【金句】Calvin Coolidge - Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong...

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Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

別期望透過拉下強者來扶持弱者。

額外內容

Have Faith in Massachusetts - January 7, 1914

coolidgefoundation.o...

I thank you – with gratitude for the high honor given, with appreciation for the solemn obligations assumed – I thank you.

The commonwealth is one. We are all members of one body. The welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound together. Industry cannot flourish if labor languish. Transportation cannot prosper if manufactures decline. The general welfare cannot be provided for in any one act, but it is well to remember that the benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all. The suspension of one man’s dividends is the suspension of another man’s pay envelope.

Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. That state is most fortunate in its form of government which has the aptest instruments for the discovery of laws. The latest, most modern, and nearest perfect system that statesmanship has devised is representative government. Its weakness is the weakness of us imperfect human beings who administer it. Its strength is that even such administration secures to the people more blessings than any other system ever produced. No nation has discarded it and retained liberty. Representative government must be preserved.

Courts are established, not to determine the popularity of a cause, but to adjudicate and enforce rights. No litigant should be required to submit his case to the hazard and expense of a political campaign. No judge should be required to seek or receive political rewards. The courts of Massachusetts are known and honored wherever men love justice. Let their glory suffer no diminution at our hands. The electorate and judiciary cannot combine. A hearing means a hearing. When the trial of causes goes outside the court room, Anglo Saxon constitutional government ends.

The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support.

Man is born into the universe with a personality that is his own. He has a right that is founded upon the constitution of the universe to have property that is his own. Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing. The one cannot be preserved if the other be violated. Each man is entitled to his rights and the rewards of his service be they never so large or never so small.

History reveals no civilized people among whom there were not a highly educated class, and large aggregations of wealth, represented usually by the clergy and the nobility. Inspiration has always come from above. Diffusion of learning has come down from the university to the common school – the kindergarten is last. No one would now expect to aid the common school by abolishing higher education.

It may be that the diffusion of wealth works in an analogous way. As the little red schoolhouse is builded in the college, it may be that the fostering and protection of large aggregations of wealth are the only foundation on which to build the prosperity of the whole people. Large profits mean large pay rolls. But profits must be the result of service performed. In no land are there so many and such large aggregations of wealth as here; in no land do they perform larger service; in no land will the work of a day bring so large a reward in material and spiritual welfare.

Have faith in Massachusetts. In some unimportant detail some other States may surpass her, but in the general results, there is no place on earth where the people secure, in a larger measure, the blessings of organized government, and nowhere can those functions more properly be termed self-government.

Do the day’s work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don’t be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but don’t be a demagogue. Don’t hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don’t hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Don’t hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation.

We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people – a faith that men desire to do right, that the Commonwealth is founded upon a righteousness which will endure, a reconstructed faith that the final approval of the people is given not to demagogues, slavishly pandering to their selfishness, merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to statesmen, ministering to their welfare, representing their deep, silent, abiding convictions.

Statutes must appeal to more than material welfare. Wages won’t satisfy, be they never so large. Nor houses; nor lands; nor coupons, though they fall thick as the leaves of autumn. Man has a spiritual nature. Touch it, and it must respond as the magnet responds to the pole. To that, not to selfishness, let the laws of the Commonwealth appeal. Recognize the immortal worth and dignity of man. Let the laws of Massachusetts proclaim to her humblest citizen, performing the most menial task, the recognition of his manhood, the recognition that all men are peers, the humblest with the most exalted, the recognition that all work is glorified. Such is the path to equality before the law. Such is the foundation of liberty under the law. Such is the sublime revelation of man’s relation to man – Democracy.

