Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1902 — TRIBUTE TO LABOR [ARTICLE]

TRIBUTE TO LABOR

Eloquent Speech of Congressman . Brick of Indiana. WORKERS OF FACTORY AND FARM Form the Basis of the Structure of American Prosperity—Maintenance of the American Standard of Wages and Living Should Be the First Concern of the American Legislator. » One of the most notable contributions to the recent debate on the Chinese Exclusion bill in the house of representatives was the speech of Representative A. L. Brick, one of the most able and eloquent members of the Indiana delegation. In the course of his speech he took occasion to pay a notable tribute to the American workingman. In part Mr. Brick said: I vote for and ?support this bill because I believe it will effectually conserve the honor and dignity of the American worker from all competitloif with foreign or insular Chinese cooly labor, because I believe it fully meets the new and delicate condition of affairs in Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines. It prevents Chinese immigration of labor into any of these possessions of purs. Jt restricts all Chinese migration from one insular possession to the other. But more than this, it says, in emphatic terms, that not a single Chinese laborer shall aet his foot upon American soil. It promises the men of Aiyerlca that they are not only protected in their employment here, but also against cheap labor and its every result, directly or indirectly, from our island territory. Question of Self-Preservation. This legislation is not directed against these persons because they come from China or from any other country.- America has always been the refuge of the oppressed from everywhere. The torch of its liberty has shed a flood of light and life into the dreary homes of all the sons of men of all the world. But it is a political, social, economical and self-preserving proposition. They would not only supplant American workmen and degrade American labor, but they would come to us in multiplied thousands, devoid of all racial and political homogeneity, bringing with them social vices and national habits that would surely contaminate the clear stream of Christian civilization and American institutions that must inevitably lower the standard of citizenship and eventually undermine the republic.

Dangerous as are their peculiar vices, tjieir very virtues are still more perilous. Intelligent in their own way, pertinaceous, crafty, patient, diplomatic, they are painfully industrious, brutally frugal and fanatically fatalistic; a people to be feared; as changeless and unrelenting as eternity; the immutable progeny of ages gone and civilizations passed away. They never think, of what a real man needs, of what he ought to have in this world of smiles and tears, to uplift himself and glorify his race and nation; but to him the sole query is, How can I barely live In the lowest stratum of animal existence; and save the excess to carry back to th* crumbling home of the. ancestral graveyard? Basts of National Greatness. A country is great, not so much in the extent of its territory nor in the number of its inhabitants, but it is great, and great only, in the character of its people. A republie must endure, if it live at *ll, in the intelligence and patriotism Of its sons and daughters. That intelligence and patriotism is conceived and born in the university of the American home, the grandest educational institution in the world. In that school is taught the virtue of our daughters, the valor of our sons, and round its hallowed walls cling all the vines and flowers of our country’s hope and joy. Within its sacred precincts dwell the sons of liberty, every one of whom holds the scepter of a king. I want him to look and feel like a king; I want him to know enough to be a king. And I will never consent, by any act of mine, to.have that home degraded, polluted and impoverished by a people in whose lexicon there is no such word as “home.” The emigrant that comes here from England. Ireland. Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway France, Denmark and other parts of Europe all arrive with that blessed word burning in their, breasts and graven on their bones They have sadly left friends and native soil for she priceless heritage found in a land of the free-born home that has reared the only true republic that ever existed and which is about all that makes life Worth living. They came here to make/ this their country; to live and flght sos the flag, and to die l beneath its, folds. They are loyal and [ patriotic citizens. They have enriched our blood, ennobled and perpetuated the stock, and bnllt up the home. I They are here to become true Ameri- ; cans and add luster to the Stars and Stripes. They love their home and wife and child and friend Charity Begins at Home. J ' I believe it is better to\jOok after the folks at home, to stand bjf our own people, than it is to corrode th.*' shrine of tree and dignified labor andVornipt th* morals of our race in the vain attempt to Christianize a vaot th rang of orientals that would bring tb us noth

Ing but political demoralization and social despair. I believe the time has arrived for charity to begin at home. I believe that no one ever dost anything by building up his own family. I believe in standing by our own'people. I wish it could be. I Want our laboring men to have enough to eat and wear; enough for sickness and old age. I want them to have enough to educate their children, and to lay by something for a rainy day and for their loved ones when they are gone. 1 would like to see them have some leisure and the means to improve it. I want them to have enough to meet the demands of modern civilization. 1 would like to see the wife with a new dress, wearing a smile on her face and some ribbons in her hair, and the hope of tjie republic guaranteed by the flags that glow in the cheeks of the little children.

The only y hand that can light the lamp of progress and prosperity is the hand of toil—of intelligent and exult ant labor —and I want that hand anc arm upheld and protected by this law. I have always believed in rational protection. We are today more prosperous than ever before in the history of this or any other country through the wonderful resources of the soil, the genius and industry ot our people, and the protection of our political policies. But the hour has come when we must protect not only industry and those employed in it, we must also protect men and citizenship as such. This is one step in that direction. I am ready for every other reasonable proposition tending to elevate, ennoble and make happy the labor of my country. Why, Mr. Chairman, there is a place for every kind of honorable employment, and they all command my fealty and respect. But when you sum it up —when you read the life of every nation in the checkered history of the world—the toilers are about the only men who do anything. Labor enters into and supports everything. Labor, which includes the farmer, is the backbone of the nation. It is the strong arm and stalwart son of America that holds up the ridgepole of our national structure, and spikes, through enduring centuries, the rafters of the home. He supports the government, he breeds our children, nourishes and rejuvenates the race, he holds aloft the flag; and I repeat again that human toil of heart and brain and hand is the only true manhood, the only real nobility of the republic—the aristocracy of democracy—and I am for anything that can give him an advantage and make him glad and prosperous. Therefore I am for this bill, to protect the wage-earner In the eminence of his high estate. Morality Greater Than Markets. They talk of Chinese trade. They say this act may circumscribe it. Yes; I would like to have that trade. We are getting more and more of it. It is the great trade of the future to America. I believe we will still increase it. With our new possessions as a stepping stone, I believe we will walk right into the open door of that great market, a market born in the womb of 800,000,000 people. But„ whatever happens, nothing can bfe gained by sacrificing the labor ±nat produces the surplus we sell, >y destroying the happiness and. prosperity of millions of our best people at home for a commercial dream. This country is wonderfully interested in markets today. The foreign market in a degree represents the weal or woe of our future prosperity. We now manufacture more than we can consume. We have an overplus of everything. But this government of ourfe has more to think of than markets. It has men and women, flesh and blood. God and morality, our home and country to think of. I believe in men, in the genius of Anjerican manhood. We cannot long survive upon cheap and enslaving labor; we cannot hope long to endure the ravages of an Asiatic industrial onslaught. The Nation’s Real Heroes. The real heroes of a nation are not alone in the sounding titles of ensanguined war. but they dwell in the silent grandeur of a quiet name. They live in the vine-clad cottage beneath the hill, kissed by all the suns of joy and filled by love and kindness, where all the day is work; and when the shadows fall the man but not the master by the side of her who sits and smiles and sews for him; and on his knee laugh the little children, with their arms about his neck. Labor is the great conqueror. It enriches and builds up a nation more permanently than the proudest battles, and in its ranks are the real soldiers of the earth. Then let this bill pass. Let us so act that we may go home in the consciousness of a duty well performed and be able to continue to say with a prouder boast than did that old Roman: "I thank God that I, too, am an American citizen 1” I thank God that we have protected and preserved the men who have taught “.the stars to look our way and honor us.”