The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-04
Mr.. BRYAN SPEAKS
TOLAB0RlNG, MEN
Continued from first page,)

shop law, which is primarily designed to
do away with the tenement house fac
sorv."
After speaking of work as the law of
life and the necessity for mutual help,
Governor Roosevelt said:
Before us loom industrial problems.
vast in their Importance and their com
plexity 1t is not as yet possible to say
what shall be the exact limit of influence
allowed the State or what limit shall be
set to that right OF Individual initiative
so dear to the hearts of the American
people. All we can say is that the need
has been shown on the one and for ac
ton by the people in their collective ca
pacity through the State, or in MANY mat
ters, that in other matters much can be
done by associations of different groups
OF individuals as in trade unions and SINH
lar, organizations, and that In other mat
tiers 1T remains now as true as ever that
final success will be for the man who
trusts In the struggle only to cool his
nand, his brave heart and his strong right
arm. These are spheres in which the
State can properly act, and spheres in
Whicn a comparatively free field must be
Though the conditions of life have
grown so puzzling in their complexity, yet
we may remain absolutely sure of one
thing; that now as ever in the past, and
as ut ever will be in the future, there
can be no substitute for the elemental
virtues for the elemental qualities to
which, we allude when we speak of man
as not only good man but as emphatical-
ly a man.
The one fact which all of us need to
keep steadily before our eyes is the need
Shat performance should square with
promise II good work is to be done wheth-
er In the industrial or in the political
world. Nothing does more to prompt
mental dishonesty and moral insincerity
than the habit either of promising the inn
possible, or of demanding the perform
ance OF the impossible; or finally of fail
ing to keep promise that has been made;
and 1T makes not the slightest difference
whether it is promise made ON the stump
or off the stump. We can do great deal
when we undertake soberly to do the pos
Sible> When we undertake the impossible
we too often fail ito do anything a. all.
The success of the law for the taxation
of franchises recently enacted in New
York State, measure which has resulted
In putting upon the assessment books
nearly two hundred million dollars worth
0f property which had heretofore escaped
taxation is an illustration of how much
good can be accomplished when effort is
made along sane and sober lines, with
care not to promise the impossible, but to
make performance square with promise,
and with insistence on the fact that homes
tynis never one sided, and that in dealing
with corporations it is necessary both to
do to them and to exact from them full
and complete justice. The success of this
effort offers a striking contrast to the
complete breakdown of the species of
crude and violent ANTITRUST legislation
which has been so often attempted and
which has always failed, because of its
very crudeness and violence, to make any
impression upon the real and dangerous
evils which have excited just popular re-
sentiment. - In the long run each
section of the community will rise or fall
as the community rises or falls. If hard
times come to the nation whether as the
result of natural causes, or because they
are invited by our own folly, all of us
will suffer. Certain of us will suffer more
and Others less, but all will suffer some
what. If On the other hand, Providence
and our own energy and good sense bring
prosperity ito us, all will share in that
prosperity. We will not all share alike,
but something each one of us will get. Let
us strive to make the conditions of life
such that as nearly as possible each man
shall receive the share to which he is
honestly entitled and no more and let us
remember at the same time that our eff
forts must be to build up rather than to
strike down, and that we can best help
ourselves not at the expense of others, but
by heartily working with them for the
common good of each and ALL
NJ n~~vo - C~nnoh