Some remarks on the present discontent

HC

UC-NRLF

S7«

George Davidson

SOME REMARKS

ON THE

PRESENT DISCONTENT

BY

REV. DRJ STEBBINS

I

San Francisco, February 29th, 188O.

The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that
ruleth among fools. — ECCLESIA.STES ix, 17.

The preacher might have added also that the words of
the wise are sometimes spoken so quietly that they are not
heard at all beyond the ear in which they are spoken, and
yet they get abroad into the common air, and modify .the
thoughts and feelings of men. Wisdom is a sort of calm,
penetrating, round-about judgment of times, events, men,
and things. It is no conceit of knowledge, but such an
appreciation of things as discharges the mind of all conceit,
and brings in humility at the sense of how little it knows.
Then, too, as men grow wise they grow silent, and sparing
of their words. I do not remember of ever having seen a
garrulous man who was a wise man. I suppose that it was
in view of this fact that wisdom is inclined to be a little
reticent — that Mr. Carlyle, in one of his pungent paragraphs,
so satirizes the passion for rhetoric, talking, speech-making;

o.

and praises silence and work. Of all business, talking,
declaiming, popular address is most trying to integrity of
feeling, clear convictions and thorough inward honesty. It
was this profession of loquacity that Augustine so bitterly
repented of, in his years of wisdom, when the excellence of
truth and simplicity had dawned on him. History records
that a sure indication of the decline of the Roman Empire
was that the profession of public speaker had become so
popular, and the grave old taciturn Roman had got to driv-
elling words in weak loquacity. Webster, once, in his place
in the Senate, disgusted beyond endurance at the fulsome
flattery heaped on him by a feeble speaker, drew his head
down in chagrin, and cried "O get out!" He said, on
another occasion, that any man would have a large hearing
and a great popularity who would go through the country
abusing the government and telling the people that they
were abused, and that the government was the cause of all
their trouble.

The freedom of speech and of the press are equivalent to
popular liberty and free institutions, inasmuch as there can
be no free institutions without freedom of thought and ex-
pression. The abuse of so great a principle is not to be
wondered at. Even the abuse is a safety-valve to that which
might explode if confined, if only a large body of the people
are well grounded in intelligence and right. Popular appeals
to popular feeling are the best remedy for popular wrongs
or popular discontent. The very idea of it is that it reduces
vague feeling to terms of intelligence; and, on reflection,
men find that they can feel more strongly than they can
think.

For a considerable period there has been here in this city
a free swing given to a very broad style of popular talk,
ranging from indecent and vulgar phrase, and black-guard
lingo, and extravagant epithets, and reckless statements to
tirades against individuals, institutions and things in gene-
ral. The sitting of the Legislature, the inauguration of a
new Constitution and the pinch of labor, have for a few
weeks revived what seemed to be the expiring discontent;
and society, by contagious moral sympathy, has been some-

57?

what depressed. I think, myself, that it has been exaggerat-
ed, and that too much attention has been given to it, and
that society has shown itself too much on a level with it.

So far as the labor question, as it is called, or labor and
capital, is concerned with the social discontent, there can be
no settlement on any present terms of labor and capital. It is
no local question, but of universal human interest, and per-
vades Christendom. The only reconciliation of that difficulty
is in moving forward on to a new ground, where the moral re-
lations of employer and workman are recognized as clearly as
the politico-economic relation. What men want is a respect-
ful consideration of their welfare. It does not consist in the
government taking them up, and finding work for all who
want it. A parental government is a monarchy or a despot-
ism where men cannot take care of themselves; but in a free
State men are supposed to be of age and able to take care of
themselves. Capital and labor will never be at peace, nor
will they ever reap their full rewards until they have a mate-
rial and moral interest in each other's welfare over and above
the wages paid on the one hand, or the service rendered on
the other. The final goal is not parental government, nor
socialism, nor communism, nor trades-unions, but co-opera-
tion. This will not be accomplished primarily by legislation,
but it will be begun here and there by enlightened men of
comprehensive and liberal views, who understand that good
workmen must be the allies of their employers. A writer from
that part of the country which' we call The West — evidently a
proprietor and influential director of railroad management,
has recently sent a letter to a distinguished journal, setting
forth in a clear and forcible way that owners, directors and
managers of railroads should adopt some method of helping
their workmen, outside the duties for which they are paid, in
their private lives. He is a man of experience and ability.
His view I will not discuss; it is the spirit of it that I notice.
It is the appearance of the moral element in political econo-
my which, until recently, has been altogether ignored.
Such movements will get into form after a while. All intel-
ligent and thoughtful men should inform themselves on these
things, and know what is being done, and with what success.

It is, according to my way of thinking and feeling, one of
the most interesting and important subjects that our
modern society presents. If intelligent and wise men
do not take it up, passionate and ignorant men will.
Men who can only feel a wrong need to be guided
by those who can see it. If there is anything in the
future that seems to me certain in the unfolding of
principles, it is that labor and capital can never settle
down on the old bare political - economy - proposition of
demand and supply. The matter can never rest, so it seems
to me, save on terms of mutual moral support. In the mean
time, the man who talks only to human passions, who talks
carelessly about the rights of property, and only disturbs
men where they are, before they can do better, is a moral
incendiary, and deserves condign punishment.

In respect to the new Constitution, and the uncertainty
that attends legislative and judicial proceedings under it, I
wish to make one remark only, and that is in regard to that
provision of the Constitution which forbids the employment
of Chinese laborers by corporations created by the laws of
the State. I have nothing to do with the law, but only with
the morale of the matter as it has appeared in the streets of
the city. A body of men marching through town and taking
it upon themselves to ask citizens what they proposed to do
in regard to the management of their business, is an act of
usurpation, which, if carried out to its legitimate conclusion,
would subvert the government of any municipality. The
good sense of our citizens in keeping their temper in the
presence of an offensive intrusion, is honorable, and pro-
bably is to be understood as an illustration of that kind of
patience that does not hold out forever. All that can be
said about it is that it was impudent and insulting.

