...Remarks on... UNCATALol 
 
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 The War Note from Washington 
 
 ...AND... 
 
 ■C'.- 
 
 Fhe Rights and Wrongs of 
 
 Motormen 
 
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 AlADE BY 
 
 Rev. Dr. Henry C. McCook 
 
 Pastor of the 
 
 Tabernacle Presbyterian Church ' 
 
 OF Philadelphia 
 
 Sabbath, December 22d, A. D. 1895 
 
 Printed by 
 
 The Session of the Church 
 for 
 
 Private Circulation 
 
On Sabbath morning and evening, Dr. McCook, pastor of 
 the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, made 
 addresses upon two matters of great public interest, whose 
 sudden advent had startled the community during the preced¬ 
 ing week. 
 
 There has been such a general request for the publication of 
 an authorized edition of these remarks, that the Session of the^ 
 Church has concluded to publish them for private circulation. 
 This has been done all the more readily, because numerous 
 reports thereof, made in various public prints, have given in 
 several particulars an erroneous view of what was actually said. 
 
jCtXv ^ ^ ^ . 
 
 3 2 7 . S' 7 
 
 jX^ 12 n- 
 
 Philadelphia, December 27, A. D. 1895. 
 
 THE WAR NOTE FROM WASHINGTON.* 
 
 %0m 
 
 Vastly more important than the street railway strike 
 now agitating Philadelphia, are the interests involved 
 in the message of President Cleveland concerning the 
 
 V » 
 
 . ' ^ Venezuela boundary. The former is a matter of purely 
 
 local interest, and in a few days will have been for- 
 gotten. The latter is of world wide and permanent 
 
 rVj concern. 
 
 V It has excited anxiety in every nation in Christen- 
 
 dom. It has stirred in our own bosoms feelings that 
 have been slumbering for a generation. There is no 
 doubt at all that the first impression made by the mes¬ 
 sage upon American citizens is as favorable as it is 
 unanimous. The message breathes a spirit which was 
 vainly expected in the matter of Hawaiian independ¬ 
 ence and the Nicaragua complications. For this 
 reason, surprise has been a factor in evoking the gen¬ 
 eral applause with which so remarkable and important 
 a document has been greeted. 
 
 I 
 
 POPUIvAR BKUKF in the PRESIDENT’S PATRIOTISM. 
 
 If any questionings were started as to the motive 
 which 23 rompted the message; if through the popular 
 applause there has obtruded the whispered query: Is 
 
 * Remarks made Sunday morning, December 22, A. D. 1895. 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
4 
 
 this only a political pronunciamento; a move upon the 
 chess-board of partisan possibilities?—such a thought 
 has been brushed aside. The conviction is general 
 and seemingly correct that President Cleveland has 
 been actuated by a simple and sincere patriotism; 
 that he has done his duty honestly, as he sees it, for 
 the highest interests of the nation, both present and 
 future. Cheerfully do all parties concede this, and 
 others who are as deeply concerned as ourselves should 
 recognize the fact. 
 
 It is true, there is ground to challenge the wisdom 
 and even the propriety of the manner in which this 
 patriotic purpose has been carried out. It has seemed 
 to some that interests so grave as those which 
 depended upon the Executive’s action, should have 
 been approached less abruptly, and in language better 
 suited to the diplomatic temper and method. It is 
 true, that some fear that the great principle or policy 
 known as the “ Monroe Doctrine,” so vigorously set 
 forth in the message, has been endangered by its asso¬ 
 ciation with issues that appear too trivial andMistant 
 from the main point concerned. It is true, that some 
 have felt that an examination of the facts upon which 
 congressional and popular judgment ought to be based, 
 should have preceded and not have followed a message 
 which seems to carry within its bosom a latent bolt of 
 w^ar. 
 
 Nevertheless, the heart of the people without respect 
 of party, is with their President. A wave of pure 
 patriotism has swept across the continent, and the 
 ripple and dash of occasional partisan utterances, have 
 been drowned in the mighty roar of the popular tide, 
 as is the tinkling of the brooklet by the surge of the 
 ocean into whose bosom it falls. 
 
5 
 
 11 . 
 
 American Outburst of Patriotism Explained. 
 
 We are now concerned to ask: Whence this practical 
 unanimity? It is in part the result of profound reflec¬ 
 tion upon past experiences. It is in part the instinc¬ 
 tive assertion of a nation’s sense of what concerns its 
 own security. 
 
 Let me illustrate this by an incident, which the 
 events of the last few days have recalled. On that 
 memorable night when the news thrilled the nation 
 that Lee had surrendered at Appomattox, I was visit¬ 
 ing in the Illinois county town where my pastoral life 
 began. I had come up from my mission pavStorate in 
 St. Louis for a few days of needed recreation, and 
 there the joyful intelligence met me. I was seated in 
 the house of my host, a respected elder, talking over 
 the great events which had then been drawn to a happy 
 conclusion, when a deputation of citizens called at the 
 house to say that I was wanted in the Public Square. 
 At once, I responded. I found the central opening 
 around the court house crowded with masses of men 
 and women. Bonfires burned at every corner. A 
 rude platform of store boxes had been erected from 
 which an orator was addressing the people. I was led 
 to the front, and the intimation given that my turn 
 should come next. At last the time came when I must 
 step upon the platform, and face that great crowd of 
 jubilant fellow citizens. Cheer upon cheer greeted 
 me, and yet I never carried a more anxious heart to a 
 public duty. Do you ask why? I had resolved to 
 risk the popularity of the moment and make a plea for 
 peace. For peace? Yes! Let me explain. Victory had 
 been in the air for the last month, and I knew that it 
 
6 
 
 was a matter not only of general conversation, but of 
 fixed purpose that when the war against rebellion was 
 ended, there were two great national wrongs to be 
 redressed by another war. 
 
