It was not home at all, as you say, that squalid 16-foot room where
those families lived day in and day out and worked day in and day out;
and yet the court forbade us to try and improve those conditions, to
try and make the conditions of tenement-house life so that it would be
possible for decent men and decent women to live decently there and
bring up their children as American citizens should be brought up.
Friends, it is idle for any man to ask me to sit unmoved and without
protest when a court makes a decision like that [cries of “Good” and
applause], and it is a waste of time to tell me, as Mr. Taft did in his
speech, that I am laying an impious hand on the ark of the covenant
when I try to secure the reversal of such a decision. [Laughter and
applause.]
Now wait. I have only just begun. [Applause.] I am sorry for you, but I
will get through as quick as I can. [Voices: “Go on, go on.”]