At Orrville, Wayne County, it was not contemplated to stop; but so large and enthusiastic was the crowd the President held a brief reception. Among the prominent townsmen who welcomed him were: A. H. Walkey, S. N. Coe, A. E. Clark, J. W. Hostetter, A. Dennison, N. S. Brice, D. J. Luikheim, and John Trout.
In response to repeated cries of "speech," the President said: "Fellow-citizens—The American people are very kind"—at this point the train started, and the President closed abruptly by saying-"and I feel sure that they will here excuse my failure to make a speech." There were loud shouts of laughter at the President's readiness as the train pulled out.
[MASSILLON, OHIO, OCTOBER 13.]
At Massillon several thousand people assembled and great enthusiasm prevailed. The Committee of Reception consisted of Hon. William M. Reed, Mayor of the city; Prof. E. A. Jones, Hon. J. Walter McClymonds, Hon. S. A. Conrad, William F. Ricks, Clement Russell, and Joseph Grapevine, Esq. The Grand Army veterans and school children were present in force. Mayor Reed made the welcoming address.
President Harrison, responding, said:
Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—The burden of obligation connected with this visit is put upon me by the enthusiasm and magnitude of this welcome which you have extended to me. It gives me pleasure to stop for a brief moment in a city widely celebrated for its industries, and among a people widely celebrated for their virtues and intelligence. [Cheers.] It was especially gratifying as we passed in your suburbs, one of these busy hives of industry, to see upon the bank, waving with hearty cheers, the operatives in their work-day clothes. It is of great interest to know that you have these diversified industries among you. Your lot would be unhappy and not prosperous if you were all pursuing the same calling, even if it were the calling to which I belong, the profession of the law. [Laughter.]
It is well that your interchanging industries and pursuits lean upon and help each other, increasing and making possible indeed the great prosperity which you enjoy. I hope it is true here that everybody is getting a fair return for his labor. We cannot afford in America to have any discontented classes, and if fair wages are paid for fair work we will have none. [Cheers.] I am not one of those who believe that cheapness is the highest good. I am not one of those who believe that it can be to my interest, or to yours, to purchase in the market anything below the price that pays to the men who make it fair living wages. [Great cheering.] We should all "live and let live" in this country. [Cheers.] Our strength, our promise for the future, our security for social happiness are in the contentment of the great masses who toil. It is in kindly intercourse and relationship between capital and labor, each having its appropriate increase, that we shall find the highest good, the capitalist and employer everywhere extending to those who work for human rights a kindly consideration with compensatory wages. [Cheers.]
Now, to these children and Grand Army friends who greet me here, I say, thank you and God speed you and good-by. [Cheers.]