such a federation for obtaining the deliberate opinion of every member in each State and Territory on all important questions submitted for official action. To do this practically, special provision must be made to secure proportional representation from all local, district and State assemblies, to the minority as well as the majority, when sending delegates to district or State, or to the national assembly. The concurrent vote of not less than two-thirds, and sometimes three-fourths of the representatives in district, State or national assemblies should be required to adopt any new or untried proposition, such for instance as the adoption of my plan of co-operative profit sharing. If a proposition, touching any subject worthy the consideration of either district or State federations or the national assembly, cannot, after open debate command a two-thirds vote or even three-fourths vote of men whose personal interests are all in favor of a just disposition of this subject, its defects must be of a character to render its attempted enforcement by a mere numerical majority very questionable. Every individual wage-worker, who voluntarily combines in such an organization, does so not only to protect and promote his own interests, but to secure the rights and interests of all workers. He cannot afford, and will not willingly put himself under subjection to an organization, in which he practically has no voice. That he will have no voice in such an organization unless he has secured to him the right to vote by ballot, experience has amply demonstrated. And I affirm that unless a concurrent vote of not less than two-thirds, representing the minority, as well as the majority of the organization, can be secured to each member on all questions touching individual freedom, he is in danger of being subjected to a despotic power, which might deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his own labor, and so hedge him about, as to make the bettering of his condition in life impossible. It will hardly be claimed that a minority of the organization should be clothed with the power of administering it. The point to be reached is to collect, with something like mathematical precision, the deliberate and unbiased judgment of every railroad worker, on every proposition in which all who are members of the organization are interested, directly or indirectly. I therefore would provide in the national and State constitution that no separate or local organization of railroad workers, such, for instance as the "Association of Train Dispatchers," should have the power on their own motion and without the affirmative vote of two-thirds of all the workers or employees on any road, who were members of the organization, to declare a strike or do any act hostile to the interest of the majority of the employees of such railroads. I would require the question to be first submitted by the officers of the State organization to all subordinate affiliated councils in the State or along the line of railroad so affected by the proposed strike. Such a constitutional provision should secure deliberation and a vote by ballot to all railroad workers who were members of the federation and on the pay roll of the company on which it was proposed to order a strike. All such ballots should be printed, simply yes or no, and a proposition of that character ought to require a vote of not less than two-thirds in its favor to authorize the officers of any State federation to order a strike. If it be objected that a vote of two-thirds is too large and that only a majority of those present and voting ought to be sufficient, even though a minority of the total federations interested-the answer is, that, as a rule, there is always doubt about the practicability or necessity for the passage in the national Congress or in State legislatures or in any city government of any act or law, such as declaring war or amending the Constitution, or even creating a city bonded debt, for posterity to pay. Prudence requires that such acts should be done by all civil governments only after careful deliberation, public discussion, and not less than two-thirds, and sometimes a three-fourths vote of the assemblies charged with the duty of such legislation. We cannot amend our national Constitution unless Congress, by a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and House, concur in submitting a plain and definite proposition, and then it requires an affirmative vote of three-fourths of the States to ratify it to make it a part of the Constitution. In some States a proposition to amend the constitution must have passed both houses of the State legislature by a two-thirds vote two years in succession, and then be submitted to the electors of such State for their acceptance or rejection by a direct vote, yes or no. No intelligent man can afford to be less careful when providing for the protection of his individual rights. A recognition of this conservative principle in all organizations of wage-workers and especially in a federation of railroad men, such as I have suggested, is an absolute necessity, as a condition to permanence and success. It is not possible to make an organization live and succeed by trickery and fraud. Temporary success may be and sometimes has been secured by trickery and fraud, but in the long run injustice and crime are doomed to defeat, and when crime goes down there always go with it the men guilty of doing the wrong acts which gave them temporary triumph. On all well-ordered railroads the importance and responsibility of the train dispatcher's department is fully recognized, and it ought not to be forgotten by any wage-worker that in all departments of human industry "responsibility" carries with it corresponding opportunities. From the ranks of the Train Dispatchers' Association are certain to come in the future, as in the past, many of our able railroad managers and prominent officials. It The whole world admires a just and manly man. therefore requires no seer or prophet to predict that in every conflict with exacting and unjust managers such an organization of railroad workers as I have outlined, administered with prudence and dignity, will always win. If you acquit yourselves like men, and with fraternal duty consecrate your daily toil, you cannot be defeated. On such a platform you have but to "Stand firm, and all the world shall see J. M. ASHLEY. C. E. CASE, ESQ., : EXTRACTS FROM GOVERNOR ASHLEY'S FIRST ADDRESS IN THE CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN OF 1890. Hon. C. A. King introduced Governor Ashley in a short speech. He said that the Republican Congressional convention, on the 10th of October, had chosen a candidate for Congress. That candidate had been notified and had accepted. He desired simply to present to the audience Governor Ashley. Applause again followed when the Governor stepped for-. ward and began to speak. He said: MR. CHAIRMAN AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FELLOWCITIZENS ALL: Your cordial reception and old-fashioned greeting is like a Highland welcome; and I accept it in the spirit in which it is given and thank you for it with all my heart. In accepting the unsolicited nomination which the Republican Congressional convention of this district tendered me on the 10th instant, I feel that it is due to both you and myself at the outset to state frankly that I accept the nomi nation, not because I personally desire a seat in the Congress of the United States, with all its responsibilities and thankless labor, but because I believe it to be a duty, and because I sincerely believe there are formidable forces at work, which, if unchecked, must drift the nation and party into conditions of peril and disaster. (Applause.] To avert these, will, in my opinion, require not only the united efforts of the Republican party, but the hearty co-operation of the able men of all sections and parties. It will be my duty to present to you, in the few addresses which I shall be able to make during the short canvass on which we are entering, such facts and such arguments touching the situation of the country, and the tendencies of which I speak as may, peradventure, contribute something to arouse thinking men to the gravity of the impending conflict before us, that they may be induced to call a halt and ask themselves the question, "Whither, as a nation, are we drifting?" The older citizens of Toledo and Northern Ohio are familiar with my manner of speech, and all know that I am incapable of concealment or evasion. In every political canvass I ever made, whether a candidate or not, I stated the issue with such plainness that no one could misunderstand or honestly misinterpret me. [Applause.] I have always held that a public speaker should speak with frankness, simplicity and directness. That, first of all, he should so impress his individuality upon his audience as to make every thought he expressed glow with a sincerity which should stamp itself, not only on the hearts and minds of his hearers, but even on the coldest printed page, that he should so far forget his surroundings as to lose all consciousness of self, and with quiet earnestness for his only rhetoric, make his appeal as one who sees the truth, and whose lips can utter that only which he sees and believes. (Applause.) I should like to come before you when I shall have more time to discuss the great political questions at issue, but from the hour we reached Sandusky one delay followed another, and it would be doing you great injustice to keep you longer. I will not at this late hour undertake to speak as 1 had intended, prior to my detention at Sandusky. I have accepted the nomination and I stand on the platform. I may |