 One lay to the southwest in Mexico, where Napoleon 
 III., taking advantage of our embarrassment, had estab- 
 lished an Imperial Government, contrary to the tradi¬ 
 tion and protests of our people. It was the lodgment 
 of a strong European power upon our borders with a 
 government hostile to the spirit of our Republic, and 
 with' a likelihood of establishing an overshadowing 
 force which would be a permanent threat to our peace 
 and prosperity. The victorious soldiers of the West, 
 by regiments and brigades, had solemnly vowed that 
 Napoleon’s imperial bantling government should be 
 driven from the Mexican frontier! 
 
 The other wrong to be remedied la3Mo the north and 
 southeast of us. Every Union soldier knew that he 
 had been fighting not only the brave and determined 
 men of the South, whose chivalric valor formed the 
 one bright feature in their uprising against the Union^ 
 but also that secret ally of rebellion whose flag waved 
 from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Vancouver’s 
 Island over the Canadian frontier. The broad oSicial 
 arrow of England had faced him on many a cannon 
 when he had pressed up death-strewn heights and 
 mounted the barricades held by his rebellious fellow 
 countrymen. 
 
 Canada had been the centre from which numerous 
 hostile plots, agitations and influences had flowed across 
 the border, to hurt and hamper the cause of liberty. 
 Beyond our Eastern frontier from Nassau and British 
 West Indian ports, blockade runners for four years 
 had filled Southern ports with munitions of war, 
 which joined with Confederate valor to prolong the 
 struggle. 
 
pm 
 
 / 
 
 Multitudes of men in our victorious hosts of the 
 WOvSt and Southwest, had said or sworn by all above 
 and beneath them, that when the rebellion was sub¬ 
 dued, the proud banner of St. George should no longer 
 wave upon North American territory! And strange 
 as it may seem, they believed that the Confederate 
 soldiers, so late their antagonists, would be their com¬ 
 rades in that quarrel. 
 
 Do you ask why our veterans felt thus? It was 
 because they knew by bitter experience that alien and 
 unfriendly national powers, buttressed and bulwarked 
 around our frontiers, dominated by European and hos¬ 
 tile governments as strong as or stronger than our¬ 
 selves, were a constant threat to our liberty and our 
 Union. 
 
 It was because they feared that these powers would 
 cause in the future, as in the past they had caused, 
 incalculable loss of life and property to the land whose 
 Union they had sought to destroy, and whose hOvStile 
 purpose had only been prevented by the costly gift of 
 America's choicest lives, and billions of her treasure. 
 
 This is why I stood, that night, in the midst of the 
 jubilant crowd and lifted up my voice for peace. I 
 plead with an earnestness which I have rarely felt or 
 shown, that our country should not issue from the 
 horrors of one conflict to be plunged into another. I 
 appealed from the powers of the sword to the powers 
 of diplomacy, and urged my countrymen in that hour 
 of joy to return to the ways of peace, and leave the 
 wise and good Lincoln and his advisers to adjust 
 questions of national rights and redress our national 
 wrongs. 
 
 Perhaps you will wish me to pause a moment to tell 
 the issue of that address. A deep silence fell upon 
 the crowd. Mutterings arose here and there, espe¬ 
 cially from a knot of soldiers home on furlough, who 
 
8 
 
 istood near the stand. Evidently the discourse was a 
 disappointment. It ruffled against the prevailing sen¬ 
 timent. But after the manner of an American audi¬ 
 ence, the people listened patiently, and before I was 
 done, a change had evidentl}" come upon their spirit. 
 It was not until closing my address that I touched in 
 detail upon the occasion that had called us together, 
 and then the suppressed enthusiasm broke forth afresh. 
 While the speaker who preceded me, now the Hon. 
 Judge Lawrence Weldon, of Washington City, was 
 speaking, a happy impulse had seized me, and stand¬ 
 ing in the midst of the crowd, and using the top of my 
 hat for a writing desk, I had jotted down a few verses 
 of a Joy Song to the tune of the well-known Hallelujah 
 or “John Brown” chorus. I closed my speech by 
 reading this, and proposed that we should sing it 
 together. And we sang it!—sang it till the stars in 
 the blue above us seemed to glitter. 
 
 When I had finished and was about to descend from 
 the platform, I stepped most unexpectedly into the 
 brawny arms of blue coated men, and ere I knew it, 
 was upon a pulpit which never before nor since have I 
 had the honor and dissatisfaction to occupy, namel}’: 
 he shoulders of men. For a while, amidst the shout¬ 
 ing and laughter of the crowd, I was carried around 
 the square. Thus ended that Plea for Peace and Song 
 of Victory. 
 
 We know how Louis Napoleon’s Mexican imperial 
 structure toppled like a house of blocks at the touch 
 of our victorious government. But the other wrong? 
 —has it ever been righted? Has it ever been atoned 
 for? Has it ever been even regretted? 
 
 Brethren and friends it is that old fear and feeling 
 of the war veterans which lives through the message 
 of President Cleveland. It is that feeling, though it 
 may be almost unconscioush^ which vibrates along 
 
9 
 
 the nerve of every patriot beneath our flag to-day, who 
 has said: We will stand by the doctrine of President 
 Cleveland’s message, at whatever cost! 
 
 III. 
 
 The American View Stated. 
 
 There is a feeling which we cannot suppress that 
 our mother country and sister nation, is already too 
 dangerously dominant around our frontiers. She 
 threatens our entire Northern border by a belt of ter¬ 
 ritory which spans the continent from east to west. 
 By the fact that these possessions jut upon the Pacific 
 Ocean between our Alaskan Territory and the borders 
 of Washington and Oregon, she threatens our Western 
 coast. On the northeast it is the same at and around 
 the mouth of the St. Lawrence. On the southeast 
 her West Indian possessions and fortresses are the pos¬ 
 sible radiant points of national danger in the future, 
 as they were at the time of the rebellion, when they 
 came near destroying us by a perilously narrow mar¬ 
 gin. If, now, this mighty power, whose^ ancestral 
 vigor and pluck we know so well; whose vast abilities 
 to harm us we so thoroughly understand, shall gain a 
 greater foothold to the south of us among the Repub¬ 
 lics of South America; if she shall be able to command 
 such a waterway as the Orinoko River, for example, 
 what is to stay her progress across the Southern con¬ 
 tinent? What can satisfy the illimitable greed of this 
 land-absorbing kingdom, that licks up nations as 
 Behemoth the rivers? 
 
 How long will it be ere we shall be hemmed in and 
 enclosed round about, so that from ever}'' point of the 
 compass, against every foot of our territory, north, 
 
lO 
 
 south, east and west, from the Atlantic, from the 
 Pacific, from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, 
 the iron clad floating forts of brave and strong old 
 Britain can flock forth with their enginery of destruc¬ 
 tion to beat out the life and break down the liberties 
 of the United States of America? That is the convic¬ 
 tion, that is the sentiment which throbs through the 
 national utterance evoked by President Cleveland’s 
 message. 
 
 The issue presents itself to the men of this genera¬ 
 tion in somewhat the same light as did the Stamp Tax 
 to the founders of Independence. The right to levy 
 a penny tax implies the right to levy a pound, our 
 fathers said. It is not so much the special act that 
 concerns us, as its consequences; not so much the 
 pecuniary value, as the principle involved therein. So 
 with the aggressions of European powers on American 
 territory. The right to seize a hundred square miles 
 implies the right to take a thousand, or a hundred 
 thousand. The right to seize a river’s mouth implies 
 the right to absorb all that lies along its banks to 
 the heart of the continent. Ay, and to descend the 
 watershed westward to the Pacific and grasp and hold 
 its coast. 
 
 This will account for what seems a passionate and 
 almost hysterical outburst of national sentiment and 
 assertion. We are not fanatics; we are not trivial and 
 excitable; we are not ignorant, crude, with that scant 
 control of emotions characteristic of semi-barbarous 
 nations, or of an undeveloped civilization, as a New 
 York journal has ventured to assert. The mighty 
 tidal swell of popular feeling is due to convictions and 
 instincts which lie and long have lain within every 
 honest and patriotic American heart. 
 
 ^*Why do Americans hate England?” our British 
 friends have asked. We do not hate Britons as Britons. 
 
We honor, love and admire them as men. We do dis¬ 
 like and dread their traditional governmental policy, 
 and we have good reason to do so. There are two 
 Englands, like the twins Jacob and Esau of old, in 
 the womb of that great Empire. One we love and 
 open our hearts and arms thereto; the other we dread 
 and must guard against, and if needs be oppose. 
 
 This presentation of the American view of the situa¬ 
 tion is not made in a spirit of hostility, or with a view 
 to foment prejudices or passions already too warm. It 
 is made wholly in the interests of peace. For no per¬ 
 manent peace can exist between America a 7 id Great 
 Britain which is not based upon a clear^ full understand- 
 ing of the unalterable attihide of that American convic¬ 
 tion which vitalizes the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 No composure which does not recognize this would 
 be a settlement, but only a postponement of the inevit¬ 
 able controversy. It would be to daub with untem¬ 
 pered mortar; to cry peace, peace! when there is no 
 peace. 
 
 What I am pleading for is a settlement based on 
 mutual understanding; a peace which shall not only be 
 honorable^ but permanerit. 
 
 IV. 
 
 How Pkack May Bk Skcured. 
 
 We are not to stop here; a solemn duty faces us. 
 We must solve the question: How shall we make good 
 our conviction of national safety and honor? Three 
 possible courses lie before us: diplomacy, arbitration 
 and war. 
 
 In the name of God and humanity, let the last 
 named be now and ever the last resort I But we are 
 
12 
 
 told that arbitration has been urged long and diligently 
 and has been flatly and finally refused. We infer that 
 diplomacy has done its utmost to secure a different 
 result but has failed. Failed! Why? 
 
 Our ambassador to England lies to-day under im¬ 
 pending censure of Congress for partisan arraignment 
 of his countrymen in public addresses; for heaping 
 high contempt upon the larger part and the long estab¬ 
 lished polic}^ of a nation which he is commissioned to 
 represent. We could have forgiven him his alleged 
 truckling to British opinion, had he used his vantage 
 as a friendly sympathizer and most graciously received 
 person to smooth the asperities of the threatened situa¬ 
 tion, and to convince his complaisant friends the Brit¬ 
 ish courtiers and rulers, of the seriousness and blood 
 earnestness of Americans on matters at issue. 
 
 Had the cool heads and warm hearts of the Britons 
 understood how keenly our nerves are strained, and how 
 firmly and unanimously our minds are bent on this 
 national policy, knowm as the Monroe Doctrine, it is 
 incredible that they would have risked a rupture, with 
 its attendant horrors and loss, rather than accept the 
 honorable, reasonable, customary and Christian mode 
 of arbitration. I am firmly persuaded that had Lord 
 Salisbury known before he sent his famous note w'hat 
 he now knows, that note would never have been 
 written. 
 