On the other hand, I think citizens who were hiring Chi-
nese laborers at the time of the inauguration of the new Con-
stitution should have obeyed the law, if there was a law for-
bidding the hiring of that class, or they should have antici-
pated the new state of things and brought the whole matter
before the proper tribunals at the earliest moment to ascer-
tain whether or not this particular law is law. But I think

citizens ought to obey the laws. The best way to get a bad
law repealed is to execute it rigidly. And so in regard to
the condemnation of any portion of the city on account of
the manners and customs and habits of the population there.
Let the law be executed, and let all good citizens say- that
the law shall be executed according to law, that is, left to
the decision of the Courts. The violent language we hear
in the street would make us shudder if we were not accus-
tomed to it ; but we have become so familiar with all this
style of popular language that many would miss it from the
substance of the daily news.

I suppose it is fair in all our judgments of the present
condition of things here, to make some allowance for the
motley class of people that may be found in the city. I am
accustomed to think that as regards the population of the
city, it is the most American city in the Union. There are
people here from every State, and there are people here at-
tracted by every motive that ever influenced human conduct. I
suppose there are more people here who belong to that class
commonly known as "living by their wits" than in any other
city of equal population in the Kepublic. I suppose there
are more people here "from every town but this," than in any
other town of equal dimensions. There is some reason to
believe that our fellow citizens of the workingmen are not
aware how large a class of this sort are hanging upon their
skirts. And it is just toward the workingmen to tell them
that they inadvertently and unwittingly get a good deal of
damaging reputation from that class. Industrious men are
not violent men, and they commonly have sense enough to
know that passion is not energy, and that the man who
'killed the goose that laid the golden egg has not had any
eggs since. Those honest, working, and hard-pressed men
who have nothing to do, and can get nothing to do by which
to earn their bread and their children's bread, should be af-
forded some relief. Good citizens ought to help them by
contriving some industry, which, if it will not pay, will do
something better than that — keep a respectable class from
humiliating charity, and do something, however clumsily, to
show that there is some good-will toward men. But all

6

such, who are in" the sharp pinch of necessity, and in the
prison of enforced idleness, must cut loose from every asso-
ciation with violence or the semblance of violence. Men
who live by their hands can never gain anything from those
who "live by their wits. Yet it is the very cunning, and
craft and vocation of those who live by their wits, to attach
themselves to, and mix themselves up with those who live
with their hands. Were it not for this fact, a fact manifest
to all, the spontaneous good feeling of men would relieve
the distress of enforced idleness until settled opinions and
reviving industry, that must come at no distant day, sent
their genial beams over the land.

There has, within a few days, been a marked change in
the tone of feeling and speech. Some wise man has uttered
a word in quiet that has been heard and felt. Nobody can
for a moment doubt the power of society here to maintain
order, and to inflict a terrible doom upon the breeders of
mischief. But wisdom is profitable to direct, and all may
be congratulated upon the changed temperature of the air.
Let us be firm, good-natured, intelligent and kind, without
prejudice or passion, but with wisdom and strength, holding
to the good of all.

It is very natural at a time like this, and in circumstances
so peculiar, that the Mayor of the city, the officer and con-
servator of the public welfare, should be the subject of
much criticism, while he is also looked to as the guardian of
the city. I am now only interested in him as a public man,
and I desire success and honor to attend him in his muni-
cipal administration. He is a man manifestly of many
abilities, much neutralized by indiscretion, and of great ad-
miration for popular applause. His faculty for speech is
dangerous alike to his usefulness and to his own fame. Add-
ing to that his fondness for place, and an unmistakeable
tendency to interpret place to mean the respect of mankind,
and to conclude that those who vote for him honor and ad-
mire him, the Mayor unites many elements of weakness as
a ruler. He should admonish himself in the moment of his
successes, of those things that check the pride of men, and
make them silent in the presence of much their own hands

have not wrought. The Mayor*, above all, should remember
that his notoriety is much greater than his reputation. He
should, in gratitude to that Almighty Providence by which
his life was preserved from the hand of an assassin, humbly
remember that had he died by that cowardly hand, it would
have been no martyr's death, and no martyr's name that he
would have died or won. It was a tavern brawl, all but the
tavern. The Mayor should remember that it is not becom-
ing, nor fitted to increase or win the respect of his fellow-
men, for him in loose and voicy oratory to tell his fellow-
citizen's that 'twas for their cause he bled. The Mayor
should remember, in the brief moment of official station,
that so merciful are men, that the assassin's shot carried a
wave of sympathy to him, that was the prime moment of his
success, and which if he were a wise man he would never
waste in his great need. The Mayor should remember, that
notwithstanding his great fondness for speech, silence and
activity are his security and success, and that few words and
modest honor become him best. I can wish him no better
success and no truer honor, than that he may discharge the
duties of his office with an eye single to the public good,
and that the fierce experience of human passions, which he
has done so much to kindle, and whose deadly recoil has
struck him so heavily, may bring forth in him the fruits of
wisdom, humility and self-control. To the end of the wel-
fare of the city, to the end of every humane and Christian
sentiment towards the poor, to the end of wisdom, gratitude
and charity in the rich, to the end of private honor and pub-
lic duty well done, and to the end of a good name, which
may he attain, I give him my sincere public and private
wishes.

GAYLAMOUNT

PAMPHLET BINDER

•^

Manufactured Ay

6AYLORD BROS. Inc.

Syracuse, N. Y.

Stockton, Calif.

Y.C 7^

JV.291254

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY