Uncle Madison never could understand why Alfred was indifferent as to
his arrest. He never could appreciate the sense of humor that influenced
Alfred to go to jail for a joke.
Uncle Madison, while on a visit to Alfred, read in the Columbus papers
of the different classes of people composing its citizenship. "You have
the upper class, the middle class, the lower class." When Uncle Madison
was asked if the people of Virginia were not designated by classes, he
replied: "No sir! No sir! We only have one class of people in
Virginia--the high class. All the others are Republicans."
Uncle Madison declares this is the age of shriek and frenzy, the
over-zealous, ambitious politician who gets his ideas from history,
going back a little further than most people read, puts them forward as
his own.
"The majority of folks, in this the best of countries, believe that the
founders of it, knew just about what they were doing when they made out
the plans and specifications. If you will read the writings of
Jefferson, you will find them as applicable to present conditions as
they were the day they were written.
"Alfred I hope you won't be bamboozled by the ravings of demagogues, who
constantly preach about the wrongs of the people. You'll find the wrongs
that influence them are their own imaginary wrongs. The founders of this
country provided for the righting of all wrongs. We can right any wrong
at the ballot box. We do not require any new-fangled, or rather
old-fangled, ideas warmed over. The man who advocates the so-called
Referendum, the Initiative, and particularly, the Recall, is a traitor
to the true principles of government as established by our forefathers.
We have lived and thrived for more than a hundred years under the best
form of government ever devised. If we want to preserve it, if we desire
to perpetuate our institutions, the demagogue, the mountebanking
politician must be squelched. They ruined every republic of the ancient
world and if we don't throttle them they'll ruin ours.
"The self-seeking demagogue starts out with the captivating doctrine,
the rule of the people, but his end will be the dangerous despotism of
one man rule--the rule of himself. Could you or any reasoning man who
has followed the demagogues of this country, for a moment doubt that any
one of them, on the slightest pretext or opportunity would make a despot
that would shade those of the old world?
"The initiative, the referendum and the recall lend themselves to the
demagogues' schemes, and they call it progressiveness. Nothing in
government could be more reactionary. It was tried in Greece and it
failed. It was tried in ancient Rome and it failed. The political party
that's 'agin' the recall, the referendum and the initiative, will win
and it deserves to win.
"Socialism, in theory, is a most beautiful dream, an illusion.
Socialism, as it is practiced by the discontented and turbulent, is
about as near anarchy as we can get. See what they have done wherever
they have obtained a foothold. It's un-American; it's unpatriotic; it is
against all that a patriotic American citizen holds most sacred. Despite
the demagogues who have brought about these conditions, those who love
this country, respect its laws and appreciate the advantages it offers
to every man willing to work, will triumph. The evolution will never
come to revolution.
"The Romans, two thousand years ago, experienced the same troubles we
are having. There is a fable comparing the corporeal body to the body
politic. Once upon a time the feet became discontented and struck. They
refused to be walked upon longer. The legs noted the dissatisfaction of
the feet. Although they never had cause for complaint before, they said:
'Well, we will quit also. We will refuse to carry the body around
longer.' The stomach said: 'Well, I can't digest food if you refuse to
work, so I'll just quit also; besides, I've been working all these years
for that aristocrat, the brain. I am down under the table doing the work
while the brain is enjoying the wit and gaiety. I want to be up where he
is. The brain has been the master long enough.' The brain became
stubborn: 'All well and good for you. If that is the manner in which you
look upon your duties; if you feel that you have been imposed upon, go
your way. I refuse to think for you further.'
"The feet stubbed their toes; their course was irregular; they stepped
on broken glass; they swelled up as large as watermelons. The legs, illy
nourished, not clothed, became weak and rheumatic, gave way altogether.
The stomach, not receiving food, began to ache and cramp. The brain was
suffering from the ills that had befallen the stomach, the limbs and the
feet. The misery became general. The entire body was suffering, and its
sufferings had weakened it greatly.
"After a while they all concluded their only hope to live happily was
that one should depend upon the other. It was decided the brain should
run things; but the ills brought upon the body had caused so much
suffering that it required a length of time until all recovered the
condition they were in before the strike--as we will call it. All agreed
the brain should have all the powers as before but must consider the
other parts of the body as of greater importance than heretofore. This
the brain had learned, and further that they were all necessary parts of
one great body. And thus they all concluded to go to work together.