 Our ambassador has failed, do you tell us? Then 
 let us have an ambassador whose gifts are equal to his 
 graces; whose ofiicial deeds can win English favor as 
 thoroughly as have his unoflicial words, and who will 
 not know such a word as ‘ Hail. Must the world’s 
 peace lie at the mercy of an indolent or incompetent 
 ambassador? Ay, but it is not so much American 
 diplomacy as English statesmanship that has failed! 
 Then let the British nation join us in a demand that 
 
13 
 
 this matter shall go to an arbitration court. Let them 
 understand that Lord Salisbury has been playing with 
 dynamite; that he has trifled with the sensibilities of a 
 nation; scouted and sneered at the accepted historic 
 policy of a Power which has at least shown its right 
 to have a policy in the Americas. Let Britain ask 
 Lord Salisbury and his advisers to recast their diplo¬ 
 macy, retrace their steps, and skilled as they are in 
 such affairs, show the people a bloodless path to peace. 
 
 Arbitration means the possibility of right on either 
 side; the possibility of wrong on either side. Both 
 America and Britain are too great in all the highest 
 attributes of nations, to be unwilling to concede this 
 much. It is only the smallest men and the pettiest 
 powers who enwrap themselves in their pride of opin¬ 
 ion, and refuse to acknowledge that they can do or 
 have done wrong. 
 
 The wisdom, humanity and Christian piety of these 
 two nations should unite to declare that on such an 
 issue as this there shall be no w^ar. If war shall ever 
 be waged betw^een Great and “Greater Britain, “ let 
 it at least be for something worthy the dignity of 
 such great nations. To fight over a disputed boundary 
 line! It would be a shame to British and American 
 diplomacy, a stain upon our wisdom I a crime against 
 humanity! a sin against every interest of the two 
 nations concerned, for which the future would find no 
 forgiveness and no excuse. 
 
 V. 
 
 Watch! for War is Possibtk. 
 
 I rest but lightly on the oft quoted phrase: Blood is 
 thicker than water, and the assertion that two great 
 English speaking nations can never again be at war. 
 
. 14 
 
 The greatest civil war of modern times is not yet a 
 single generation behind us, and it was fought 
 between men who spoke the same English tongue, and 
 were born beneath the same flag. Within the period 
 of a generation the American colonies and the new 
 Republic were twice engaged in war with the Mother 
 Country; and thirty years ago Britain carried on active 
 though unofficial war against our Union. More than 
 once the balance trembled toward open war, so 
 evenly poised that a feather might have turned the 
 scale either way. It was England’s noble Queen— 
 God bless her and prolong her reign !—whose Chris¬ 
 tian heart and sovereign influence weighted the scale 
 toward peace, or official war would then have been 
 waged. 
 
 Let us not' deceive ourselves! War can easily be 
 fomented between Britain and America. The smolder¬ 
 ing embers of strife are many and are widely spread. 
 It will demand all the wisdom, and all the self-control, 
 and all the Chirstian character of which we are pos¬ 
 sessed, to save us now or in the near future from the 
 awful calamity of a conflict upon sea and land. Do 
 not say, ‘‘There is^no danger I” So men talked thirty- 
 five years ago, until Sumter’s guns dissolved the illu¬ 
 sion. “Oh, but England will back down!” Britt¬ 
 ains are a brave, proud people, and not of the down¬ 
 backing kind. It is folly to think or talk otherwise. 
 “But she has too great interests at stake!” Her 
 interests are no greater than our own, and she will 
 risk them as freely as ourselves. 
 
 It becomes us, therefore, to address ourselves with 
 all earnestness to compose angry passions, and promote 
 policies of peace. 
 
 What shall we do? We can at least pray God to 
 spread again over this great world in these closing 
 days of the Advent season, the wings of His celestial 
 
15 
 
 messengers, and drop down upon us, as we sing our 
 Christmas carols, the benediction of the old time peace 
 of Bethlehem. 
 
 We can control our tempers. We can cease to nag 
 and fret and irritate and anger one another by unjust 
 and unkind cuts and flings in public speech and public 
 writing. We may recall, and we ought to recall all 
 the common ties that bind us, not simply of language, 
 but of literature, of origin, of commerce, of philan¬ 
 thropy, and of religion. 
 
 Many of us have warm friends on the other side, 
 whom we cherish as among the best loved and most 
 highly valued of our friends. Let thCvSe gentle bonds 
 of friendship, and kinship, and association in common 
 service and research, draw to-day amidst these agita¬ 
 tions with their utmost power, and help to hold our 
 hearts together and withhold our hands from violence. 
 
 Let us think too, not only of the times in which we 
 have been widely apart in our policies and actions, but 
 of the times when our souls have flowed together in 
 most friendly sympathy. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Two Nations, One Heart—The Prince of 
 Waees and President Garfield. 
 
 Let us think of the days at Sandringham, when the 
 successor to the throne of Britain lay sick, as men 
 feared, unto death. English prayers in every cathedral 
 and church, and chapel, from Landes End to John 
 O'Groat, in every colony and imperial holding beneath 
 the sun, were offered up to God for the saving of that 
 precious life. 
 
 Was America silent then ? 
 
i6 
 
 No! Prayers for the Prince of Wales were offered 
 ill every sanctuary and in every home side by side 
 with prayers for the President of the United States. 
 Nay, with the true instinct of kindly humanity, sor¬ 
 row was given the preference, and, before our prayers 
 for the President, God was supplicated to save the 
 Prince. 
 
 Then flowed together the hearts of two great people* 
 and the true kinship thereof was made manifest in 
 that hour of sorrow. When the tidings came that the 
 power of disease had been broken, and the sick Prince 
 had passed on toward convalescence, the joy bells that 
 rang and rang from tower and steeple in merry England, 
 were echoed and re-echoed among the hills and moun¬ 
 tains and over the broad prairie of America, till the 
 Atlantic sang to the Pacific, and the Takes shouted to 
 the Gulf the gladsome refrain: ‘^Praise God from 
 whom all blessings flow!” 
 
