How to husband the
resources of the poor is far more important than the right use of the
fortunes of the rich. There is less danger in the massing of money by
the rich than there is in wasting the wages of the working world in
saloons.
Now I have already thrown the searchlight upon enough problems for you
to realize I have given you an incongruous picture. You must be
impressed with the conflicting forces at work upon our republic. Never
have we had so many advocates of peaceful arbitration for differences
between nations and never such armament for war; never such an
accumulation of comforts, never such a multiplication of wants; never
so much done to make men honest, never so many thieves. In 1850 seven
thousand in our penitentiaries; in 1860 twenty thousand; in 1870
thirty-two thousand; in 1880 fifty-eight thousand; in 1890 eighty-two
thousand, and in 1900 one hundred thousand. In London, England, last
year with over seven millions of people, twenty-four murders; in
Chicago, one hundred and eighteen. There are more murders in this
republic than in any civilized land beneath the sky. Yet in face of
all these unsettled questions, with advancement along all social,
moral, intellectual and religious lines I have faith to believe this
twentieth century American citizenship will prove itself sufficiently
thoughtful, testful and tactful to deal with all national issues as
one by one they come within reach of practical politics, and that this
country is big enough, brave enough, wise enough and just enough to
solve every problem vexing us today.
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