remember that representative government does represent. A careless,
indifferent representative is the result of a careless, indifferent
electorate. The people who start to elect a man to get what he can for
his district will probably find they have elected a man who will get
what he can for himself. A body will keep on its course for a time after
the moving impulse ceases by reason of its momentum. The men who
founded our government had fought and thought mightily on the
relationship of man to his government. Our institutions would go for a
time under the momentum they gave. But we should be deluded if we
supposed they can be maintained without more of the same stern sacrifice
offered in perpetuity. Government is not an edifice that the founders
turn over to posterity all completed. It is an institution, like a
university which fails unless the process of education continues.
The State is not founded on selfishness. It cannot maintain itself by
the offer of material rewards. It is the opportunity for service. There
has of late been held out the hope that government could by legislation
remove from the individual the need of effort. The managers of
industries have seemed to think that their difficulties could be removed
and prosperity ensured by changing the laws. The employee has been led
to believe that his condition could be made easy by the same method.
When industries can be carried on without any struggle, their results
will be worthless, and when wages can be secured without any effort they
will have no purchasing value. In the end the value of the product will
be measured by the amount of effort necessary to secure it. Our late Dr.
Garman recognized this limitation in one of his lectures where he
says:--
"Critics have noticed three stages in the development of human
civilization. First: the let-alone policy; every man to look out for
number one. This is the age of selfishness. Second: the opposite pole of
thinking; every man to do somebody's else work for him. This is the dry
rot of sentimentality that feeds tramps and enacts poor laws such as
excite the indignation of Herbert Spencer. But the third stage is
represented by our formula: every man must render and receive the best
possible service, except in the case of inequality, and there the
strong must help the weak to help themselves; only on this condition is
help given. This is the true interpretation of the life of Christ. On
the first basis He would have remained in heaven and let the earth take
care of itself. On the second basis He would have come to earth with his
hands full of gold and silver treasures satisfying every want that
unfortunate humanity could have devised. But on the third basis He comes
to earth in the form of a servant who is at the same time a master
commanding his disciples to take up their cross and follow Him; it is
sovereignty through service as opposed to slavery through service. He
refuses to make the world wealthy, but He offers to help them make
themselves wealthy with true riches which shall be a hundred-fold more,
even in this life, than that which was offered them by any former
system."
This applies to political life no less than to industrial life. We live
under the fairest government on earth. But it is not self-sustaining.
Nor is that all. There are selfishness and injustice and evil in the
world. More than that, these forces are never at rest. Some desire to
use the processes of government for their own ends. Some desire to
destroy the authority of government altogether. Our institutions are
predicated on the rights and the corresponding duties, on the worth, of
the individual. It is to him that we must look for safety. We may need
new charters, new constitutions and new laws at times. We must always
have an alert and interested citizenship. We have no dependence but the
individual. New charters cannot save us. They may appear to help but the
chances are that the beneficial results obtained result from an
increased interest aroused by discussing changes. Laws do not make
reforms, reforms make laws. We cannot look to government. We must look
to ourselves. We must stand not in the expectation of a reward but with
a desire to serve. There will come out of government exactly what is put
into it. Society gets about what it deserves. It is the part of educated
men to know and recognize these principles and influences and knowing
them to inform and warn their fellow countrymen. Politics is the process
of action in public affairs. It is personal, it is individual, and
nothing more. Destiny is in you.
XIII
TREMONT TEMPLE
NOVEMBER 3, 1917
There is a time and place for everything. There are times when some
things are out of place. Domestic science is an important subject. So is
the proper heating and ventilating of our habitations. But when the
house is on fire reasonable men do not stop to argue of culinary cuts
nor listen to a disquisition on plumbing; they call out the fire
department and join it in an attempt to save their dwelling. They think
only in terms of the conflagration.
So it is in this hour that has come to us so grim with destiny. We
cannot stop now to discuss domestic party politics. Our men are on the
firing-line of France. There will be no party designations in the
casualty lists. We cannot stop to glance at that alluring field of
history that tells us of the past patriotic devotion of the men of our
party to the cause of the Nation--devotion without reserve. We must
think now only in terms of winning the war.
An election at this time is not of our choosing. We are having one
because it is necessary under the terms of our Constitution of
Massachusetts. We have not conducted the ordinary party canvass. We have
not flaunted party banners, we have not burned red fire, we have not
rent the air with martial music, we have not held the usual party
rallies. We have addressed meetings, but such addresses have been to
urge subscriptions to the Liberty Loan, to urge gifts to the great
humanitarian work of the Red Cross, and for the efforts of charity,
benevolence, and mercy that are represented by the Y.M.C.A. and by the
Knights of Columbus, for the conservation of food, and for the other
patriotic purposes.