 Years w^ent by, and in the inscrutable Providence 
 of God, the American nation hung in deep suspense 
 above the suffering couch of President Garfield. 
 Tong and weary were the months v;e waited and 
 prayed, and hoped and feared, until hope deferred 
 had made our hearts sick. 
 
 Were w^e alone in our grief? 
 
 No, no! The days of Sandringham had come again, 
 but with reversal of the tide of sympathy, and with 
 an intensity keener and deeper than had ever been 
 knowm. Once more we were two Nations with One 
 Heart! 
 
 What were the utterances that Americans heard from 
 the other side? What voice did Britons send across 
 the separating sea? When all was over, and the 
 national obsequies were done, who did not find his 
 eyes moistened and his heart stirred with profound 
 emotion at the tidings which came from Great Britain? 
 
17 
 
 What a revelation it was of the tenderness that beat 
 for us underneath those hearts of English oak! Won¬ 
 derful in its pathos, wonderful in its sincerity and 
 power, w^as that plaintive wail which sounded through 
 the sad sea waves: 
 
 “O Jonathan, slain in the high places! I am dis¬ 
 tressed for thee, my brother Jonathan!” 
 
 Ay, and we could finish the text and call back 
 through our blinding tears: “Very pleasant hast thou 
 been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing 
 the love of w^omen!” (2 Sam. i. xxxvi. ) 
 
 Thus spake John to Jonathan, and Jonathan answered 
 to John in those days of the Garfield mourning. We 
 wondered, and we said in our hearts, is this the Eng¬ 
 land of the days when Garfield fought at Chicamauga? 
 Candor bade us say that the memory of those days 
 lingered with us, a root of bitterness. Ever and anon 
 the Alabama would seem to start out of the horizon 
 and sail across our vision, leaving the sea between 
 us red with her wake of fire and blood. Beneath the 
 guns of the Kearsarge the English Alabama, with her 
 English crew and English guns, went down in the 
 sight of the English coast in the waters of the English 
 Channel. But oh, our Mother Country! The very 
 memory of the Alabama went down into deeper depths, 
 into depths of oblivion beneath that tidal wave of kindly 
 grief and love, of sisterly, of motherly tenderness and 
 sympathy that through all those days, rolled from 
 ofif thy green shores! 
 
 Our assassinated President has faded into Mother 
 Earth—“dust to dust. ’ ’ The flowers which thy good 
 Queen laid upon his bier have withered—“ashes to 
 ashes!” But their fragrance shall be as fadeless as 
 the name of him whose virtues they honored. Hence¬ 
 forth, when the vision of our martyred Garfield shall 
 rise above the horizon of memory, he will stand before 
 
i8 
 
 us bearing in his hands the flowers of the English 
 Queen, the symbol and oblation of fraternity and peace! 
 
 Thus we felt in those sad days. That strong con- 
 solation and sympathy of our mother land, the frag¬ 
 rance of that floral offering of England’s Queen comes 
 to us this day; and in its sweetness, we will remember 
 the tenderer side of Britain, and put it over against the 
 words of scorning lately spoken. 
 
 It shall silence our indignation, it shall temper our 
 heats; it shall breathe peace upon our passions. These 
 are past things which we may remember. They are 
 possibilities in the future! The heart of England has 
 not changed. The heart of America has not changed. 
 We areas truly one to-day as ever, in the secret depths 
 of our souls. Let us try to understand one another. 
 Let us cherish the trust that the hands of John and 
 Jonathan shall again be clasped across the broad Atlan¬ 
 tic in friendly greeting, though let us hope not in 
 sympathetic sorrow. Then above them shall hang the 
 Angel Host of the Advent, to drop flowers of peace, 
 and sing songs of peace, and speak as from God a 
 benediction of peace upon nations that ought to be one 
 forever in Holy Crusade against national wrongs, and 
 for a wider liberty and higher civilization in every 
 land, until the Empire of the Prince of Peace shall be 
 established from pole to pole. 
 
THE RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF MOTOR MEN,* 
 
 Into the glad melody of the Christmas joj^-bells, and 
 the sweet echoes of the angels^ song of peace, there 
 have come the discordant clamor of riot in our streets, 
 and a note of threatened war from Washington. Our 
 citizens have been startled in the very midst of the 
 heyday of holiday business and Christmas activities, 
 as by a thunderbolt out of an untroubled sky. 
 
 For many years no crisis has faced our citizens, 
 comparable in interest and possible importance to that 
 which has thus been suddenly thrust upon us. One 
 question needs to be asked by every citizen and 
 patriot: What is the right of these matters? ' 
 
 In asking as in answering that question, one must 
 always allow for diversity of honest judgment in the 
 natural conflict of individual and national interests, 
 pushed with no worse or more aggressive desire than 
 the ordinary purpose to promote one’s own interests 
 in the best manner possible. Moreover, the wisest 
 men have erred, and will continue to err. Neither 
 president nor premier, neither capitalist nor laborer is 
 infallible. Further, movements, which in themselves 
 are along lines of rectitude and duty, are liable to be 
 marred by outbreaks of human passion, disfigured by 
 methods which no good citizen can sanction. Never^ 
 theless, we must do our best; and as becomes sterling 
 manhood, seek to know w^hat our part should be in 
 solving problems so grave as those now before us. 
 
 What are the rights and wrongs of conductors and 
 motormen on our street railway systems? Is there 
 
 * Remarks made Sunday evening, December 22, A. D. 1895, 
 
 (19) 
 
20 
 
 any justification for the present strike? Or, at least, 
 are there grievances which ought to be remedied, and 
 which justify remedial proceedings? 
 
