I have read in the newspapers the suggestionⒶalteration in the MS that we institute a Martyrs' Day, and make it a national holiday. I recognize here an admirable idea. I hope the PresidentⒶalteration in the MS will give this matter a conspicuous place in his Message next December, and that the Congress will take hold of it with promptnessⒶalteration in the MS and pass the proper bill without any avoidableⒶalteration in the MS delay.

If I may have the privilege, I will offer a suggestion or two as to the form which it seems to me the bill ought to take.

In the first place I would slightly alter the plan of the contemplated homage—merely the plan, and only slightly.Ⓐalteration in the MS I would give the Day a double name and a double object, instead of limitingⒶalteration in the MS it to a single name and a single object. I would call it Martyrs' Day and also Monument Day. As a further amendment, I would not make it a public holiday, but would allow the industries of the nation to go on as usual. I will explain.

By the records of the Bureau of Statistics we are aware that last year wages were earned by 52,264,534Ⓐalteration in the MS of our people—men, women, youths and children—and that the average earned per day per person, was $1.24¼. Thus the workers of the Republic earned an aggregate of $64,000,000-odd per day. This year the dailyⒶalteration in the MS aggregate will be a little above $70,000,000,Ⓐalteration in the MS by estimate based on natural increase of popula- [begin page 304] tion . Ten years hence the aggregate will have reached $100,000,000 per day; and three times that splendid sum fifty or sixty years hence—that is to say $300,000,000 a day.Ⓐalteration in the MS

Now if we merely compel the nation to knock off work on Martyrs' Day, what do we accomplish? Nothing, in particular. The nation will voluntarilyⒶalteration in the MS mourn without that. The bulk of the nation, I mean. The others willⒶalteration in the MS mourn by statute. Mourning by statute is not objectionable, it is the customary thing in all countries. More mourning is done by statute than in any other way. New York mourned bitterly for General Grant, but was not able to raise the money for his tomb, though it would have cost the grieving people only 16 cents apiece. I speak of the time before the scare came—the time when the friends were about to remove the body to the Soldiers' Home in Washington, so that the lamented soldier might find rest. The people were like all other peoples, they would mourn with their hearts, but not with their pockets, ifⒶalteration in the MS they could avoid it.

There was the Washington Monument. It was estimated that it would cost $250,000. It took Edward Everett and a host of hard-working Associations years and years to raise it. And after all, the legislatures had to contribute all the principal rocks. The nation mourned for Washington all it knew how with their hearts, but you couldn't get its pocket to shed a tear—I mean, a proffered one, a volunteer.Ⓐalteration in the MS

It is this hoary and international and universal aversion to mourning by voluntary contributionⒶalteration in the MS that ages ago invented the idea of mourning by statute. It was found impossible to get any creditable mourning done in any other way. It has always been a heroic and dare-devil job in all countries to carry around a voluntary-subscription-paperⒶemendation; andⒶalteration in the MS the dare-devils have seldom been able to stand the discomforts and humiliations of the work long enough to raise the required amount of money. The remains of these brave efforts are sad little monumentsⒶalteration in the MS, in themselves. In every town and village and city in the civilized world little dabs of money lie mouldering which were tomahawked from voluntary contributors at one time orⒶalteration in the MS another to build a monument with. Only ten per cent was ever raised, then the enterprise died; the monuments were never built.Ⓐalteration in the MS

Necessity, then, was the mother of Mourning by Statute. It is the [begin page 305] best way, it is the honestest way, it is the kindliest way. In every case, without exception, the voluntary-subscription-Ⓐalteration in the MSby-tomahawk produces a grudged memorial—when it produces one at all—and it dishonors the person it professes to honor. But with the contribution-by-compulsion-of-law it is different. Congress appropriates the liberal andⒶalteration in the MS proper sum, nobody'sⒶalteration in the MS pocket feels it, everybody is proud and gratified. Another point: the money comes out of the tax-payers, the well-to-do, and the poor escape. You get it?Ⓐalteration in the MS

However—I believe I am going too fast. Ought the poor to escapeⒶalteration in the MS—when it is a great national matter? Is it fair? Is it right? No, it must be concededⒶalteration in the MS that it is not. The poor are in the mighty majority, they are almost the nation:Ⓐalteration in the MS a National Monument to which they do not contribute nine-tenths of the cost is not national—far from it.

Then an appropriation made by Congress is not the right way, for it leaves them out.

