expressing thanks for having received emblems of honorary membership of the A.S.L.E. & F. for F. P. Sargent, Grand Master; J. J. Hannahan., Vice Grand Master, and for himself as Grand Secretary and Treasurer of the American Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen. "We esteem this honour highly," wrote Debs, "not only for ourselves, but for the brotherhood which we have the honour and privilege to represent. The high compliment you have conferred upon us expands indefinitely in value, because it voices the sentiments of fraternity and mutual interest, which neither oceans, mountains, lakes nor any other boundary can limit, and which I trust is preparing the mind of all thinking men to accept the dogma that 'The brotherhood of men and fatherhood of God' is something more and better than a delusion."
Exactly thirty years to the day have passed between the writing of that letter and my copying from it. In the interval Debs has suffered much, even long imprisonment, for his ideals. Wars that were the world's record for horror have been waged since then, and Governments are still preparing for future wars. Have we—you and I individually—stood by that brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God, which Debs wrote of in 1889?
A few months later Sir Daniel Gooch died, and I mention him because he was the first chief adviser to an English railway to give employees (not societies) the right of access to the board of management. He had been appointed locomotive superintendent to the Great Western Railway at the age of 21 years, having served his time in George Stephenson's works. He was chairman of the famous Great Eastern Steamship Company, which in 1865 laid 4,000 tons of cable and lost it all. The next year he sailed again on the same great ship, and on July 27th of 1866 was able to cable the message to Lord Stanley: "Perfect communication established between England and America; God grant it will be a lasting source of benefit to our country."
There, America has twice crept into our history, and I must be cautious against embracing the men of all nations into our record, for actually they do touch it. Let me now give a glimpse of a