But we are not to infer that this is not an important election. It is
too important to think of candidates, too important to think of party,
too important to think of anything but our country at war. No more
important election has been held since the days of War Governor Andrew.
On Tuesday next the voters of Massachusetts will decide whether they
will support the Government in its defence of America, and its defence
of all that America means. There is no room for domestic party issues
here. The only question for consideration is whether the Government of
this Commonwealth, legislative and executive, has rendered and will
render prompt and efficient support for the national defence. Perhaps it
would be enough to point out that Massachusetts troops were first at the
Mexican border and first in France. But that is only part of the story.
Wars are waged now with far more than merely the troops in the field.
Every resource of the people goes into the battle. It is a matter of
organizing the entire fabric of society. No one has yet pointed out, no
one can point out, any failure on the part of our State Government to
take efficient measures for this purpose. More than that, Massachusetts
did not have to be asked; while Washington was yet dumb Massachusetts
spoke.
Months before war was declared a Public Safety Committee was appointed
and went to work; weeks before war a conference of New England Governors
was called and a million dollars was given the Governor and Council to
equip Massachusetts troops for which the National Treasury had no money.
By reason of this foresight our men went forth better supplied than any
others, with ten dollars additional pay from their home State, and the
assurance that their dependents could draw forty dollars monthly where
needed for their support. The production and distribution of food and
fuel have been advanced. The maintenance of industrial peace has been
promoted. The Gloucester fishermen, fifteen thousand shoemakers in
Lynn, the Boston & Maine railroad employees, have had their differences
adjusted. A second million dollars for emergency expenses has been given
the Governor and Council. An efficient State Guard of over ten thousand
men has been organized. Our brave soldiers, their dependents, the great
patriotic public have been protected by the present Government with
every means that ingenuity could devise. We have won the right to
reelection by duty well performed.
Remember this: we are not responsible for the war, we are responsible
for the preparation that enables us to defend our soldiers and ourselves
from savages. Massachusetts is not going to repudiate these patriotic
services. To do so now would mean more than repudiating the Government.
It would mean repudiating the devotion of our brave men in arms,
repudiating the sacrifice of the fathers, mothers, wives, and dear ones
behind, and repudiating the loyalty of the millions who subscribed to
the Liberty Loan,--it would mean repudiating America.
Massachusetts has decided that the path of the Mayflower shall not be
closed. She has decided to sail the seas. She has decided to sail not
under the edict of Potsdam, crimped in narrow lanes seeking safety in
unarmed merchantmen painted in fantastic hues, as the badge of an
infamous servitude, but she has decided to sail under the ancient
Declaration of Independence, choosing what course she will, maintaining
security by the guns of ships of the line, flying at the mast the Stars
and Stripes, forever the emblem of a militant liberty.
XIV
DEDICATION OF TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON
NOVEMBER 27, 1917
I was interested to come out here and take part in the dedication of
this beautiful building in part because my ancestors had lived in this
locality in times gone past, but more especially because I am interested
in the town governments of Massachusetts. You have heard the
town-meeting referred to this evening. It seemed to me that the towns in
this Commonwealth correspond in part to what we might call the
water-tight compartments of the ship of state, and while sometimes our
State Government has wavered, sometimes it has been suspended, and it
has been thought that the people could not care for themselves under
those conditions. Whenever that has arisen the towns of the Commonwealth
have come to the rescue and been able to furnish the foundation and the
strength on which might not only be carried on, but on which might again
be erected the failing government of the Commonwealth or the failing
government of the Nation. So that I know nothing to which we New
Englanders owe more, and especially the people of Massachusetts, of our
civil liberties than we do to our form of town government.
The history of Weston has been long and interesting, beginning, as your
town seal designates, back in 1630, when Watertown was recognized as one
of the three or four towns in the Commonwealth; set off by boundaries
into the Farmers' Precinct in 1698, and becoming incorporated as a town
in 1713. There begins a long and honorable history. Of course, the first
part of it gathered to a large degree around the church. The first
church was started here, I think, in 1695, and I believe that the land
on which it was to be erected was purchased of a man who bore my name.
Your first clergyman seems to have been settled about 1702; and the
long and even tenor of your ways here and your devotion to things which
were established is perhaps shown and exemplified in the fact that
during the next one hundred and seventy-four years, coming clear down to
1876, you had but six clergymen presiding over that church. You have an
example here now, along the same line, in the long tenure of office that
has come to your present town clerk, he having been first elected, I
believe, in 1864 and having held office from that time to this, probably
serving as long, if not longer, than any of the town clerks of
Massachusetts, certainly, I believe, the longest of any present living
town clerk.
