911 lines
46 KiB
Plaintext
911 lines
46 KiB
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14 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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Contents of this file page
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SUFFRAGE ADDRESS. 1
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THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS. 7
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**** ****
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This file, its printout, or copies of either
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are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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This address was delivered at a suffrage Meeting in
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Washington, D.C., January 24, 1880.
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SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.
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1880.
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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I believe the people to be the only
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rightful source of political power, that any community, no matter
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where, in which any citizen is not allowed to have his voice in the
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making of the laws he must obey, that community is a tyranny. It is
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a matter of astonishment to me that a meeting like this is
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necessary in the Capital of the United States. If the citizens of
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the District of Columbia are not permitted to vote, if they are not
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allowed to govern themselves, and if there is no sound reason why
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they are not allowed to govern themselves, then the American idea
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of government is a failure. I do not believe that only the rich
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should vote, or that only the whites should vote, or that only the
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blacks should vote. I do not believe that right depends upon
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wealth, upon education, or upon color. It depends absolutely upon
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humanity. I have the right to vote because I am a man, because I am
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an American citizen, and that right I should and am willing to
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share equally with every human being. There has been a great deal
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said in this country of late in regard to giving the right of
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suffrage to women. So far as I am concerned I am willing that every
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woman in the nation who desires that privilege and honor shall
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vote. If any woman wants to vote I am too much of a gentleman to
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say she shall not. She gets her right, if she has it, from
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precisely the same source that I get mine, and there are many
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questions upon which I would deem it desirable that women should
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vote, especially upon the question of peace or war. If a woman has
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a child to be offered upon the altar of that Moloch, a husband
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liable to be drafted, and who loves a heart that can be entered by
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the iron arrow of death, she surely has as much right to vote for
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peace as some thrice-besotted sot who reels to the ballot-box and
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deposits a vote for war. I believe, and always have, that there is
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only one objection to a woman voting, and that is, the men are not
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sufficiently civilized for her to associate with them, and for
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several years I have been doing what little I can to civilize them.
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The only question before this meeting, as I understand it, is,
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.
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Shall the people of this District manage their own affairs --
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whether they shall vote their own taxes and select their own
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officers who are to execute the laws they make? and for one, I say
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there is no human being with ingenuity enough to frame an argument
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against this question. It is all very well to say that Congress
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will do this, but Congress has a great deal to do besides. There is
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enough before that body coming from all the States and Territories
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of the Union, and the numberless questions arising in the conduct
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of the General Government. I am opposed to a government where the
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few govern the many. I am opposed to a government that depends upon
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suppers, and upon flattery; upon crooking the hinges of the knee;
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upon favors, upon subterfuges. We want to be manly men in this
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District. We must direct and control our own affairs, and if we are
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not capable of doing it, there is no part of the Union where they
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are capable. It is said there is a vast amount of ignorance here.
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That is true; but that is also true of every section of the United
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States. There is too much ignorance and there will continue to be
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until the people become great enough, generous enough, and splendid
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enough to see that no child shall grow up in their midst without a
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good, common-school education. The people of this District are
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capable of managing their educational affairs if they are allowed
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to do so. The fact is, a man now living in the District lives under
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a perpetual flag of truce. He is nobody. He counts for nothing. He
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is not noticed except as a suppliant. Nothing as a citizen. That
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day should pass away. It will be a perpetual education for this
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people to govern themselves, and until they do they cannot be manly
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men. They say, though, that there is a vast rabble here. Very well.
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Make your election laws so as to exclude the vast rabble. Let it be
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understood that no man shall vote who has not lived here at least
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one year.
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Let your registration laws prohibit any man from voting unless
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he has been registered at least six months. We do not want to be
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governed by people who have no abode here -- who are political
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Bedouins of the desert. We want to be governed by people who live
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with us -- who live somewhere among us, and whom somebody knows,
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and if a law is properly framed there will be no trouble about
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self-government in the District of Columbia. Let the experiment be
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tried here of a perfect, complete and honest registration; let
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every man, no matter who he is or where he comes from, vote only by
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strict compliance with a good registry law. We can have a fair
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election, and wherever there is a fair election there will be good
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government. Our Government depends for its stability upon honest
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elections. The great principle underlying our system of government
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is that the people have the virtue and the patriotism to govern
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themselves. That is the foundation stone, the corner and the our
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base of our edifice, and upon it our Government is on trial to-day.
