convictions, of reverence for truth and for the heralds of truth. The
purpose set forth in the Constitution is clear and plain. It recognizes
with the clear conviction of men not thinking of themselves that the
cause of America is the cause of education, but of education with a
soul, a trained intellect but guided ever by an enlightened conscience.
We of our day need to recognize with the same vision that when these
fail, America has failed.
XXXII
PLYMOUTH, LABOR DAY
SEPTEMBER 1, 1919
The laws of our country have designated the first Monday of each
September as Labor Day. It is truly an American day, for it was here
that for the first time in history a government was founded on a
recognition of the sovereignty of the citizen which has irresistibly led
to a realization of the dignity of his occupation. It is with added
propriety that this day is observed this year. For the first time in
five years it comes at a time when the issue of world events makes it no
longer doubtful whether the American conception of work as the crowning
glory of men free and equal is to prevail over the age-old European
conception that work is the badge of the menial and the inferior. The
American ideal has prevailed on European battle-fields through the
loyalty, devotion, and sacrifice of American labor.
The duty of citizenship in this hour is to strive to maintain and
extend that ideal at home.
The past five years have been a time of rapid change and great progress
for the American people. Not only have the hours and conditions of labor
been greatly improved, but wages have increased about one hundred per
cent. There has been a great economic change for the better among all
wage-earners.
We have known that political power was with the people, because they
have the votes. We have generally supposed that economic power was not
with the people, because they did not own the property. This
supposition, probably never true, is growing more and more to be
contrary to the facts. The great outstanding fact in the economic life
of America is that the wealth of the Nation is owned by the people of
the Nation. The stockholders of the great corporations run into the
hundreds of thousands, the small tradesmen, the thrifty householders,
the tillers of the soil, the depositors in savings banks, and the now
owners of government bonds, make a number that includes nearly our
entire people. This would be illustrated by a few Massachusetts examples
from figures which were reported in 1918:
_Number of Stockholders_
Railroads 40,485
Street railways 17,527
Telephone 49,688
Western Union Telegraph 9,360
-------
117,060
_Number of Employees_
Railroads 20,604
Street railways 25,000
Telephone 11,471
Western Union Telegraph 2,065
------
59,140
Savings bank depositors 2,491,646
Railroad, street railway, and
telephone bonds held by
savings banks and savings
departments of trust companies
$267,795,636
Savings bank deposits $1,022,342,583
Money is pouring into savings banks at the rate of $275,000 each
working day.
Comment on these figures is unnecessary. There is, of course, some
reduplication, but in these four public service enterprises there are in
Massachusetts almost twice as many direct owners as there are employees.
Two persons out of three have money in the savings bank--men, women, and
children. There is this additional fact: more than one quarter of the
stupendous sum of over a billion dollars of the savings of nearly two
and a half million savings depositors is invested in railroad, street
railway, and telephone securities.
With these examples in mind it would appear that our problem of economic
justice in Massachusetts, where we live and for which alone we can
legislate, is not quite so simple as assuming that we can take from one
class and give to another class. We are reaching and maintaining the
position in this Commonwealth where the property class and the employed
class are not separate, but identical. There is a relationship of
interdependence which makes their interests the same in the long run.
Most of us earn our livelihood through some form of employment. More and
more of our people are in possession of some part of the wages of
yesterday, and so are investors. This is the ideal economic condition.
The great aim of our Government is to protect the weak--to aid them to
become strong. Massachusetts is an industrial State. If her people
prosper, it must be by that means in some of its broad avenues. How can
our people be made strong? Only as they draw their strength from our
industries. How can they do that? Only by building up our industries and
making them strong. This is fundamental. It is the place to begin. These
are the instruments of all our achievement. When they fail, all fails.
When they prosper, all prosper. Workmen's compensation, hours and
conditions of labor are cold, consolations, if there be no employment.
And employment can be had only if some one finds it profitable. The
greater the profit, the greater the wages.
This is one of the economic lessons of the war. It should be remembered
now when taxes are to be laid, and in the period of readjustment. Taxes
must be measured by the ability to meet them out of surplus income.
Industry must expand or fail. It must show a surplus after all payments
of wages, taxes, and returns to investors. Conscription can call once,
then all is over. Just requirements can be met again and again with
ever-increasing ability.
Justice and the general welfare go hand in hand. Government had to take
over our transportation interests in order to do such justice to them
that they could pay their employees and carry our merchandise. They have
been so restricted lest they do harm that they became unable to do good.
Their surplus was gone, and we New Englanders had to go without coal.
Seeing now more clearly than before the true interests of wage-earner,
investor, and the public, which is the consumer, we shall hereafter be
willing to pay the price and secure the benefits of justice to all these
coördinate interests.