 You are entitled to hear your pastor's opinions, 
 though he takes it for granted that they will not be 
 endorsed b}^ all who hear them. But he has never 
 sought to train his congregation into an unthinking 
 sodality, with servile, intellectual deference to his 
 judgment and public utterances. He respects the honest 
 manliness of private judgment among his friends 
 and parishioners, and is proud to believe that a like 
 respect is held toward his own opinions, even by 
 those who differ from him. He will, therefore, speak 
 freel3\ 
 
 On general principles, my sympathies and convic¬ 
 tions are with the men of the street railwa}^ service. 
 They have erred in the time, if not in the method 
 chosen for asserting their rights and a united effort to 
 correct their wrongs. It would have been wiser, 
 kinder, in every wa^^ better had they waited until after 
 the rush of Christmas trade, when the social and busi¬ 
 ness interests of the public would not have received so 
 severe a blow by the sto^Dping of transportation. 
 
 The}' have erred in not placing their case in the 
 hands of citizens of Philadelphia; men of their own 
 number, instead of calling to their aid, professional 
 representatives from an alien community. Though, 
 on the other hand, they claim that their own chosen 
 spokesman w^as refused a hearing. 
 
 It needs hardly be said that those who have sanc¬ 
 tioned or practiced violence of any sort, have not only 
 erred, but have grievously offended against the laws 
 of God, of the City and State, and the interests of their 
 owm associates. Yet it ought to be said, for it seems 
 to be the truth, that the number of strikers thus charge¬ 
 able, is small. 
 
21 
 
 I. 
 
 Thus much said, have the motormen real grievances 
 justifying some sort of united endeavor to correct them ? 
 Undoubtedly they have. The most prominent of these 
 are the following: First, the right to organize into a 
 union, looking to the relief, benefit, advancement, 
 and protection of its members, has been forbidden and 
 its exercise hindered and punished by discharge. To 
 deny this right is to deny the commonest privilege of 
 an American citizen. The question has been substan¬ 
 tially settled long ago; though our laws are not quite 
 as clear and equal in this regard as are the laws, say, 
 of England. In that country the right of labor to 
 organize for lawful purposes is now undisputed. Such 
 a challenge thereof as has been made by the Union 
 Traction Company, would scarcely have been dreamed 
 of in London; and had it been attempted, every arm 
 of the national and municipal government would 
 have been thrust forth at once to defend the workmen’s 
 sodality against those who sought to deprive them of 
 their inherent privileges as freemen. Is labor any less 
 to be honored and privileged in this Great Republic? 
 If so, then let us cease our boasting of libert^q equality 
 and fraternity; of our advanced civilization, our 
 superior love of liberty, and our protection of the rights 
 of man as man. Labor unions have been sadly mis¬ 
 used, and have been made and still are made instru¬ 
 ments of oppression and injustice, directed chiefly 
 against laborers themselves, and not infrequently 
 against the employers. In such wrong-doing, they 
 ought to be opposed by all the powers of society. 
 But the right of union for lawful ends cannot be 
 denied. Like the ancient guilds of England and of the 
 American colonies, the labor unions of to-day are 
 founded in the guaranteed rights of citizens. 
 
22 
 
 If all such organizations were to be conducted in 
 the proper spirit, there'can be little doubt that they 
 would minister to the common interests of employer 
 and employe and would become bulwarks of peace 
 to the community. The aim of capitalists and all 
 good citizens should be, not to suppress, but to direct 
 and elevate such societies of laboring men.* 
 
 The very name of the great corporation that occu¬ 
 pies nearly all the highways of Philadelphia, implies 
 the right of its members to form a ** union, ’’ to main¬ 
 tain their own interests. They have done so,'as many 
 wise and good men believe, to the detriment of the 
 city’s interests in every regard. With what consis¬ 
 tency can they say to their men: We will not allow 
 you to form a “union” to promote your welfare and 
 protect your interests? 
 
 The question needs simply to be stated thus to con¬ 
 vince us that the contention of the men is just; pro¬ 
 vided it be true that the Traction Compan}’’ has denied 
 them the privilege of laboring upon the street lines 
 if they join the union, or continue therein. The Com¬ 
 pany has not denied and cannot deny this; and stands 
 convicted of having committed a wrong which should 
 at once be righted; a wrong against which the men are 
 fully justified in protesting; a wrong'which should 
 be rebuked by every good citizen; and should be 
 
 *The objects of the Amalgamated Association of Street Car 
 Employes of America, are stated as follows, in Sections i and 2 
 of Article II of its Constitution: 
 
 I. *‘To organize Division Associations.’’ 
 
 •. “To place our occupation upon a high plane of intelligence, effi¬ 
 ciency, and skill; to encourage the formation in Division Associations of 
 Sick Benefit Funds; to establish schools of instruction and examination, 
 for imparting a practical knowledge of modern and improved methods and 
 systems of transportation, and trade matters generally ; to encourage the 
 settlement of all disputes between employes and employers by arbi¬ 
 tration ; to secure employment and adequate pay for our work ; to reduce 
 the hours of daily labor ; and by all legal and proper means to elevate our 
 »oral, intellectual and social condition." 
 
23 
 
 made impossible by the laws of the Municipality and 
 Commonwealth. Capital has its rights, as well as 
 labor, and those rights and privileges must be main¬ 
 tained. But the attempt of capitalists to prevent or 
 abridge the rights of laborers, can only react against 
 themselves. * 
 
 II. 
 
 Exckssivk Hours of Labor. 
 
 Second, the next wrong against which the men pro¬ 
 test is the excessive hotifs of labor. They ask that their 
 service may be limited to ten hours a day. Is that 
 unreasonable? Where is a workman who does not 
 make a similar claim? And where are the employers 
 of labor who have not cheerfully conceded the demand? 
 