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And until a man is considered infamous who casts an illegal vote,
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our Government will not be safe. Whoever casts an illegal vote
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knowingly is a traitor to the principle upon which our Government
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is founded. And whoever deprives a citizen of his right to vote is
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also a traitor to our Government. When these things are understood;
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when the finger of public scorn shall be pointed at every man who
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votes illegally, or unlawfully prevents an honest vote, then you
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will have a splendid Government. It is humiliating for one hundred
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and seventy-five thousand people to depend simply upon the right of
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petition. The few will disregard the petition of the many.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.
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I have not one word to say against the officers of the
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District. Not a word. But let them do as well as they can; that is
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no justification. It is no justification of a monarchy that the
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king is a good man; it is no justification of a tyranny that the
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despot does justice. There may come another who will do injustice;
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and a free people like ours should not be satisfied to be governed
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by strangers. They would better have bad men of their own choosing
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than to have good men forced upon them. You have property here, and
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you have a right to protect it, and a right to improve it. You have
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life and liberty and the right to protect it. You have a right to
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say what money shall be assessed and collected and paid for that
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protection. You have laws and you have a right to have them
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executed by officers of your own selection, and by nobody else. In
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my judgement, all that is necessary to have these things done is to
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have the subject properly laid before Congress, and let that body
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thoroughly and perfectly understand the situation. There is no
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member there, who rightly understanding our wishes, will dare
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continue this disfranchisement of the people. We have the same
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right to vote that their constituents have precisely -- no more and
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no less.
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This District ought to have one representative in Congress, a
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representative with a right to speak -- not a tongueless dummy. The
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idea of electing a delegate who has simply the privilege of
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standing around! We ought to have a representative who has not only
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the right to talk, but who will talk. This District has the right
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to a vote in the committees of Congress, and not simply the
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privilege of receiving a little advice. And more than that, this
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District ought to have at least one electoral vote in a selection
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of a President of the United States. A smaller population than
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yours is represented not only in Congress, but in the Electoral
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College. If it is necessary to amend the Constitution to secure
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these rights let us try and have it amended; and when that question
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is put to the people of the whole country they will be precisely as
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willing that the people of the District of Columbia shall have an
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equal voice as that they themselves should have a voice.
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Let us stop at no half-way ground, but claim, and keep
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claiming all our rights until somebody says we shall have them. And
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let me tell you another thing: Once have the right of self-
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government recognized here, have a delegate in Congress, and an
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electoral vote for President, and thousands will be willing to come
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here and become citizens of the District. As it is, the moment a
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man settles here his American citizenship falls from him like dead
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leaves from a tree. From that moment he is nobody. Every American
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citizen wants a little political power -- wants to cast his vote
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for the rulers of the nation. He wants to have something to say
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about the laws he has to obey, and they are not willing to come
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here and disfranchise themselves. The moment it is known that a man
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is from the District he has no influence and no one cares what his
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political, opinions may be. Now, let us have it so that we can vote
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and be on an equality with the rest of the voters of the United
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States. This Government was founded upon the idea that the only
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source of power is the people. Let us show at the Capital that we
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have confidence in that principle; that every man should have a
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vote and voice in the South, in the North, everywhere, no matter
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how low his condition, no matter that he was a slave, no matter
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.
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what his color is, or whether he can read or write, he is clothed
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with the right to name those who make the laws he is to obey. While
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the lowest and most degraded in every State in this Union have that
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right, the best and most intelligent in the District have not that
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right. It will not do. There is no sense in it -- there is no
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justice in it -- nothing American in it. If this were the case in
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some of the capitals of Europe we would not be surprised; but here
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in the United States, where we have so much to say about the right
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of self-government, that two hundred thousand people should not
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have the right to say who shall make, and who shall execute the
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laws is at least an anomaly and a contradiction of our theory of
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government, and for one, I propose to do what little I can to
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correct it. It has been said that you had once here the right of
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self-government. If I understand it, the right you had was to elect
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somebody to some office, and all the other officers were appointed.
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You had no control over your Legislature; you had very little
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control over your other officers, and the people of the District
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held responsible for what was actually done by the appointing
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power. We want no appointing power. If it is necessary to have a
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police magistrate, I say the people are competent to elect that
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magistrate; and if he is not a good man they are qualified to
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select another in his place. You ought to elect your judges. I do
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not want the office of the judiciary so far from the people that it
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may feel entirely independent. I want every officer in this
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District held accountable to the people, and, unless he discharges
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his duties faithfully, the people will put him out, and select
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another in his stead.
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I want it Understood that no American citizen can be forced to
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pay a dollar in a State or in the district where he lives who is
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not represented, and where he has not the right to vote. It is all
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tyranny, and all infamous. The people of the United States wonder
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to-day that you have submitted to this outrage as long as you have.
