University of Virginia Library

XXXI
AT COLUMBIA GARDENS, BUTTE, MONTANA,
MAY 27, 1903

Mr. Chairman, and you, my fellow-citizens:

It would have been a great pleasure to come to Butte
in any event; it is a double pleasure to come here at the
invitation of the representatives of the wage workers of
Butte. I do not say merely working men, because I hold
that every good American who does his duty must be a
working man. There are many different kinds of work
to do; but so long as the work is honorable, is necessary,
and is well done the man who does it well is entitled to
the respect of his fellows.

I have come here to this meeting especially as the invited
guest of the wage workers, and I am happy to be
able to say that the kind of speech I will make to you I
would make in just exactly the same language to any
group of employers or any set of our citizens in any
corner of this Republic. I do not think so far as I
know that I have ever promised beforehand anything I did
not make a strong effort to make good afterwards. It is
sometimes very attractive and very pleasant to make any
kind of a promise without thinking whether or not you
can fulfil'it; but in the after event it is always unpleasant
when the time for fulfilling comes; for in the long run
the most disagreeable truth is a safer companion than the
most pleasant falsehood.

To-night I have come hither looking on either hand at
the results of the enterprises which have made Butte so
great. The man who by the use of his capital develops
a great mine, the man who by the use of his capital
builds a great railroad, the man who by the use of his
capital either individually or joined with others like him
does any great legitimate business enterprise, confers a
benefit, not a harm, upon the community, and is entitled
to be so regarded. He is entitled to the protection of
the law, and in return he is to be required himself to
obey the law. The law is no respecter of persons. The
law is to be administered neither for the rich man as such,
nor for the poor man as such. It is to be administered
for every man, rich or poor, if he is an honest and law-abiding
citizen; and it is to be invoked against any
man, rich or poor, who violates it, without regard to
which end of the social scale he may stand, without
regard to whether his offence takes the form of greed
and cunning, or the form of physical violence; in either
case if he violates the law, the law is to be invoked
against him; and in so invoking it I have the right to
challenge the support of all good citizens and to demand
the acquiescence of every good man. I hope I will have
it; but once for all I wish it understood that even if I do
not have it I shall enforce the law.

The soldiers who fought in the great Civil War fought
for liberty under, by, and through the law; and they
fought to put a stop once for all to any effort to sunder
this country on the lines of sectional hatred; therefore
their memory shall be forever precious to our people.
We need to keep ever in mind that he is the worst
enemy of this country who would strive to separate its
people along the lines of section against section, of creed
against creed, or of class against class. There are two
sides to that. It is a base and an infamous thing for the
man of means to act in a spirit of arrogant and brutal disregard

of right toward his fellow who has less means; and
it is no less infamous, no less base, to act in a spirit of
rancor, envy, and hatred against the man of greater
means, merely because of his greater means. If we are
to preserve this Republic as it was founded, as it was
handed down to us by the men of '61 to '65, and as it is
and will be, we must draw the line never between section
and section, never between creed and creed, thrice never
between class and class, but along the line of conduct, the
line that separates the good citizen wherever he may be
found from the bad citizen wherever he may be found.
This is not and never shall be a government of a plutocracy;
it is not and never shall be a government by a
mob. It is as it has been and as it will be a government
in which every honest man, every decent man, be he employer
or employed, wage worker, mechanic, banker,
lawyer, farmer, be he who he may, if he acts squarely and
fairly, if he does his duty by his neighbor and the State,
receives the full protection of the law and is given the
amplest chance to exercise the ability that there is within
him, alone or in combination with his fellows as he
desires.

My friends, it is sometimes easier to preach a doctrine
under which the millennium will be promised offhand if
you have a particular kind of law, or follow a particular
kind of conduct—it is easier, but it is not better. The
millennium is not here; it is some thousand years off yet.
Meanwhile there must be a good deal of work and struggle,
a good deal of injustice; we shall often see the tower
of Siloam fall on the just as well as the unjust. We are
bound in honor to try to remedy injustice, but if we are
wise we will seek to remedy it in practical ways. Above
all, remember this: that the most unsafe adviser to follow
is the man who would advise us to do wrong in order that
we may benefit by it. That man is never a safe man to
follow; he is always the most dangerous of guides. The

man who seeks to persuade any of us that our advantage
comes in wronging or oppressing others can be depended
upon, if the opportunity comes, to do wrong to us in his
own interest, just as he has endeavored to make us in our
supposed interest do wrong to others.