We have met the economic problem of the returning service men. They have
been assimilated into our industrial life with little delay and with no
disturbance of existing conditions. The day of adversity has passed. The
American people met and overcame it. The day of prosperity has come. The
great question now is whether the American people can endure their
prosperity. I believe they can. The power to preserve America is in the
same hands to-day that it was when the German army was almost at the
gates of Paris. That power is with the people themselves; not one class,
but all classes; not one occupation, but all occupations; not one
citizen, but all citizens.
During the past five years we have heard many false prophets. Some were
honest, but unwise; some plain slackers; a very few were simply public
enemies. Had their counsels prevailed, America would have been
destroyed. In general they appealed to the lower impulses of the people,
for in their ignorance they believed the most powerful motive of this
Nation was a sodden selfishness. They said the war would never affect
us; we should confine ourselves to making money. They argued for peace
at any price. They opposed selective service. They sought to prevent
sending soldiers to Europe. They advocated peace by negotiation. They
were answered from beginning to end by the loyalty of the American
workingmen and the wisdom of their leaders. That loyalty and that wisdom
will not desert us now. The voices that would have lured us to
destruction were unheeded. All counsels of selfishness were unheeded,
and America responded with a spirit which united our people as never
before to the call of duty.
Having accomplished this great task, having emerged from the war the
strongest, the least burdened nation on earth, are we now to fail before
our lesser task? Are we to turn aside from the path that has led us to
success? Who now will set selfishness above duty? The counsel that
Samuel Gompers gave is still sound, when he said in effect, "America may
not be perfect. It has the imperfections of all things human. But it is
the best country on earth, and the man who will not work for it, who
will not fight for it, and if need be die for it, is unworthy to live in
it."
Happily, the day when the call to fight or die is now past. But the day
when it is the duty of all Americans to work will remain forever. Our
great need now is for more of everything for everybody. It is not money
that the nation or the world needs to-day, but the products of labor.
These products are to be secured only by the united efforts of an entire
people. The trained business man and the humblest workman must each
contribute. All of us must work, and in that work there should be no
interruption. There must be more food, more clothing, more shelter. The
directors of industry must direct it more efficiently, the workers in
industry must work in it more efficiently. Such a course saved us in
war; only such a course can preserve us in peace. The power to preserve
America, with all that it now means to the world, all the great hope
that it holds for humanity, lies in the hands of the people. Talents and
opportunity exist. Application only is uncertain. May Labor Day of 1919
declare with an increased emphasis the resolution of all Americans to
work for America.
XXXIII
WESTFIELD
SEPTEMBER 3, 1919
We come here on this occasion to honor the past, and in that honor
render more secure the present. It was by such men as settled Westfield,
and two hundred and fifty years ago established by law a chartered and
ordered government, that the foundations of Massachusetts were laid. And
it was on the foundations of Massachusetts that there began that
training of the people for the great days that were to come, when they
were prepared to endorse and support the principles set out in the
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of
America, and the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. Here were
planted the same seeds of righteousness victorious which later
flourished with such abundance at Saratoga, at Gettysburg, and at the
second battle of the Marne. Stupendous results, the product of a people
working with an everlasting purpose.
While celebrating the history of Westfield, this day has been set apart
to the memory of one of her most illustrious sons, General William
Shepard. To others are assigned the history of your town and the
biography of your soldier. Into those particulars I shall not enter. But
the principles of government and of citizenship which they so well
represent, and nobly illustrate, will never be untimely or unworthy of
reiteration.
The political history of Westfield has seen the success of a great
forward movement, to which it contributed its part, in establishing the
principle, that the individual in his rights is supreme, and that
"governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."
It is the establishment of liberty, under an ordered form of government,
in this ancient town, by the people themselves, that to-day draws us
here in admiration of her achievements. When we turn to the life of her
patriot son we see that he no less grandly illustrated the principle,
that to such government, so established, the people owe an allegiance
which has the binding power of the most solemn obligation.
There is such a disposition in these days to deny that our Government
was formed by, or is now in control of, the people, that a glance at the
history of the days of General Shepard is peculiarly pertinent and
instructive.
The Constitution of Massachusetts, with its noble Declaration of Rights,
was adopted in 1780. Under it we still live with scarce any changes that
affect the rights of the people. The end of the Revolutionary War was
1783. Shays's Rebellion was in 1787. The American Constitution was
ratified and adopted in 1788. These dates tell us what the form of
government was in this period.