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Neither do I believe that only the rich should have the right
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to vote; that only they should govern; or that only the educated
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should govern. I have noticed among educated men many who did not
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know enough to govern themselves. I have known many wealthy men who
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did not believe in liberty, in giving the people the same rights
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they claimed for selves. I believe in that government where the
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ballot of Lazarus counts as much as the vote of Dives. Let the
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rich, let the educated, govern the people by moral suasion and by
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example and by kindness and not by brute force. And in a community
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like this where the avenues to distinction are open alike to all,
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there will be many more reasons for acting like men. When you can
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hold any position, when every citizen can have conferred upon him
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honor and responsibility, there is some stimulus to be a man. But
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in a community where but the few are clothed with power by
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appointment, no incentive exists among the people. If the avenues
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to distinction and honor are open to all, such a government is
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beneficial on every hand, and the poorest man in the community may
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say to himself, "If I pursue the right course the very highest
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place is open to me." And the poorest man, with his little
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tow-headed boy on his knee, can say, "John, all the avenues are
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open to you; although I am poor, you may be rich, and while I am
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obscure, you may become distinguished."
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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4
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SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.
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That idea sweetens every hour of toil and renders holy every
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drop of sweat that rolls down the face of labor. I hate tyranny in
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every form. I despise it, and I execrate a tyrant wherever he may
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be, and in every country where the people are struggling for the
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right of self-government I sympathize with them in their struggle.
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Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn in favor of human rights
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I am a rebel. I sympathize with all the people in Europe who are
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endeavoring to push kings from thrones and struggling for the right
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to govern themselves. America ought to send greeting to every part
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of the world where such a struggle is pending, and we of the
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District of Columbia ought to be able to join in the greeting, but
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we never shall be until we have the right of self-government
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ourselves. No man who is a good citizen can have any objection to
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self-government here. No man can be opposed to it who believes that
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our people have enough wisdom, enough virtue, enough patriotism to
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govern themselves. The man who doubts the right of the people to
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govern themselves casts a little doubt upon the question, simply
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because he is not man enough himself to believe in liberty. I would
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trust the poor of this country with our liberties as soon as I
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would the rich. I will trust the huts and hovels, just as soon as
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I will the mansions and palaces. I will trust those who work by the
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day in the streets as soon as I will the bankers of the United
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States. I will trust the ignorant -- even the ignorant Why? Because
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they want education, and no people in this country are so anxious
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to have their children educated as those who are not educated
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themselves. I will trust the ignorant with the liberties of this
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country quicker than I would some of the educated who doubt the
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principles upon which our Government is founded. But let the
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intelligent do what they can to instruct the ignorant. Let the
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wealthy do what they can to give the blessings of liberty to the
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poor, and then this Government will remain forever. The time is
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passing away when any man of genius can be respected who will not
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use that genius in elevating his fellow-man. The time is passing
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away when men, however wealthy, can be respected unless they use
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their millions for the elevation of mankind. The time is coming
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when no man will be called an honest man who is not willing to give
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to every other man, be he white or black every right that he asks
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for himself.
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For my part, I am willing to live under a government where all
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govern, and am not willing to live under any other. I am willing to
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live where I am on an equality with other men, where they have
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precisely my rights, and no more; and I despise any government that
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is not based upon this principle of human equality. Now, let us go
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just for that one thing, that we have the same right as any other
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people in the United States -- that is, to govern this District
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ourselves. Let us be represented in the lawmaking power, and let us
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advocate a change in the fundamental law so that the people of this
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District shall be entitled to one vote as to who shall be President
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of the United States. And when that is done and our people are
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clothed with the panoply of citizenship, you will find this
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District growing not to two hundred thousand, but in a little while
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one million of people will live here. Now, for one, I have not the
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slightest feeling against members of Congress for what has been
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done. I believe when this matter is laid before them fully and
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properly you will find few men in that august body who will vote
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against the proposition. They have had trouble enough. They do not
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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5
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SUFFRAGE ADDRESS.
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understand our affairs. They never did, never will, never can. No
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one who does not live here will. The public interests are so many
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and so conflicting, and touch the sides of so many, that the people
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must attend to this matter themselves. They know when they want a
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market, a judge, or a collector of taxes, and nobody else does and
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nobody else has a right to.