After the brain put food into the stomach, clothes on the legs, healed
the wounds of the feet, it found its sufferings had ceased. The brain
learned it must take good care of all parts of the body or it would
suffer. Neither one could long exist without the aid of the other.
"God needs all kinds of people in this world. Some represent the brain,
others the stomach, more the feet and legs. As Abraham Lincoln said:
'God must love the common people: He made so many of them.'
"Along comes the demagogue. In his zeal to gratify vainglorious
ambitions, he endeavors to convince the common people that confusion
and agitation will right their wrongs.
"They quote from Abraham Lincoln. Let me ask you to compare their
speeches and appeals with those of Abraham Lincoln. Do you remember any
speech of these modern demagogues in which they have told the common
people that they were living in the best country in the world? That
they, the common people, had it in their power to relieve themselves of
their few wrongs? Do you ever remember one of them telling the dear
common people that good government was essential to prosperity? That it
was a higher honor to be governed in a republic like ours, than to live
in any other country?
"Every human being begins life under control and there is not one in a
thousand that ever should live, only under control. Three-fourths of the
people in this world never knew they were counted until they get into a
mob.
"The demagogues array their hearers against wealth. They leave the
impression that all who are so fortunate as to possess a little more of
this world's goods than the poorest, are dishonest; that it is
dishonorable to be of the moneyed class. They never tell the people it
is but natural and necessary that some should be richer than others.
These conditions have always prevailed and could only be changed by a
gross violation of rights, held inviolate since the beginning of
civilization. Since the world began, industry and frugality have been
rewarded by wealth.
"These demagogues never tell the people that the opportunities are ever
open that have made others rich. They never tell the boys growing up
that ten or twenty years hence, they the boys of today, will be the
business men, the moneyed class of this country.
"To be prosperous is not to be superior. Wealth should form no barrier
between men. The only distinction that should be recognized is as
between integrity and corruption.
"The present day fads are only the revival of the brain throbs of
demagogues gone before. Read Jewett's translation of politics.
Aristotle, who dealt wisely with many momentous questions, designated
the initiative, referendum and recall, as the fifth form of democracy,
in which not the law but the multitude, have the superior power and
supersede the law by their decrees. Homer says that 'it is not good to
have a rule of many.'
"As I said before, there will be no revolution. The patriotic people of
this country will attend to this. But we will be compelled to do a
little deporting and perhaps a little disciplining. The American people
will attend to this sooner or later. The red flag has no place in this
country. Curb the trusts, curtail combinations in restraint of trade,
let all men get an even start in the race and the deserving will win. I
am not a rich man; I'm a poor man. I've worked all my life. I am happy
and contented. Insofar as riches are concerned, I would like to possess
them, but damned if I want them if I've got to rob others who have
labored more diligently and with more intelligence than I have."
"Now, Uncle Madison, what's your cure for the political and social
upheavals?"
"Patriotism, loyalty to our country, to our flag, to our institutions,
to the principles that have made us what we are."
"Uncle Madison, you were a Confederate soldier."
"Yes, and I'm proud of it. I fought for what I believed to be right. We
of the south lived under conditions that had grown upon us, been forced
upon us; I refer to slavery. I'm not defending slavery, I'm glad it's
done, but we had lived under a government that guaranteed to protect our
rights and property. No matter if slavery was wrong--was it right for
one-half of the people of a country to insist the other half impoverish
themselves--give up all their possessions?
"Slavery was handed down to us and--well, there's nothing in threshing
this matter over; slavery was the cause of the war, the negro was the
issue. If the negro had been a commercial product in the north there
would have been no war. The south lost because it was ordained they
should lose. That does not lessen my pride in the fact that I fought for
the cause I thought was right; we were right in the fact that we fought
for the property this government promised to protect us in, and that's
just what the north would have done if conditions had been reversed."
"Uncle Madison, do you believe in the majority rule?"
"The majority, if you mean the greater number of people, never did rule
and never will. It's the few that does the thinking, does the ruling.
Why, my boy, there are times in our lives when God and one are a
majority."