“A man who knew how to read and write,” he continued, “did not command any better wages for the work of his hands than the man who could not.” [Applause.] “His increased knowledge tended to make him more miserable.” [Applause.] “Education was so universal that the educated man, without a trade, had to take the most inadequate pittance of compensation, and was not so well off, many times, as the mechanic.” [Applause.] “The prisons and alms-houses were full of educated men; and three-fourths of the criminal class could read and write.  Neither was the gentleman right when he spoke of the European immigrants as ‘ignorant hordes.’  The truth was, the proportion of the illiterate was much less in some European despotisms than it was in the American Republic.” [Applause from the foreigners present.] “Neither did it follow that because a man was educated he was intelligent.  There was a vast population of the middle class, who had received good educations, but who did not have any opinion upon any subject, except as they derived it from their daily newspapers.” [Applause.] “The rich men owned the newspapers and the newspapers owned their readers; so that, practically, the rich men cast all those hundreds of thousands of votes.  If these men had not been able to read and write they would have talked with one another upon public affairs, and have formed some correct ideas; their education simply facilitated their mental subjugation; they were chained to the chariots of the Oligarchy; and they would never know the truth until they woke up some bright morning and found it was the Day of Judgment.” [Sensation and great applause.]

Here I interposed: 

“Universal education is right; it is necessary,” I said; “but it is not all-sufficient.  Education will not stop corruption or misgovernment.  No man is fit to be free unless he possesses a reasonable share of education; but every man who possesses that reasonable share of education is riot fit to be free.  A man may be able to read and write and yet be a fool or a knave.” [Laughter and applause.] “What is needed is a society which shall bring to Labor the aid of the same keenness, penetration, foresight, and even cunning, by which wealth has won its triumphs.  Intellect should have its rewards, but it should not have everything.  But this defense of labor could only spring from the inspiration of God, for the natural instinct of man, in these latter days, seems to be to prey on his fellow.  We are sharks that devour the wounded of our own kind.”

I paused, and in the midst of the hall a thin gentleman, dressed in black, with his coat buttoned to his throat, and all the appearance of a clergyman, arose and asked whether a stranger would be permitted to say a few words.  He was received in sullen silence, for the clergy are not popular with the proletariat.  His manner, however, was quiet and unassuming, and he appeared like an honest man.

The chairman said he had no doubt the audience would be glad to hear his views, and invited him to the platform.