There are many interesting things connected with the history of this
town. It bore its part in the Indian Wars. Here was organized an Indian
fighting expedition that went to the North, and, though some of the men
in that expedition were lost and the expedition was not altogether
successful, it showed, the spirit, the resolution, the bravery, and the
courage which animated the men of those days.
Mr. Young has referred to that day in Massachusetts history that we are
all so proud of, the Nineteenth of April, 1775. But you had an
interesting event here in this town leading up to that great day.
General Gage was in command of the British forces at Boston. There had
been gathered supplies for carrying on a war out here through Middlesex
County and out to the west in Worcester. History tells us that he sent
out here Sergeant Howe and other spies, in order that he might find out
what the conditions were and whether it would be easy for the British
troops to come out here and seize those supplies and break what they
thought was the idea on the part of the colonists of starting a
rebellion. Sergeant Howe came out here, went to the hotel, where, of
course, the landlord received him hospitably, but informed him that
probably it wouldn't be a healthy place for him to stay for a very long
time, and sent him away in the dead of the night. He went back to Boston
and made a report to the General in which he said that the people of
this vicinity were generally resolved to be free or to die. That was the
spirit of those times; and he advised the Britishers that if they wanted
to go out to Worcester they would probably need an expedition of ten
thousand men and a sufficient train of artillery, and he doubted
whether, if such an expedition as that were sent out, any part of it
would return alive. On account of the report that he brought back it was
determined by the British authorities that it was more prudent to go up
to Concord than it was to come out here on the way to Worcester. That
was the reason that the expedition on that Nineteenth of April was
started for Concord rather than through here for Worcester.
Of course, there are many other interesting events in the history of
this town. You had here many men who have seen military service. You
furnished a large number for the Revolutionary War and a large amount of
money. You furnished as your quota one hundred and twenty-six soldiers
that went into the army from 1861 to 1865. But you were doing here what
they were doing all over the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I doubt if
the leading and prominent and decisive part that Massachusetts played in
the great Revolutionary War is generally understood. It is interesting
to recall that when General Washington came here he seems to have come
with somewhat of a prejudice against New England men. I think there are
extant letters which he wrote at that time rather reflecting upon what
the New England men were doing and the character of Massachusetts men of
those days. But that was not his idea at the end of the war. Then,
although he had been brought up far to the south, he had a different
idea. Then he said, and said very generously, that he thought well of
New England men and had it not been for their support, had it not been
for the men, the materials and munitions that they supplied to the
Revolutionary forces, the war would not have been a success. His name is
interestingly connected with your town of Weston.
You have had here not only an interesting population but an interesting
location. It was through this town that the great arteries of travel ran
to the west and south and to the north. When Burgoyne surrendered, some
of his troops were brought through this town on their way to the
sea-coast. When Washington came up to visit New England after he had
been President, he came through the town of Weston, and I do not know
whether this is any reflection on the cooking of those days in the towns
to the west, but it says in the history of the town of Weston that at
one time when Washington stopped at the hotel in Wayland, although the
hostess had provided what she thought was a very fine banquet, he left
his staff to eat that and went out into the kitchen to help himself to a
bowl of bread and milk. I suppose he would not be thought to have done
that because he was a candidate for office and wanted to appear as one
of the plain people, because that was after he had served in the office
of President. But he stopped here in the town of Weston and was
entertained here at the hotel. And many other great men passed through
here and were entertained here from the time when we were colonies clear
up to the time when the railroads were established along in the middle
of the last century.
So this town has had a long and interesting history, and has done its
part in building up Massachusetts and giving her strength to take her
part in the history of this great Nation. And it is pleasant to see how
the work that the fathers have done before us is bearing fruit in these
times of ours. It is interesting to see this beautiful building. It is
interesting to know that you have a town planning committee who are
placing this building in a situation where it will contribute to the
physical beauty of this historic town. We have not given the time and
the attention and the thought that we should have given to things of
that kind in Massachusetts. We have been too utilitarian. We have
thought that if a building was located in some place where we could have
access to it, where it could be used, where it could transact the
business of the town, that was enough. We are coming to see in these
modern days that that is not enough; that we need not only utilitarian
motives, but that we need to give some time, some thought and attention
to the artistic in life; that we need to concern ourselves not only with
the material but give some thought to the spiritual; that we need to
pay some attention to the beautiful as well as to that which is merely
useful.
These things are appreciated. Weston is doing something along these
lines and building her public buildings and laying out her public square
or her common (as it was known in the old days) so they will be things
of beauty as well as things of use. Let us dedicate this building to
these new purposes. Let us dedicate it to the glorious history of the
past. Let us dedicate it to the sacrifice that is required in these
present days. Let us dedicate it to the hope of the future. Let us
dedicate it to New England ideals--those ideals that have made
Massachusetts one of the strong States of the Nation; strong enough so
that in Revolutionary days we contributed far in excess of our portion
of men and money to that great struggle; strong enough so that the whole
Nation has looked to Massachusetts in days of stress for comfort and
support.
