The past, with all of its achievements, with all its successes, is to us but an incentive and guide for the future progress of our country.  America still beckons to the oppressed of all lands and holds out the gifts of freedom, and we at this time and upon this occasion should renew our adherence to those policies which have made us a great nation.  The future is before us, and the patriotism and self-sacrifice of those who made the country’s history so glorious should be an Inspiration to us for all higher ideals of citizenship.  Through the golden gates of commerce pours an unceasing stream of immigration which must be amalgamated with American ideas and American principles.

The battles of the past have been for freedom and liberty, and the struggle of the future will be for their preservation, not, however, by force of arms, but through the peaceful methods which come through the education of our people.  The declaration which brought our Republic into existence has insured and guaranteed that liberty of conscience and that freedom of action which does not interfere, with the prerogatives or privileges of a man’s neighbors.

Capital and labor are the two great elements upon which the prosperity and happiness of our people rest, and when, therefore, aggregations of the one are met by combinations of the other, it should be the aim of all to prevent the clashing of these great interests.  The products of toil are worthless unless there be some means by which they can be substituted or transferred for that which labor requires.  The concrete form in which these transactions are conducted is the money power or the capital of the land.

Without work all of these fertile fields, these teeming towns, would have been impossible; and without a desire to benefit and elevate humanity, its onward progress would have been useless.  To work, to labor, is man’s bounden duty, and in the performance of the tasks which have been placed upon him he should be encouraged, and his greatest incentive should be the knowledge that he may transmit to his children and his children’s children a higher civilization and greater advantages than he himself possessed.

Trade conditions which would permit to the toiler but a bare sustenance, the bare means of a livelihood, would be a hindrance to human progress, a hindrance not to be removed by all of the maxims of the philosopher or the theories of the doctrinaire.

Promise without fulfillment is barren, but when you can place before the mechanic the assured fact that the performance of his duty means success in life, and that his nonperformance means failure; when you can show him that this law is immutable, you have made of him a useful citizen and have instilled into his mind a firm belief that the freedom and liberty of which we boast is not an inchoate substance to be dreamed of and not