Have Faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed. | Page 3

and
judiciary cannot combine. A hearing means a hearing. When the trial of
causes goes outside the court-room, Anglo-Saxon constitutional

government ends.
The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry,
thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot
relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service.
It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished
merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means
self-support.
Man is born into the universe with a personality that is his own. He has
a right that is founded upon the constitution of the universe to have
property that is his own. Ultimately, property rights and personal rights
are the same thing. The one cannot be preserved if the other be violated.
Each man is entitled to his rights and the rewards of his service be they
never so large or never so small.
History reveals no civilized people among whom there were not a
highly educated class, and large aggregations of wealth, represented
usually by the clergy and the nobility. Inspiration has always come
from above. Diffusion of learning has come down from the university
to the common school--the kindergarten is last. No one would now
expect to aid the common school by abolishing higher education.
It may be that the diffusion of wealth works in an analogous way. As
the little red schoolhouse is builded in the college, it may be that the
fostering and protection of large aggregations of wealth are the only
foundation on which to build the prosperity of the whole people. Large
profits mean large pay rolls. But profits must be the result of service
performed. In no land are there so many and such large aggregations of
wealth as here; in no land do they perform larger service; in no land
will the work of a day bring so large a reward in material and spiritual
welfare.
Have faith in Massachusetts. In some unimportant detail some other
States may surpass her, but in the general results, there is no place on
earth where the people secure, in a larger measure, the blessings of
organized government, and nowhere can those functions more properly
be termed self-government.
Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever
objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the
people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a
stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a

demagogue, but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate to be as
revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the
multiplication table. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down
the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to
catch up with legislation.
We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people--a faith that men
desire to do right, that the Commonwealth is founded upon a
righteousness which will endure, a reconstructed faith that the final
approval of the people is given not to demagogues, slavishly pandering
to their selfishness, merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to
statesmen, ministering to their welfare, representing their deep, silent,
abiding convictions.
Statutes must appeal to more than material welfare. Wages won't
satisfy, be they never so large. Nor houses; nor lands; nor coupons,
though they fall thick as the leaves of autumn. Man has a spiritual
nature. Touch it, and it must respond as the magnet responds to the pole.
To that, not to selfishness, let the laws of the Commonwealth appeal.
Recognize the immortal worth and dignity of man. Let the laws of
Massachusetts proclaim to her humblest citizen, performing the most
menial task, the recognition of his manhood, the recognition that all
men are peers, the humblest with the most exalted, the recognition that
all work is glorified. Such is the path to equality before the law. Such is
the foundation of liberty under the law. Such is the sublime revelation
of man's relation to man--Democracy.

II
AMHERST COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, BOSTON
FEBRUARY 4, 1916
We live in an age which questions everything. The past generation was
one of religious criticism. This is one of commercial criticism.
We have seen the development of great industries. It has been
represented that some of these have not been free from blame. In this
development some men have seemed to prosper beyond the measure of
their service, while others have appeared to be bound to toil beyond
their strength for less than a decent livelihood.
As a result of criticising these conditions there has grown up a too
well-developed public opinion along two lines; one, that the men

engaged in great affairs are selfish and greedy and not to be trusted,
that business activity is