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And instead of going up to Congress and standing around some
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committee-room with a long petition in your hands, begging somebody
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to wait just one, it will be far better that you should go to the
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polls and elect your representative, who can attend to your
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interests in Congress. But above all things, I want to warn you,
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charge you, beseech you, that in any legislation upon this subject
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you must secure a registration law that will prevent the casting of
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an illegal vote. Do this before it is known whether the District is
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Republican or Democratic. I do not care. No matter how much od a
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Republican I am, absolutely, I would rather be governed by
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Democrats who live here than by Republicans who do not. And now,
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while it is not known whether this is a Democratic or Republican
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community, let us get up a registration that no one can violate;
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||
because the moment you have an election, and it is ascertained to
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be either Democratic or Republican, the victorious party may be
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opposed to any registration or any legislation that will put in
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jeopardy their power. I have lived long enough to be satisfied that
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any State in this Union, whether no matter weather Democratic or
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Republican, will be safe as long as the people have the right to
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vote, and to see that the ballots will be counted. This country is
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now upon trial. In nearly every State. in this Union there is
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liable to happen just the same thing that only the other day
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happened in Maine.
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In every State there can be two legislatures, one in the
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State-house and the other on the fence. Let us in this District so
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guard the right to vote and the counting of the ballots, that we
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shall know after the election who has been elected and know with
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certainty the men who have been elected by the legal voters of the
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District.
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It becomes us all, whether Republicans or Democrats to unite
|
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in securing such a law. Let us act together, Democrats and
|
||
Republicans, black and white, rich and poor, educated and ignorant
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-- let us all unite upon the principle that we have the right to
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govern ourselves. Then it will make no difference whether the
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District of Columbia shall be Democratic or Republican, provided it
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is the will of a legal majority of her people.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you.
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**** ****
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||
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|
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|
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|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
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6
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|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
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|
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1891
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"Well, while I am a beggar, I will rail,
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And say there is no sin but to be rich."
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||
MR. A. lived in the kingdom of ---. He was a sincere
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professional philanthropist. He was absolutely certain that he
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loved his fellow-men, and that his views were humane and
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scientific. He concluded to turn his attention to taking care of
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people less fortunate than himself.
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With this object in view he investigated the common people
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that lived about him, and he found that they were extremely
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ignorant, that many of them seemed to take no particular interest
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||
in life or in business, that few of them had any theories of their
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own, and that, while many had muscle, there was only now and then
|
||
one who had any mind worth speaking of. Nearly all of them were
|
||
destitute of ambition. They were satisfied if they got something to
|
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eat, a place to sleep, and could now and then indulge in some form
|
||
of dissipation. They seemed to have great confidence in to-morrow
|
||
-- trusted to luck, and took no thought for the future. Many of
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them were extravagant, most of them dissipated, and a good many
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dishonest.
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||
Mr. A. found that many of the husbands not only failed to
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||
support their families, but that some of them lived on the labor of
|
||
their wives; that many of the wives were careless of their
|
||
obligations, knew nothing about the art of cooking, nothing about
|
||
keeping house; and that parents, as a general thing, neglected
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||
their children or treated them with cruelty. He also found that
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||
many of the people were so shiftless that they died of want and
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||
exposure.
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||
After having obtained this information Mr. A. made up his mind
|
||
to do what little be could to better their condition. He petitioned
|
||
the king to assist him, and asked that he be allowed to take
|
||
control of five hundred people in consideration that he would pay
|
||
a certain amount into the treasury of the kingdom. The king being
|
||
satisfied that Mr. A. could take care of these people better than
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||
they were taking care of themselves, granted the petition.
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||
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||
Mr. A., with the assistance of a few soldiers, took these
|
||
people from their old homes and haunts to a plantation of his own.
|
||
He divided them into groups, and over each group placed a
|
||
superintendent. He made certain rules and regulations for their
|
||
conduct. They were only compelled to work from twelve to fourteen
|
||
hours a day, leaving ten hours for sleep and recreation. Good and
|
||
substantial food was provided. Their houses were comfortable and
|
||
their clothing sufficient. Their work was laid out from day to day
|
||
and from month to month, so that they knew exactly what they were
|
||
to do in each hour of every day. These rules were made for the good
|
||
of the people, to the end that they might not interfere with each
|
||
other, that they might attend to their duties, and enjoy themselves
|
||
in a reasonable way. They were not allowed to waste their time, or
|
||
to use stimulants or profane language. They were told to be
|
||
respectful to the superintendents, and especially to Mr. A.; to be
|
||
obedient, and, above all, to accept the position in which
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
7
|
||
|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
|
||
|
||
Providence had placed them, without complaining, and to cheerfully
|
||
perform their tasks.
|
||
|
||
Mr. A. had found out all that the five hundred persons had
|
||
earned the year before they were taken control of by him -- just
|
||
how much they had added to the wealth of the world. He had
|
||
statistics taken for the year before with great care showing the
|
||
number of deaths, the cases of sickness and of destitution, the
|
||
number who had committed suicide, how many had been convicted of
|
||
crimes and misdemeanors, how many days they had been idle, and how
|
||
much time and money they had spent in drink and for worthless
|
||
amusements.
