Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/305

Rh of the inside rings in corporate management. How will it be if you give the solemn sanction of your votes to something akin to the same practice in the Government of the Republic?

This is the cause of labor and says to the workingmen: What you need above all things is a government of just laws and of honest men to execute the laws. You need men who have the conscience and courage to say “No” to you when the law forbids that which you may ask for; for such men will have the conscience and courage to say “No” to those more powerful than you when they ask for what is unjust and injurious to you. Beware of the demagogue who the more he flatters you with promises to-day, the more he will be likely to betray you to-morrow. Beware of the political jobber, for in the very nature of things he is always the monopolist's own pet and bed fellow. How can you, laboring men, so betray your own interests as to support a candidate whose election will mean that in the opinion of the American people jobbery in the Government is a legitimate occupation, not to be punished, but to be honored?

This is the cause of patriotism and national pride, and it says to every citizen of the Republic: Do you want the world abroad to respect the American name? Then show them first that the American people respect themselves. The American people will show how they respect themselves by the choice they make for their highest honors. Ask yourselves, Americans, how this Republic will stand in the esteem of mankind, and how its influence will be upheld by the confidence of nations if the American people by a solemn vote proclaim to the world that official honor is to them a thing of indifference, and that they select their President from among those who have traded on high official trust to make money.

And in the face of all this still the cry of “Party!”