We are very proud of our democracy. We are very proud of our form of
government. We believe that there is no other nation on earth that gives
to the individual the privileges and the rights that he has in America.
The time has come now when we are going to defend those rights. The time
has come when the world is looking to America, as the Nation has looked
to Massachusetts in the past, to stand up and defend the rights of the
individual. Sovereignty, it is our belief, is vested in the individual;
and we are going to protect the rights of the individual. It is an
auspicious moment to dedicate here in New England one of our town halls,
an auspicious moment in which to dedicate it to the supremacy of those
ideals for which the whole world is fighting at the present time; that
the rights of the individual as they were established here in the past
may be maintained by us now and carried to a yet greater development in
the future.
XV
AMHERST ALUMNI DINNER, SPRINGFIELD
MARCH 15, 1918
The individual may not require the higher institutions of learning, but
society does. Without them civilization as we know it would fall from
mankind in a night. They minister not alone to their own students, they
minister to all humanity.
It is this same ancient spirit which, coming to the defence of the
Nation, has in this new day of peril made nearly every college campus a
training field for military service, and again sent graduate and
undergraduate into the fighting forces of our country. They are
demonstrating again that they are the strongholds of ordered liberty and
individual freedom. This has ever been the distinguishing characteristic
of the American institution of learning. They have believed in
democracy because they believed in the nobility of man; they have served
society because they have looked upon the possession of learning not as
conferring a privilege but as laying on a duty. They have taught and
practised the precept that the greater man's power the greater his
obligation. The supreme choice is righteousness. It is that "moral
power" to which Professor Tyler referred as the great contribution of
college men to the cause of the Union.
The Nation is taking a military census, it is thinking now in terms of
armament. The officers of government are discussing manpower,
transportation by land and sea and through the air, the production of
rifles, artillery, and explosives, the raising of money by loans and
taxation. The Nation ought to be most mightily engaged in this work. It
must put every ounce of its resources into the production and
organization of its material power. But these are to a degree but the
outward manifestations of something yet more important. The ultimate
result of all wars and of this war has been and will be determined by
the moral power of the nations engaged. On that will depend whether
armies "ray out darkness" or are the source of light and life and
liberty. Without the support of the moral power of the Nation armies
will prove useless, without a moral victory, whatever the fortunes of
the battlefield, there can be no abiding peace.
Whatever the difficulties of an exact definition may be the
manifestations of moral power are not difficult to recognize. The life
of America is rich with such examples. It has been predominant here. It
established thirteen colonies which were to a large degree
self-sustaining and self-governing. They fought and won a revolutionary
war. What manner of men they were, what was the character of their
leadership, was attested only in part by Saratoga and Yorktown.
Washington had displayed great power on many fields of battle, the
colonists had suffered long and endured to the end, but the glory of
military power fades away beside the picture of the victorious general,
returning his commission to the representatives of a people who would
have made him king, and retiring after two terms from the Presidency
which he could have held for life, and the picture of a war-worn people
turning from debt, disorder, almost anarchy, not to division, not to
despotism, but to national unity under the ordered liberty of the
Federal Constitution.
It was manifested again in the adoption and defence by the young nation
of that principle which is known as the Monroe Doctrine that European
despotism should make no further progress in the Western Hemisphere. It
is in the great argument of Webster replying to Hayne and the stout
declaration of Jackson that he would treat nullification as treason. It
was the compelling force of the Civil War, expounded by Lincoln in his
unyielding purpose to save the Union but "with malice toward none, with
charity for all," which General Grant, his greatest soldier, put into
practice at Appomattox when he sent General Lee back with his sword, and
his soldiers home to the plantations, with their war horses for the
spring plowing. And at the conclusion of the Spanish War it is to the
ever-enduring credit of our country that it exacted not penalties, but
justice, and actually compensated a defeated foe for public property
that had come to our hands in the Philippines as the result of the
fortunes of battle. But what of the present crisis? Is the heart of the
Nation still sound, does it still respond to the appeal to the high
ideals of the past? If those two and one half years, before the American
declaration of war, shall appear, when unprejudiced history is written,
to have been characterized by patience, forbearance, and self-restraint,
they will add to the credit of former days. If they were characterized
by selfishness, by politics, by a balancing of expediency against
justice they will be counted as a time of ignominy for which a
victorious war would furnish scant compensation.
XVI
MESSAGE FOR THE BOSTON POST
APRIL 22, 1918