|
||
|
||
During the first year of their enslavement he kept like
|
||
statistics. He found that they had earned several times as much;
|
||
that there had been no cases of destitution, no drunkenness; that
|
||
no crimes had been committed; that there had been but little
|
||
sickness, owing to the regular course of their lives; that few had
|
||
been guilty of misdemeanors, owing to the certainty of punishment;
|
||
and that they had been so watched and superintended that for the
|
||
most part they had traveled the highway of virtue and industry.
|
||
|
||
Mr. A. was delighted, and with a vast deal of pride showed
|
||
these statistics to his friends. He not only demonstrated that the
|
||
five hundred people were better off than they had been before, but
|
||
that his own income was very largely increased. He congratulated
|
||
himself that he had added to the well-being of these people not
|
||
only, but had laid the foundation of a great fortune for himself.
|
||
On these facts and these figures he claimed not only to be a
|
||
philanthropist, but a philosopher; and all the people who had a
|
||
mind to go into the same business agreed with him.
|
||
|
||
Some denounced the entire proceeding as unwarranted, as
|
||
contrary to reason and justice. These insisted that the five
|
||
hundred people had a right to live in their own way provided they
|
||
did not interfere with others; that they had the right to go
|
||
through the world with little food and with poor clothes, and to
|
||
live in huts, if such was their choice. But Mr. A. had no trouble
|
||
in answering these objectors. He insisted that well-being is the
|
||
only good, and that every human being is under obligation, not only
|
||
to take care of himself, but to do what little he can towards
|
||
taking care of others; that where five hundred people neglect to
|
||
take care of themselves, it is the duty of somebody else, who has
|
||
more intelligence and more means, to take care of them; that the
|
||
man who takes five hundred people and improves their condition,
|
||
gives them on the average better food, better clothes, and keeps
|
||
them out of mischief, is a benefactor.
|
||
|
||
"These people," said Mr. A., "were tried. They were found
|
||
incapable of taking care of themselves. They lacked intelligence or
|
||
will or honesty or industry or ambition or something, so that in
|
||
the struggle for existence they fell behind, became stragglers,
|
||
dropped by the wayside, died in gutters; while many were destined
|
||
to end their days either in dungeons or on scaffolds. Besides all
|
||
this, they were a nuisance to their prosperous fellow-citizens, a
|
||
perpetual menace to the peace of society. They increased the burden
|
||
of taxation; they filled the ranks of the criminal classes, they
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
8
|
||
|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
|
||
|
||
made it necessary to build more jails, to employ more policemen and
|
||
judges; so that I, by enslaving them, not only assisted them, not
|
||
only protected them against themselves, not only bettered their
|
||
condition, not only added to the well-being of society at large,
|
||
but greatly increased my own fortune."
|
||
|
||
Mr. A. also took the ground that Providence, by giving him
|
||
superior intelligence, the genius of command, the aptitude for
|
||
taking charge of others, had made it his duty to exercise these
|
||
faculties for the well-being of the people and for the glory of
|
||
God. Mr. A. frequently declared that he was God's steward. He often
|
||
said he thanked God that he was not governed by a sickly sentiment,
|
||
but that he was a man of sense, of judgment, of force of character,
|
||
and that the means employed by him were in accordance with the
|
||
logic of facts.
|
||
|
||
Some of the people thus enslaved objected, saying that they
|
||
had the same right to control themselves that Mr. A. had to control
|
||
himself. But it only required a little discipline to satisfy them
|
||
that they were wrong. Some of the people were quite happy, and
|
||
declared that nothing gave them such perfect contentment as the
|
||
absence of all responsibility. Mr. A. insisted that all men had not
|
||
been endowed with the same capacity; that the weak ought to be
|
||
cared for by the strong; that such was evidently the design of the
|
||
Creator, and that he intended to do what little he could to carry
|
||
that design into effect.
|
||
|
||
Mr. A. was very successful. In a few years he had several
|
||
thousands of men, women, and children working for him, He amassed
|
||
a large fortune. He felt that he had been intrusted with this money
|
||
by Providence. He therefore built several churches, and once in a
|
||
while gave large sums to societies for the spread of civilization.
|
||
He passed away regretted by a great many people -- not including
|
||
those who had lived under his immediate administration. He was
|
||
buried with great pomp, the king being one of the pall-bearers, and
|
||
on his tomb was this:
|
||
|
||
|
||
HE WAS THE PROVIDENCE OF THE POOR.
|
||
|
||
II.
|
||
|
||
"And, being rich, my virtue then shall be
|
||
To say there is no vice but beggary."