 You, manufacturers and merchants, w’ho are now 
 listening to these words, ask nothing more than that 
 of your employes! Is it proposed to give this great 
 Traction Company, which through the action of our 
 Councils (wise or unwise it is not now needful to dis¬ 
 cuss) has obtained the valuable monopoly for their 
 traffic of our public highways, a right over labor that 
 far transcends your own? Are they so much better 
 than you, that they may throw the city into confusion, 
 and deprive us of the accustomed use of our high¬ 
 ways, simply because they are so remorselessly bent 
 
 * The spirit of the Amalgamated Association is shown by a 
 resolution adopted at its late convention, as follows: 
 
 “ Resolved^ That we hold it as a sacred principle that trade- 
 union men, above all others, should set a good example as good 
 and faithful workmen, performing their duties to their employ¬ 
 ers with honor to themselves and their organization. We hold 
 that a reduction of hours for a day’s work increases the intelli¬ 
 gence and happiness of the laborer, and also increases the 
 demands for labor and the price of a day’s work .”—From Pam¬ 
 phlet I of the Toynbee Society of Philadelphia, 
 
24 
 
 upon grinding out of their employes the utmost pos^ 
 sible service? Why do they not yield to the demand 
 which every manufacturer, merchant and employer of 
 labor within the Commonwealth, themselves excepted, 
 has long ago admitted to be just and equal? What 
 has that Company done for us; what especial spirit of 
 devotion to the city has it shown; what gifts and 
 graces has it displayed to entitle it to this superior 
 privilege? 
 
 I go further. The demand of the men is in accordance 
 with the safety of the public\ and it is in equal accord 
 with the best interests of the Traction Company itself. 
 Why do I say that? Last spring, for reasons which 
 need not be explained, I began an investigation as to 
 the effects of electric motor service upon the motormen. 
 This led me to ride to and fro upon the various lines 
 of this city seated next the front door, where I could 
 keep the motorman in view. It was balmy weather, 
 the door was open, and nothing obstructed vision. 
 This is what was seen: As every crossing was neared, 
 the motorman’s arms assumed that physical tension 
 displayed by an animal on guard against anticipated 
 danger. Every vehicle that crossed the pathway 
 showed a manifest shock upon the nerves. Children 
 ran across the street, in that provoking w’ay which 
 youngsters have; adult pedestrians lagged over the 
 crossing in pure idiotic bravado or stubbornness, as 
 though seeking to pass the limit of the track at the 
 last moment possible. At each one of these and like 
 continually recurring incidents, the motorman’s mus¬ 
 cular action showed the vivid alertness and agitation 
 of his mind. 
 
 As the car came to the more crowded portions of the 
 city, these continuous shocks upon the S3’stem were 
 repeated. The man seemed to be living in a constant 
 terror; continually on guard against impending danger 
 
25 
 
 to life and property, in which he knew his own 
 interests were closely involved. Thus it w'as all the 
 way from West Philadelphia station to the Delaware, 
 and back again. 
 
 In a quiet way, without indicating that I had any 
 special purpose in view, I have conversed with a 
 number of these men. They made the statement that 
 by the time they had gone the round trip they were 
 as tired as if they had done a half day’s hard work. 
 They did not know why they w^ere so tired. They 
 did not go into the philosophy or psychology or phy¬ 
 siology of the fact, but they knew they were often 
 nearly w^orn out. And this is a common if not the 
 general experience. Some men w'ho had acted as 
 motormen, stalwart fellows as they were, have told me 
 they had to give it up; they could not stand it! Why? 
 I will teil you. 
 
 In these modern times, science has taught us that 
 every action of the mind, every impulse of the affec 
 tions, every throb of anxiety and grief, is resolvable 
 into teynis oj measiirahle inusailar action. Thinking 
 tires a man as quickly as if he were pounding stone 
 upon the highway, and in part for the same reason, 
 physical exertion. That drain upon the muscular 
 energy is greater when labor, whether mental or man¬ 
 ual, is associated with agitation of any kind. It fol¬ 
 lows that the muscular strain and drain upon the man 
 who has to drive a street car over crowded streets, is 
 more exhausting than almost any other service. Ten 
 hours’ work of that nature is more than any man 
 ought to be put to. Twelve hours as now required is 
 an outrage upon humanity 1 Eight hours is enough 
 for any ordinary man. So our Councils should deter¬ 
 mine! So would the Traction Company voluntarily 
 determine if they were wise men, as well as kind. 
 Beyond these limits the nerves become so sliattered, 
 
26 
 
 and the mind becomes so ‘ ‘rattled, ’ * to use an expres¬ 
 sive popular phrase, that the man ought to be taken 
 off to get necessary rest. 
 
 This ought to be done out of regard to the public 
 safety. It ought to be done for the private interests of 
 the corporators themselves. The men, therefore, 
 in asserting that ten hours a day is just and equal 
 service, have not made an unreasonable claim. The 
 only fault to be found with it is that that maximum of 
 service is two hours too high. It passes the danger 
 line to the community', the line beyond wdiich no one 
 ought to be permitted to man a motor-car, and drive 
 it with its possibilities of damage through crowded 
 streets. 
 
 III. 
 
 Duty and Right of Citizens. 
 
 The citizens of Philadelphia are bound to use their 
 personal and associated influence to remedy these evils, 
 because of the fact that these 7nen ajid their eynployers 
 hold close relations to the city. They are in a sense part 
 of the communal service. The granting of our high¬ 
 ways to transportation companies carries with it a 
 responvSibility different from that of ordinary corpora¬ 
 tions. The corporators become substantially a part of 
 the municipal government. They are servants of the 
 public. Those whom they employ belong in a sense, 
 at least, to the civil service. 
 