If there are any who doubt that our institutions, formed in those days,
did not establish a peoples' government, let them study the action of
the Massachusetts Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution in
1788. Presiding over it was the popular patriot Governor John Hancock.
On the floor sat Samuel Adams, who had been the father of the
Revolution, preëminent champion of the liberty of the people. Such an
influence had he, that his assertion of satisfaction, was enough to
carry the delegates. Like a majority of the members he came opposed to
ratification. Having totally thrown off the authority of foreign power,
they came suspicious of all outside authority. Besides there were
eighteen members who had taken part in Shays's Rebellion, so hostile
were they to the execution of all law. Mr. Adams was finally convinced
by a gathering of the workingmen among his constituents, who exercised
their constitutional right of instructing their representatives. Their
opinion was presented to him by Paul Revere. "How many mechanics were at
the Green Dragon when these resolutions were passed?" asked Mr. Adams.
"More, sir, than the Green Dragon could hold." "And where were the
rest?" "In the streets, sir." "And how many were in the streets?" "More
than there are stars in the sky." This is supposed to have convinced the
great Massachusetts tribune that it was his duty to support
ratification.
There were those, however, who distrusted the Constitution and
distrusted its proponents. They viewed lawyers and men of means with
great jealousy. Amos Singletary expressed their sentiments in the form
of an argument that has not ceased to be repeated in the discussion of
all public affairs. "These lawyers," said he, "and men of learning and
moneyed men that talk so finely and gloss over matters so smoothly, to
make us poor illiterates swallow the pill, expect to get into Congress
themselves. They mean to be managers of the Constitution. They mean to
get all the money into their hands and then they will swallow up us
little folk, like the great Leviathan, Mr. President: yes, just like the
whale swallowed up Jonah." In the convention sat Jonathan Smith, a
farmer from Lanesboro. He had seen Shays's Rebellion in Berkshire. There
had been no better example of a man of the people desiring the common
good.
"I am a plain man," said Mr. Smith, "and am not used to speak in public,
but I am going to show the effects of anarchy, that you may see why I
wish for good government. Last winter people took up arms, and then, if
you went to speak to them, you had the musket of death presented to your
breast. They would rob you of your property, threaten to burn your
houses, oblige you to be on your guard night and day. Alarms spread from
town to town, families were broken up; the tender mother would cry,
'Oh, my son is among them! What shall I do for my child?' Some were
taken captive; children taken out of their schools and carried away....
How dreadful was this! Our distress was so great that we should have
been glad to snatch at anything that looked like a government.... Now,
Mr. President, when I saw this Constitution, I found that it was a cure
for these disorders. I got a copy of it, and read it over and over.... I
did not go to any lawyer, to ask his opinion; we have no lawyer in our
town, and we do well enough without. My honourable old daddy there
(pointing to Mr. Singletary) won't think that I expect to be a
Congressman, and swallow up the liberties of the people. I never had any
post, nor do I want one. But I don't think the worse of the Constitution
because lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men are fond of it. I
am not of such a jealous make. They that are honest men themselves are
not apt to suspect other people.... Brother farmers, let us suppose a
case, now. Suppose you had a farm of 50 acres, and your title was
disputed, and there was a farm of 5000 acres joined to you that belonged
to a man of learning, and his title was involved in the same difficulty;
would you not be glad to have him for your friend, rather than to stand
alone in the dispute? Well, the case is the same. These lawyers, these
moneyed men, these men of learning, are all embarked in the same cause
with us, and we must all sink or swim together. Shall we throw the
Constitution overboard because it does not please us all alike? Suppose
two or three of you had been at the pains to break up a piece of rough
land and sow it with wheat: would you let it lie waste because you could
not agree what sort of a fence to make? Would it not be better to put up
a fence that did not please every one's fancy, rather than keep
disputing about it until the wild beasts came in and devoured the crop?
Some gentlemen say, Don't be in a hurry; take time to consider. I say,
There is a time to sow and a time to reap. We sowed our seed when we
sent men to the Federal Convention, now is the time to reap the fruit of
our labour; and if we do not do it now, I am afraid we shall never have
another opportunity."
There spoke the common sense of the common man of the Commonwealth. The
counsel of the farmer from the country, joined with the resolutions of
the workingmen from the city, carried the convention and the
Constitution was ratified. In the light of succeeding history, who shall
say, that it was not the voice of the people, speaking with the voice of
Infinite Authority?
The attitude of Samuel Adams, William Shepard, Jonathan Smith and the
workingmen of Boston toward government, is worthy of our constant
emulation. They had not hesitated to take up arms against tyranny in the
Revolution, but having established a government of the people they were
equally determined to defend and support it. They hated the usurper
whether king, or Parliament, or mob, but they bowed before the duly
constituted authority of the people.