|
||
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. did not believe in slavery. He despised the institution
|
||
with every drop of his blood, and was an advocate of universal
|
||
freedom. He held all the ideas of Mr. A. in supreme contempt, and
|
||
frequently spent whole evenings in denouncing the inhumanity and
|
||
injustice of the whole business. He even went so far as to contend
|
||
that many of A.'s slaves had more intelligence than A. himself, and
|
||
that, whether they had intelligence or not, they had the right to
|
||
be free. He insisted that Mr. A.'s philanthropy was a sham; that he
|
||
never bought a human being for the purpose of bettering that
|
||
being's condition; that he went into the business simply to make
|
||
money for himself; and that his talk about his slaves committing
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
9
|
||
|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
|
||
|
||
less crime than when they were free was simply to justify the crime
|
||
committed by himself in enslaving his fellow-men.
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. was a manufacturer, and he employed some five or six
|
||
thousand men. He used to say that these men were not forced to work
|
||
for him; that they were at perfect liberty to accept or reject the
|
||
terms; that, so far as he was concerned, he would just as soon
|
||
commit larceny or robbery as to force a man to work for him. "Every
|
||
laborer under my roof," he used to say, "is as free to choose as I
|
||
am."
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. believed in absolutely free trade; thought it an
|
||
outrage to interfere with the free interplay of forces; said that
|
||
every man should buy, or at least have the privilege of buying,
|
||
where be could buy cheapest, and should have the privilege of
|
||
selling where he could get the most. He insisted that a man who has
|
||
labor to sell has the right to sell it to the best advantage, and
|
||
that the purchaser has the right to buy it at the lowest price. He
|
||
did not enslave men -- he hired them. Some said that he took
|
||
advantage of their necessities; but he answered that he created no
|
||
necessities, that he was not responsible for their condition, that
|
||
he did not make them poor, that he found them poor and gave them
|
||
work, and gave them the same wages that he could employ others for.
|
||
He insisted that he was absolutely just to all; he did not give one
|
||
man more than another, and he never refused to employ a man on
|
||
account of the man's religion or politics; all that he did was
|
||
simply to employ that man if the man wished to be employed, and
|
||
give him the wages, no more and no less, that some other man of
|
||
like capacity was willing to work for.
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. also said that the price of the article manufactured by
|
||
him fixed the wages of the persons employed, and that he, Mr. B.,
|
||
was not responsible for the price of the article he manufactured;
|
||
consequently he was not responsible for the wages of the workmen.
|
||
He agreed to pay them a certain price, he taking the risk of
|
||
selling his articles, and he paid them regularly just on the day he
|
||
agreed to pay them, and if they were not satisfied with the wages,
|
||
they were at perfect liberty to leave. One of his private sayings
|
||
was: "The poor ye have always with you." And from this he argued
|
||
that some men were made poor so that others could be generous.
|
||
"Take poverty and suffering from the world," he said, "and you
|
||
destroy sympathy and generosity."
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. made a large amount of money. Many of his workmen
|
||
complained that their wages did not allow them to live in comfort.
|
||
Many had large families, and therefore but little to eat. Some of
|
||
them lived in crowded rooms. Many of the children were carried off
|
||
by disease; but Mr. B. took the ground that all these people had
|
||
the right to go, that he did not force them to remain, that if they
|
||
were not healthy it was not his fault, and that whenever it pleased
|
||
Providence to remove a child, or one of the parents, he, Mr. B.,
|
||
was not responsible.
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. insisted that many of his workmen were extravagant;
|
||
that they bought things that they did not need; that they wasted in
|
||
beer and tobacco, money that they should save for funerals; that
|
||
many of them visited places of amusement when they should have been
|
||
thinking about death, and that others bought toys to please the
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
10
|
||
|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
|
||
|
||
children when they hardly had bread enough to eat. He felt that he
|
||
was in no way accountable for this extravagance, nor for the fact
|
||
that their wages did not give them the necessaries of life, because
|
||
he not only gave them the same wages that other manufacturers gave,
|
||
but the same wages that other workmen were willing to work for.
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. said, -- and he always said this as though it ended the
|
||
argument, -- and he generally stood up to say it: "The great law of
|
||
supply and demand is of divine origin; it is the only law that will
|
||
work in all possible or conceivable cases; and this law fixes the
|
||
price of all labor, and from it there is no appeal. If people are
|
||
not satisfied with the operation of the law, then let them make a
|
||
new world for themselves."
|
||
|
||
Some of Mr. B.'s friends reported that on several occasions,
|
||
forgetting what he had said on others, he did declare that his
|
||
confidence was somewhat weakened in the law of supply and demand;
|
||
but this was only when there seemed to be an over-production of the
|
||
things he was engaged in manufacturing, and at such times he seemed
|
||
to doubt the absolute equity of the great law.