我感謝您——感謝您給予的高度榮譽，感謝您承擔的莊嚴義務——我感謝您。

聯邦是一體。我們都是同一個身體的成員。最弱者和最強者的福祉密不可分地聯繫在一起。如果勞動者陷入困境，工業就無法繁榮。如果製造業衰落，交通運輸就無法興旺。任何一項法案都無法為整體福祉提供保障，但我們必須記住，對一個人的利益就是對所有人的利益，對一個人的忽視就是對所有人的忽視。一個人的股息分紅被暫停，就是另一個人工資被暫停。

人類不是制定法律，他們只是發現法律。法律必須由比多數人的意志更重要的東西來證明。法律必須建立在正義的永恆基礎上。最幸運的國家是那些擁有最適合發現法律的政府形式的國家。現代化和最接近完美的制度是代議制政府。它的缺點是我們不完美的人類管理者的缺點。它的優點是即使這樣的政府也能為人民帶來比其他任何制度都多的福址。沒有任何國家拋棄了代議制政府而保留了自由。代議制政府必須得到保護。

法院的設立不是為了決定一個目標（cause）的受歡迎程度，而是為了裁決和執行權利。不應要求任何訴訟當事人將案件提交到政治運動的風險和開支中。不應要求任何法官尋求或接受政治獎勵。馬薩諸塞州的法院在正義之愛的人們中是聞名和受尊敬的。讓我們不要讓他們的榮耀在我們手中減損。選民和司法機構不能結合。聽證會意味著聽證會。當審判的原因超出法庭時，英美憲政政府就結束了。

人們不能總是期待立法的成功。勤奮、節儉、品格，並不是通過法案或決議來賦予的。政府不能減輕勞動的負擔。它不能提供服務獎勵的替代品。它當然可以照顧殘疾人，並認可卓越的功績。正常人必須自力更生。自治意味著自力更生。

人類天生擁有屬於自己的個性。他們有權擁有屬於自己的財產，這權利是建立在宇宙的構成之上的。最終，財產權和人身權是同一個東西。如果其中之一被侵犯，另一個就無法被保護。每個人都有權獲得自己的權利和服務的獎勵，無論它們多大或多小。

歷史揭示，沒有任何文明國家沒有高度教育的階級和大量的財富聚集，通常由神職人員和貴族代表。啟發總是來自上方。知識的傳播從大學到普通學校——幼兒園是最後的。現在沒有人會期望通過廢除高等教育來幫助普通學校。

財富的傳播可能有類似的作用。正如小紅學校（Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School）在學院中建立，可能只有培育和保護大量的財富聚集，才能為全體人民的繁榮奠定基礎。大量的利潤意味著大量的工資單。但利潤必須是提供服務的結果。在任何地方，都沒有這麼多和這麼大量的財富聚集如在這裡；在任何地方，它們都沒有提供更大的服務；在任何地方，一天的工作都不會帶來如此大的物質和精神福利的回報。

相信馬薩諸塞州。在某些不重要的細節上，其他州可能超越它，但在總體結果上，沒有任何地方能讓人民在組織政府中獲得更多的福址，沒有任何地方能更恰當地將這些功能稱為自治。

做一天的工作。如果它是為了保護弱者的權利，無論誰反對，就去做。如果它是為了幫助一家大公司更好地為人民服務，無論有什麼反對，就去做。期待被稱作保守派，但不要成為保守派。期待被稱作民粹主義者，但不要成為民粹主義者。不要猶豫成為像科學那樣革命性的人。不要猶豫成為像乘法表那樣保守的人。不要期待通過拉下強者來扶持弱者。不要急於立法。給行政管理一個趕上立法的機會。

我們需要更廣泛、更堅定、更深刻地相信人民——相信人們希望做正確的事，相信聯邦是建立在永恆的正義基礎上的，相信人民的最終認可不是給那些迎合他們自私、與時俱進的民粹主義者，而是給那些為人民的福祉服務、代表他們深沉、沉默、持久的信念的政治家。

法律必須訴諸於物質福祉以上的東西。工資不會滿足，無論它們多麼高。也不是在房子、土地、債券，儘管它們像秋天的葉子一樣多。人有精神性。觸動它，它必須像磁鐵對極一樣做出反應。不是向自私心，而是向人的不朽價值和尊嚴，讓聯邦的法律訴諸。讓馬薩諸塞州的法律向她最謙卑的公民，即使是執行最卑微的任務，也承認他的人性，承認所有人都是平等的，最謙卑的人與最受尊敬的人一樣，承認所有工作都得到了光榮。這就是法律面前的平等之路。這就是法律之下自由的基礎。這就是人類之間關係的崇高啟示——民主。