When the question of pardoning the convicted leaders of the rebellion
came up, Adams opposed it. "In monarchies," he said, "the crime of
treason and rebellion may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished;
but the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to
suffer death." We are all glad mercy prevailed and pardon was granted.
But the calm judgment of Samuel Adams, the lover of liberty, "the man of
the town meeting" whose clear vision, taught by bitter experience, saw
that all usurpation is tyranny, must not go unheeded now. The authority
of a just government derived from the consent of the governed, has back
of it a Power that does not fail.
All wars bring in their trail great hardships. They existed in the day
of General Shepard. They exist now. Having set up a sound government in
Massachusetts, having secured their independence, as the result of a
victorious war, the people expected a season of easy prosperity. In that
they were temporarily disappointed. Some rebelling, were overthrown. The
adoption of the Federal Constitution brought relief and prosperity.
Success has attended the establishment here of a government of the
people. We of this day have just finished a victorious war that has
added new glory to American arms. We are facing some hardships, but they
are not serious. Private obligations are not so large as to be
burdensome. Taxes can be paid. Prosperity abounds. But the great promise
of the future lies in the loyalty and devotion of the people to their
own Government. They are firm in the conviction of the fathers, that
liberty is increased only by increasing the determination to support a
government of the people, as established in this ancient town, and
defended by its patriotic sons.
XXXIV
_The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
By His Excellency Calvin Coolidge, Governor_
A PROCLAMATION
The entire State Guard of Massachusetts has been called out. Under the
Constitution the Governor is the Commander-in-Chief thereof by an
authority of which he could not if he chose divest himself. That command
I must and will exercise. Under the law I hereby call on all the police
of Boston who have loyally and in a never-to-be-forgotten way remained
on duty to aid me in the performance of my duty of the restoration and
maintenance of order in the city of Boston, and each of such officers is
required to act in obedience to such orders as I may hereafter issue or
cause to be issued.
I call on every citizen to aid me in the maintenance of law and order.
Given at the Executive Chamber, in Boston, this eleventh day of
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and
nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America
the one hundred and forty-fourth.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
By His Excellency the Governor,
ALBERT P. LANGTRY
_Secretary of the Commonwealth_
God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
XXXV
AN ORDER
BOSTON, _September_ 11, 1919
To EDWIN U. CURTIS,
As you are Police Commissioner of the City of Boston,
_Executive Order No. 1_
You are hereby directed, for the purpose of assisting me in the
performance of my duty, pursuant to the proclamation issued by me this
day, to proceed in the performance of your duties as Police Commissioner
of the city of Boston under my command and in obedience to such orders
as I shall issue from time to time, and obey only such orders as I may
so issue or transmit.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
_Governor of Massachusetts_
XXXVI
A TELEGRAM
BOSTON, MASS., _Sept_. 14, 1919
MR. SAMUEL GOMPERS
_President American Federation of Labor, New York City, N.Y._
Replying to your telegram, I have already refused to remove the Police
Commissioner of Boston. I did not appoint him. He can assume no position
which the courts would uphold except what the people have by the
authority of their law vested in him. He speaks only with their voice.
The right of the police of Boston to affiliate has always been
questioned, never granted, is now prohibited. The suggestion of
President Wilson to Washington does not apply to Boston. There the
police have remained on duty. Here the Policemen's Union left their
duty, an action which President Wilson characterized as a crime against
civilization. Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot
justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the
opportunity, the criminal element furnished the action. There is no
right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any
time. You ask that the public safety again be placed in the hands of
these same policemen while they continue in disobedience to the laws of
Massachusetts and in their refusal to obey the orders of the Police
Department. Nineteen men have been tried and removed. Others having
abandoned their duty, their places have, under the law, been declared
vacant on the opinion of the Attorney-General. I can suggest no
authority outside the courts to take further action. I wish to join and
assist in taking a broad view of every situation. A grave responsibility
rests on all of us. You can depend on me to support you in every legal
action and sound policy. I am equally determined to defend the
sovereignty of Massachusetts and to maintain the authority and
jurisdiction over her public officers where it has been placed by the
Constitution and law of her people.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
_Governor of Massachusetts_
XXXVII
_The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
By His Excellency Calvin Coolidge, Governor_
A PROCLAMATION
There appears to be a misapprehension as to the position of the police
of Boston. In the deliberate intention to intimidate and coerce the
Government of this Commonwealth a large body of policemen, urging all
others to join them, deserted their posts of duty, letting in the enemy.
This act of theirs was voluntary, against the advice of their well
wishers, long discussed and premeditated, and with the purpose of
obstructing the power of the Government to protect its citizens or even
to maintain its own existence. Its success meant anarchy. By this act
through the operation of the law they dispossessed themselves. They went
out of office. They stand as though they had never been appointed.