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. made even a larger fortune than Mr. A., because when
|
||
his workmen got old he did not have to care for them, when they
|
||
were sick he paid no doctors, and when their children died he
|
||
bought no coffins. In this way he was relieved of a large part of
|
||
the expenses that had to be borne by Mr. A. When his workmen became
|
||
too old, they were sent to the poorhouse; when they were sick, they
|
||
were assisted by charitable societies; and when they died, they
|
||
were buried by pity.
|
||
|
||
In a few years Mr. B. was the owner of many millions. He also
|
||
considered himself as one of God's stewards; felt that Providence
|
||
had given him the intelligence to combine interests, to carry out
|
||
great schemes, and that he was specially raised up to give
|
||
employment to many thousands of people. He often regretted that he
|
||
could do no more for his laborers without lessening his own
|
||
profits, or, rather, without lessening his fund for the blessing of
|
||
mankind -- the blessing to begin immediately after his death. He
|
||
was so anxious to be the providence of posterity that he was
|
||
sometimes almost heartless in his dealings with contemporaries. He
|
||
felt that it was necessary for him to be economical, to save every
|
||
dollar that he could, because in this way he could increase the
|
||
fund that was finally to bless mankind, He also felt that in this
|
||
way he could lay the foundations of a permanent fame -- that he
|
||
could build, through his executors, an asylum to be called the "B.
|
||
Asylum," that he could fill a building with books to be called the
|
||
"B Library," and that he could also build and endow an institution
|
||
of learning to be called the "B. College," and that, in addition,
|
||
a large amount of money could be given for the purpose of
|
||
civilizing the citizens of less fortunate countries, to the end
|
||
that they might become imbued with that spirit of combination and
|
||
manufacture that results in putting large fortunes in the hands of
|
||
those who have been selected by Providence, on account of their
|
||
talents, to make a better distribution of wealth than those who
|
||
earned it could have done.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
11
|
||
|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
|
||
|
||
Mr. B. spent many thousands of dollars to procure such
|
||
legislation as would protect him from foreign competition. He did
|
||
not believe the law of supply and demand would work when interfered
|
||
with by manufacturers living in other countries.
|
||
|
||
Mr. B., like Mr. A., was a man of judgment. He had what is
|
||
called a level head, was not easily turned aside from his purpose,
|
||
and felt that he was in accord with the general sentiment of his
|
||
time. By his own exertions he rose from poverty to wealth, He was
|
||
born in a hut and died in a palace. He was a patron of art and
|
||
enriched his walls with the works of the masters. He insisted that
|
||
others could and should follow his example. For those who failed or
|
||
refused he had no sympathy. He accounted for their poverty and
|
||
wretchedness by saying: "These paupers have only themselves to
|
||
blame." He died without ever having lost a dollar. His funeral was
|
||
magnificent, and clergymen vied with each other in laudation of the
|
||
dead. Over his dust rises a monument of marble with the words:
|
||
|
||
HE LIVED FOR OTHERS.
|
||
|
||
III.
|
||
|
||
"But there are men who steal, and vainly try
|
||
To gild the crime with pompous charity."
|
||
|
||
There was another man, Mr. C., who also had the genius for
|
||
combination. He understood the value of capital, the value of
|
||
labor; knew exactly how much could be done with machinery;
|
||
understood the economy of things; knew how to do everything in the
|
||
easiest and shortest way. And he, too, was a manufacturer and had
|
||
in his employ many thousands of men, women, and children. He was
|
||
what is called a visionary, a sentimentalist, rather weak in his
|
||
will, not very obstinate, had but little egotism; and it never
|
||
occurred to him that he had been selected by Providence, or any
|
||
supernatural power, to divide the property of others. It did not
|
||
seem to him that he had any right to take from other men their
|
||
labor without giving them a full equivalent. He felt that if he had
|
||
more intelligence than his fellow-men he ought to use that
|
||
intelligence not only for his own good but for theirs; that he
|
||
certainly ought not to use it for the purpose of gaining an
|
||
advantage over those who were his intellectual inferiors. He used
|
||
to say that a man strong intellectually had no more right to take
|
||
advantage of a man weak intellectually than the physically strong
|
||
had to rob the physically weak.
