base my opinion upon the broad ground that all wisdom and all patriotism will not die with us, and that those who will follow us and who shall, in all probability, be obliged to deal with these questions, will be as enlightened and animated by as exalted sense of justice and be in every respect as sensi“ tlve of the national honor as we. “It has seemed to me to be unwise to be engaged in fulminating policies upon this subject while we are in the experimental stages of our undertaking, and that we should act up to the full measure of our duty for the time being and that we should deal with the problems of the future according to our most enlightened judgment when our way is made more clear by a larger and more enlightened experience. There need be no fear, no matter what political party may be in power for the time being that there will ever go upon the statute books of the United States a solitary oppressive act or any measure which shall not her inspired by a just sense of the fundamental principles of republican fovernment. Teller's Insinuation. “The distinguished senator from Colorado (Mr. Teller) whose generous purpose I do not doubt, let fall a remark which I regreted to hear. I do not think it should pass unnoticed. He expressed the opinion that the war with Spain was unnecessary, that it might have been avoided, but for some malign Influence, which at the critical juncture operated upon the chief executive. What that evil influence was the distinguished senator did not pause to Indicate. He was content to put upon the pages of history for the perusal of the student of the future the imputation that some unholy influence lay at the foundation of ex ecutlve action. “Mr. President, was there ever imputation which has less basis of truth upon which to rest? There Is no one who sat in this historic chamber during the stirring and tragic events immediately preceding the declaration of war who does not know that President McKinley did all that mortal man could to avert war, and that it was with the utmost difficulty, as I have hitherto shown, by personal appeal that he delayed the declaration of war by the congress. I firmly believe that It was only through his great hold upon the confidence of the congress that the potential word was not spoken earlier by it. No one can fall to remember the anxious days and nights full of dark portent which preceded the significant and decisive action of congress. “Malign Influence, forsooth! Does the honorable senator forget the unspeakable tragedy in Havana harbor? Has he forgotten the president’s message, transmitting the report of the board of inquiry, and his appeal for conservative judgment and action? Has he forgotten the Intemperate utterances In the congress, day after day, which added, to the frenzy of the people? Has he forgotten the action of the press which stirred the passions of the people to the highest pitch? Malign Influences, Indeed! It was the influence which controlled the body of the American people and of most of the members of congress. In the congress abides the exclusive war-making power, and he must, Indeed, have been an Indifferent observer of events who failed to see the fact that the congress of the United States would have declared war in due time, utterly regardless of the executive will. “Malign influence! No, Mr. President, do not write into one of the sublimest pages in American history so base a word., s There was no influence which guided or controlled the chief executive save that Influence which sprang from the great, enlightened, patriotic heart of the American people. • • • Our present duty in the Philippines may be stated succinctly thus: First, put down all Insurrection and compel recognition of American soyereirnty; second, estab-

lish schools and educate tne people; third, promote public improvements, construct highways for the ready intercommunication of the people of the islands, improve harbors for the accommodation of commerce; fourth, erect municipal, provincial and insular governments modeled so far as possible, after our republican institutions, and as rapidly as is practicable admit the Filipinos if they are shown capable in the administration of their own affairs. These are a few vital objects to which we are addressing ourselves, and which will engage our attention indefinitely. They command the best and profoundest statesmanship among us. If we discharge these paramount duties in an intelligent and earnest way we shall have gone far toward solving the Philippine problem and friends need not concern themselves greatly as to the future. The Government Bill. “As is well known, there is before the senate a bill providing for an insular government in the Philippines, republican in- form. The essential features of this bill will undoubtedly become a law, and the Filipinos will soon enjoy a very large measure of republican government, and, under the express sanction of congress, this will Indeed be a radical transformation in the space of four or five years. There Is certainly nothing in this proposed legislation which can have any other effect than to assure the Filipinos of the broadest and most generous purposes of the United States. “Mr. President, I shall not further detain the senate. We find in what the government has accomplished in the Philippines much to commend. We find in what it is doing the most abundant assurance of our ability to successfully solve the great problem which Is upon our hands. We have the courage, we have the ability to meet every emergency which lies before us. Let us go forward, animated by the one great purpose to discharge our duties in full, inspired by the same high purpose which actuated us when we resolved upon war against the Spanish power. "Sir, those who read in a large way the purpose of the All-Wise Ruler see in the tragic events of the last four years a far-reaching Providence. Havana and Manila, and Santiago and Buffalo, tell of the mighty cost of human liberty; they chasten us; they show how narrow is the boundary set to our divine vision, and how we should address ourselves to the duties of the hour and courageously and hopefully await the duties of the future; they show that moral duties abide with natlons as with men. If, air, we shall nobly meet the demands of the hour, accomplish peace, and lead the Filipinos in the way of civilization and self-government we shall have earned the approval of our own conscience and have won the admiration of the world."