Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/23

Rh the heels of any Cæsar. The truth is that in all those states which are advancing the civilization of the world, the proportion of drudges to workmen is as four to ninety-six. We use “workman” in the proper sense, in which a workman is one who uses spirit to control matter, and a laborer is one who has nothing but his muscle and his weight to use in his daily duty. Ninety-six per cent of the American people who are doing the work of the world are people who are working with their hearts and souls and brains. The little handful who are left is but the merest fraction of that community which provides the intelligence, the wisdom, the foresight needed in an election.

The Americanism of the new century has to recognize the special features which have made America America.

First, Freedom. That a man may do what he chooses without the permission of anybody so long as he violates no similar right of another.

If I choose to make a carriage today, tomorrow and the next day, I may make the carriage. In England which is still a feudal country, I cannot make it unless I belong to the Honorable Company of Wheelwrights. If in America I choose to change my home tonight and go to live in Cattaraugus or Opelousas or Seattle, I may do so. I may stay in one of those places till I die if I do not violate law. If, on the other hand, I went to the City of Göttingen to reside, I should receive a visit from the police officer within the first twenty-four hours. I should have to give bonds of some sort to justify him in giving me permission to stay there; and the authorities of the town could turn me out at any moment when they chose without giving me any trial. If I choose to lecture, whether to prove the ignorance of Isaac Newton or to justify the religious faith of the Zulus, while I am in America, I can do so. In all feudal countries I must take my chances of being “permitted” by the authorities. Such instances may be carried on indefinitely. True, I may not beat a bass drum