|
||
|
||
He also insisted that we should not take advantage of each
|
||
other's necessities; that you should not ask a drowning man a
|
||
greater price for lumber than you would if he stood on the shore;
|
||
that if you took into consideration the necessities of your fellow-
|
||
man, it should be only to lessen the price of that which you would
|
||
sell to him, not to increase it. He insisted that honest men do not
|
||
take advantage of their fellows. He was so weak that he had not
|
||
perfect confidence in the great law of supply and demand as applied
|
||
to flesh and blood. He took into consideration another law of
|
||
supply and demand; he knew that the workingman had to be supplied
|
||
with food, and that his nature demanded something to eat, a house
|
||
to live in, clothes to wear.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
12
|
||
|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
|
||
|
||
Mr. C. used to think about this law of supply and demand as
|
||
applicable to individuals. He found that men would work for
|
||
exceedingly small wages when pressed for the necessaries of life;
|
||
that under some circumstances they would give their labor for half
|
||
of what it was worth to the employer, because they were in a
|
||
position where they must do something for wife or child. He
|
||
concluded that he had no right to take advantage of the necessities
|
||
of others, and that he should in the first place honestly find what
|
||
the work was worth to him, and then give to the man who did the
|
||
work that amount.
|
||
|
||
Other manufacturers regarded Mr. C. as substantially insane,
|
||
white most of his workmen looked upon him as an exceedingly good-
|
||
natured man, without any particular genius for business. Mr. C.,
|
||
however, cared little about the opinions of others, so long as he
|
||
maintained his respect for himself.
|
||
|
||
At the end of the first year he found that he had made a large
|
||
profit, and thereupon he divided this profit with the people who
|
||
had earned it. Some of his friends said to him that he ought to
|
||
endow some public institution; that there should be a college in
|
||
his native town; but Mr. C. was of such a peculiar turn of mind
|
||
that he thought justice ought to go before charity, and a little in
|
||
front of egotism, and a desire to immortalize one's self. He said
|
||
that it seemed to him that of all persons in the world entitled to
|
||
this profit were the men who had earned it, the men who had made it
|
||
by their labor, by days of actual toil. He insisted that, as they
|
||
had earned it, it was really theirs, and if it was theirs, they
|
||
should have it and should spend it in their own way.
|
||
|
||
Mr. C. was told that he would make the workmen in other
|
||
factories dissatisfied, that other manufacturers would become his
|
||
enemies, and that his course would scandalize some of the greatest
|
||
men who had done so much for the civilization of the world and for
|
||
the spread of intelligence. Mr. C. became extremely unpopular with
|
||
men of talent, with those who had a genius for business. He,
|
||
however, pursued his way, and carried on his business with the idea
|
||
that the men who did the work were entitled to a fair share of the
|
||
profits; that, after all, money was not as sacred as men, and that
|
||
the law of supply and demand, as understood, did not apply to flesh
|
||
and blood.
|
||
|
||
Mr. C. said: "I cannot be happy if those who work for me are
|
||
defrauded. If I feel I am taking what belongs to them, then my life
|
||
becomes miserable. To feel that I have done justice is one of the
|
||
necessities of my nature. I do not wish to establish colleges. I
|
||
wish to establish no public institution. My desire is to enable
|
||
those who work for me to establish a few thousand homes for
|
||
themselves. My ambition is to enable them to buy the books they
|
||
really want to read. I do not wish to establish a hospital, but I
|
||
want to make it possible for my workmen to have the services of the
|
||
best physicians -- physicians of their own choice.
|
||
|
||
It is not for me to take their money and use it for the good
|
||
of others or for my own glory. It is for me to give what they have
|
||
earned to them. After I have given them the money that belongs to
|
||
them, I can give them my advice -- I can tell them how I hope they
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
13
|
||
|
||
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS.
|
||
|
||
will use it; and after I have advised them, they will use it as
|
||
they please. You cannot make great men and great women by
|
||
suppression, Slavery is not the school in which genius is born.
|
||
Every human being must make his own mistakes for himself, must
|
||
learn for himself, must have his own experience; and if the world
|
||
improves, it must be from choice, not from force; and every man who
|
||
does justice, who sets the example of fair dealing, hastens the
|
||
coming of universal honesty, of universal civilization."
|
||
|
||
Mr. C. carried his doctrine out to the fullest extent,
|
||
honestly and faithfully. When he died, there were at the funeral
|
||
those who had worked for him, their wives and their children. Their
|
||
tears fell upon his grave. They planted flowers and paid to him the
|
||
tribute of their love. Above his silent dust they erected a
|
||
monument with this inscription:
|
||
|
||
HE ALLOWED OTHERS TO LIVE FOR THEMSELVES.
|
||
|
||
|
||
North American Review, December, 1891.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
||
|
||
The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful,
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scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of
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suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the
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Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our
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nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and
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religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to
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the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so
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that America can again become what its Founders intended --
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The Free Market-Place of Ideas.
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The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
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hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
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and information for today. If you have such books please contact
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us, we need to give them back to America.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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14
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