I now arrive at my reason for approving the idea of a universal cash-levyⒶalteration in the MS in the form of a national holiday: it takes the nine-tenths out of the wage-earner, and this makes it properly and genuinely national. Congress will pass the bill about the 9th of December, and next year the wage-earners will each contribute a day's wages apiece toward attracting attention to Martyrs' Day and keeping it from getting overlooked. This will aggregate $70,000,000, and will cause the day to be remembered for weeks in many households. In every succeeding year for ten centuries it will grow steadily larger and more satisfactory—for a national holiday is a permanent asset.

I now arrive at the amendment which I have already vaguely referred to. It is this. Let the bill provide for a Martyrs' Day, but not make a holiday of it. Let the people go on working, just the same, but be required by Congress to contribute that day's earnings to an annual Monument. The result to the worker is the same, in any case. In the one case he doesn't get the money, in the other he doesn't keep it.

Now, then, I wouldⒶalteration in the MS not really build a fresh Monument every year—no, I have a better idea. I would have the government architect plan a prodigious Monument which could go on climbing toward the sky, stage by stage and year by year, for a thousand years. With next year's $70,000,000 I would mark outⒶalteration in the MS the foundations; with the following [begin page 306] year's $75,000,000 I would set up a piece of the wall; the year after, I would set up another piece with that year's $80,000,000—and so on and so on. I would build it of massive and indestructible masonry, and I would have it circular, and rising into the sky on a noble and gradual taper. It would be a hundred miles in diameter, and when it was finished, in a thousand years, it would be nine miles high and you could see it fromⒶalteration in the MS Europe on a clear day. This would annoy the English, for they would be celebrating Alfred's bi-millenial then—and on a sufficiently small scale, by comparison. CenturiesⒶalteration in the MS before that time our annual one-day's-wage levy would have reached a billion dollars,Ⓐalteration in the MS and the completed Monument would represent an approximate aggregate cost of Seven Hundred BillionsⒶalteration in the MS—that is to say $700,000,000,000Ⓐalteration in the MS-worthⒶemendation of good commercialⒶalteration in the MS mourning bought and paid for. Ten billions would pay all the National Debts that exist in Christendom to-day. This gives us an idea of the majesty of the MonumentⒶemendation.Ⓐalteration in the MS It will be the grandest monument in the earth; contrasted with it snow-cappedⒶalteration in the MS Mont Blanc would be but a circus tent to a sky-scraper.Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐalteration in the MS I would have it so situated that the nation's capital city and the capitol and the Washington MonumentⒶalteration in the MS could stand in the front door, on the left-hand side as you go in, and not be in the way.

In this way we should have a Martyrs' Day and a Monument Day in one, and everything satisfactory to everybody. We could put up posters to explain to the poor that it was not called Martyrs' Day on their account, but quite different.

It may be that you will hear some complaint, but not much, I think. WidowsⒶalteration in the MS with four children and a 20-cent wage in a sweat-shop to starve them on will say another national holiday will be the last straw, and things like that; that it takes the children a week, seven times a year, to get over the famine of Lincoln's Day, and Washington's Day, and Labor DayⒶalteration in the MS, and Decoration Day, and Fourth of July, and Thanks-giving, and Christmas; and hard-pressed JewsⒶalteration in the MS in the tenement-regions of the cities will say they have 52 holidays of their ownⒶalteration in the MS, by compulsion of their religion, and 52 contributed by Christian compulsion—111Ⓐalteration in the MS, with the above seven—Ⓐalteration in the MSand thatⒶalteration in the MS an added one will break their backs; and still others will say that if Latin Europe could have foreseen what a blighting thingⒶalteration in the MS, by and by, the occasional sticking on of a fresh holi- [begin page 307] day would turn out to be, they would never have allowed the burden to grow to such proportions as it has reached now, when in ItalyⒶalteration in the MS they have 227 public holidays, at an expense of nineteen million dollars a day and can't get work-time enough to support their cats. Even in those brand-new countries, Australia and New Zealand, they have a national holiday three times a week, and would like to sell us an assorted lot on easy terms and long credit.Ⓐalteration in the MS

But all that is nothing. Mourning by Statute is the right way; mourning by Universal Squeeze is the holy thing; it doesn't cost the rich anything, and what is one day's added hunger in the year to the poor? Nothing; we can easily stand it. On the 9th of December Congress will pass the bill, on the 10th the 52,264,534 Contributors by Compulsion will return thanks, and the very next day we can start the Monument.Ⓐalteration in the MS

We must remember that this is not only the best way and the right way, but is also the only way. Experience warns us that the Voluntary Subscription would notⒶalteration in the MS be safe, even if we wanted only a mere million. We could not place it, even if we had all mankind to draw upon. Men dread it; nothing embarrasses them like a Voluntary-Subscription-Paper. If it were 10,000 miles square and we shouldⒶalteration in the MS paste it on the sky where all the globe could see, the human race would disappear.