back, and so there is not
work enough to go around. And for that reason we are tinkering up this
old system of laws to keep people from working, and we pass a law to
limit the number of hours that a man can work and to limit the number
of hours that a woman can work, and to limit the age at which a little
child can be fed into a factory or a mill.

Do you suppose that the fatherhood and the motherhood of the people
of the United States is not of a high enough grade so they would not
send their children to a factory or a mill if there was any way to
avoid it? And do you think under any fair system of industry and life
we would ever need a law to keep a child out of a factory or a mill?
(Applause).

We have managed to pass some laws to require safety appliances in
factories and in mills and upon railroads. For instance, to put a
guard on a buzz saw so that a workingman won't saw his hand instead of
sawing the wood. (Laughter). But if a workingman had any chance to
employ his labor and get what he produced he would not be fooling with
a buzz saw and there would be no need of it and he would look out for
the safety of the machines himself and do it a great deal better than
the Government ever did it or can ever possibly do it. (Applause). So
we have done everything and tried everything, excepting to strike at
the root of any evil and accomplish something of real value. We have
even passed laws excluding the Chinaman and the Jap from the United
States. That is, we love our own people so dearly that we won't let
the Chinaman or the Jap do the work for them. (Laughter). We want our
people to have all the work, and if they come here and volunteer to do
it we won't let them; for work is a blessing under the present
industrial system. We have to work. If we stop we starve.

Now, I could imagine a system, and it seems to me that most all of you
could imagine a system that was so fair and so just and so equal that
if any body of philanthropic heathens would agree to come over here
and do our work for us, we would go and play golf or run automobiles
whilst they were doing it; but with a condition of life where a few
men have it all and the rest can only live if they have the work to
do, why no one can do it for us; we have got to do it ourselves. We
can't even allow a machine to do it, for every time we get the machine
to do the work it takes the place of a man or two, or more, and they
go out to beg or tramp or starve, as the ca