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Page 6
"Your secretary, when she called me up by telephone, explained to me the
object of your meeting. It is an object with which I deeply sympathize.
It is Rest. You stand for the idea of poise and tranquillity of spirit.
You would have a place for tranquil meditation. The thought I would
bring to you this afternoon is this: We are here not to be doing, but to
be.
"But of course the thought at once occurs to us, How can we _be_
considering the high cost of the necessaries of life? It will be seen at
once that the question is at bottom an economic one. You must have a
living wage, and how can there be a living wage unless we admit the
principle of collective bargaining. It is because I believe in the
principle of collective bargaining that I have come here to-night to say
to you working-men that I believe this strike is justifiable.
"I must leave to other speakers many interesting aspects of this
subject, and confine myself to the aspect which the committee asked me
to consider more in detail, namely, Juvenile Delinquency in its relation
to Foreign Immigration. The relation is a real one. Statistics prove
that among immigrants the proportion of the juvenile element is greater
than among the native-born. This increase in juvenility gives
opportunity for juvenile delinquency from which many of our American
communities might otherwise be free. But is the remedy to be found in
the restriction of immigration? My opinion is that the remedy is to be
found only in education.
"It is our interest in education that has brought us together on this
bright June morning. Your teacher tells me that this is the largest
class that has ever graduated from this High School, You may well be
proud. Make your education practical. Learn to concentrate, that is the
secret of success. There are those who will tell you to concentrate on a
single point. I would go even further. Concentrate on every point.
"I admit, as the gentleman who has preceded me has pointed out, that
concentration in cities is a great evil. It is an evil that should be
counteracted. As I was saying last evening to the Colonial
Dames,--Washington, if he had done nothing else, would be remembered
to-day as the founder of the Order of the Cincinnati. The figure of
Cincinnatus at the plough appeals powerfully to American manhood. Many a
time in after years Cincinnatus wished that he had never left that
plough. Often amid the din of battle he heard the voice saying to him,
'Back to the Land!'
"It was the same voice I seemed to hear when I received the letter of
your secretary asking me to address this grange. As I left the smoke of
the city behind me and looked up at your granite hills, I said, 'Here is
where they make men!' As I have been partaking of the bountiful repast
prepared by the ladies of the grange, your chairman has been telling me
something about this community. It is a grand community to live in. Here
are no swollen fortunes; here industry, frugality, and temperance reign.
These are the qualities which have given New England its great place in
the councils of the nation. I know there are those who say that it is
the tariff that has given it that place; but they do not know New
England. There are those at this table who can remember the time when
eighty-two ruddy-cheeked boys and girls trooped merrily to the little
red schoolhouse under the hill. In the light of such facts as these, who
can be a pessimist?
"But I must not dwell upon the past; the Boy Scouts of America prepare
for the future. I am reminded that I am not at this moment addressing
the Boy Scouts of America,--they come to-morrow at the same hour,--but
the principle is the same. Even as the Boy Scouts of America look only
at the future, so do you. We must not linger fondly on the days when
cows grazed on Boston Common. The purpose of this society is to save
Boston Common. That the Common has been saved many times before is true;
but is that any reason why we should falter now? 'New occasions teach
new duties.' Let us not be satisfied with a supetficial view. While
fresh loam is being scattered on the surface, commercial interests and
the suburban greed to get home quick are striking at the vitals of the
Common. Citizens of Boston, awake!
"Your pastor had expected to be with you this evening, but he has at the
last moment discovered that he has two other engagements, each of them
of long standing. He has therefore asked me to take his place in this
interesting course of lectures on Church History. The subject of the
lecture for the evening is--and if I am mistaken some one will please
correct me--Ulphilas, or Christianity among the Goths. I cannot treat
this subject from that wealth of historical information possessed by
your pastor; but I can at least speak from the heart. I feel that it is
well for us to turn aside from the questions of the day, for the quiet
consideration of such a character as Ulphilas.
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