 We are, therefore, entitled as citizens, to express 
 and to enforce our opinions. We are not meddlers 
 when we speak out our mind. We are doing our 
 duty as citizens of the community. The truth is, 
 there are wrongs which ought to be righted, which 
 have grown up around all semi-public institutions and 
 corporations, such as street railways, steam rail¬ 
 roads, electric light companies, gas companies. 
 
27 
 
 the police and park guard management, whOvSe oper¬ 
 ations are continuous seven da 3 ^s in the week. A 
 pastor is in a position to know these things. The}’ 
 come to him from the families of the poor and op¬ 
 pressed; from the burdened hearts of wives; from 
 men broken down through sickness; from those who 
 are striving for a Christian life, but whose privileges 
 of worship are abridged or wholly lost. They come in 
 many ways that need not here be named, but they come. 
 
 Thus it is that the city pastor knows the spirit of 
 most of these semi-public corporations and institu¬ 
 tions. I regret to say that among them all, the Unions 
 Traction Company appears to me to have the least 
 sense of responsibility toward its men; to be least 
 responsive to those ordinary feelings of humanity, and 
 those sacred promptings of conscience, which ought 
 to animate all men. 
 
 I know personally only one gentleman connected 
 with that corporation, and that acquaintance presents 
 a character which would seem to be just the opposite 
 of this, kindly and conscientious. But men, in their 
 corporate capacity and relations, are often very differ¬ 
 ent from the same men in their personal, social and 
 domestic relations. The fact that some good and 
 kindly men are members of a corporation does not 
 necessarily hinder the fact that that corporation may 
 be an oppressor of its employes, and an intruder upon 
 the rights of the public. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Remedy?—Not Strikes, but Votes. 
 
 Another thing I would like to say, and I would 
 say it with the utmost emphasis if I could get, as I 
 am not likely to get, the hearing of the conductors 
 
28 
 
 and motormen. The redress of your wrongs is in your 
 own hands and that of your fellow laborers. A per¬ 
 manent remedy will never come through strikes, how¬ 
 ever justifiable they may seem. They generally cost 
 more than they gain. They always leave remainders 
 of bitterness and passion, which disturb the kind and 
 just relations which ought to exist between employer 
 and employe. They open the gate to many forms of 
 lawlessness, and give opportunity to the disorderly, 
 idle, and criminal classes to war upon the stability 
 of society. They thus, by natural reflex, throw upon 
 innocent strikers the burden, responsibility and ill- 
 name of the evil deeds which are wrought under cover 
 of their actions. They are even incentives to the evil 
 disposed ifi the ranks of the strikers to commit deeds 
 of violence and revenge. They plant the seeds of hatred 
 against capital and capitalists, and thus lay the foun¬ 
 dations for greater suffering and wrong to be inflicted 
 upon the laboring men themselves. A strike, like 
 war, should be the last resort as it commonly is the 
 most disastrous. 
 
 The remedy for your grievances must come through 
 the public will as expressed in the laws! Let the strikers 
 ask themselves seriously: How comes it that a great 
 corporation can with impunity flout and snub the 
 most prominent of its representative citizens, when 
 they come to protest against the violation of compacts, 
 and the plundering of the public by increased fares? 
 How comes it that it can burden its employes with 
 oppressive hours of toil, and rob them of their rights 
 as free citizens, and defy the well-nigh universal public 
 opinion thereon? How comes it that this company 
 can plunge a city of a million and a quarter souls into 
 incalculable loss and inconvenience, rather than 3d eld 
 to a demand which every manufacturer, merchant and 
 employer of labor deems reasonable, just and kind to 
 
29 
 
 his employes, though he gets no public privileges, 
 nor valuable franchises thereby? Why are these 
 things possible in Philadelphia? Because the electors 
 or their political bosses have put and kept within the 
 State Legislature and the City Councils men, the ma¬ 
 jority of whom are as puppets in the hands of great 
 corporations! 
 
 These political bosses are the true oppressors of the 
 laborer. What care they for the workman’s rights or 
 wrongs, if their own nest be feathered? Laborers of 
 Philadelphia, conductors, motormen or others! when 
 you are prepared to break your unholy alliance with 
 these bosses, great and small, when you are ready to 
 break the partisan bonds that bind you hand and foot, 
 then, and not till then, will you be able to deliver 
 yourself from the oppression against which you strike. 
 When you are ready to put out of power the men who 
 have betrayed you; when you are ready to turn a deaf 
 ear to their honeyed words and claims of good com¬ 
 radeship; when you are ready to unite and put into 
 State Legislature and Councils men of probity, and 
 high character, men who are beyond the need and 
 reach of gain, men who are your true friends and 
 friends of reform—then you will not need to strike 
 for the simplest rights and against the plainest 
 wrongs! Will you do this? Alas, I doubt it! The 
 danger once over, the old masters with their wheed¬ 
 ling; words, and feigned good-fellowship will clap you 
 on the back, and appeal to 3^our fidelity to ‘ ‘ the party ’ ’ 
 and lure you to thrust your hands into the same old 
 shackles! Am I wrong? I hope so, indeed! 
 
 Your blows for liberty should begin at the primary 
 elections! The real battle should be fought there and 
 at the polls. No great corporations would dare or 
 will dare oppress you or other citizens when it 
 knows that a wise, patriotic and incorruptible State 
 
30 
 
 and Municipal Legislature holds them in its hands, 
 and will fearlessly exercise its power in the interests 
 of all the people. 
 
 There is the root of all your wrongs. Your strikes 
 will only be a trimming and clipping off the exuber¬ 
 ant top-growth among the branches, unless and until 
 you are prepared to lay the axe remorselessly at the 
 very foot and root of the tree. 
 
 Your sure and easting Redress wiee come 
 THROUGH Votes, not Strikes! 
 
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