Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-09-03
ROOSEVELT ESSAYS THE
GREAT LABOR PROBLEM.
CONTENDS THAT WAGE FARMERS
INTERESTS Nus BE SHIELDED
by LEGISLATION.
TALKED AT MINNESOTA FAIR
VAST AGGREGATIONs OF CAPITAL
HAVE CREATED NEW ECO
NOMIC CONDITIONS.

II lNhIAOI vi AAE Alt9OAh 1A6NN =
cultural Society. The Vice President
will be the guest during his stay in
Minneapolis of Senators Nelson and
Clapp, and will stay at the home of Ma
tional Committeeman T. H.. Shevelin.
A committee, consisting of Governor
Van SAINT, United States Senator Moses
Clapp, w. r. Merriam, director of the
census; H. A. Boardman, president of
the Commercial Club, of st. Paul:
George Thompson, A. H. Lindeke and
George X. Finch boarded the car at st.
Paul and accompanied the Vice Presi-
lent to Minneapolis, where he was
greeted by President John Cooper, Of
the Agricultural Society. and Loren
Fletcher, while hundreds Of people,
~thronging the station platform and
street, shouted and waved their well
come.
The handshaking and introductions
| over, the party boarded the private
trolley car of President Lowry, Of the
Twin City Street Railway Company,
for a trip around the loop and a view
of the city, and after an hours ride
proceeded to the fair grounds at Ham
line. Arriving at the fair grounds the
Vice President was escorted to the
grand stand, from which he delivered
an address to the assembled thousands.
He received an enthusiastic reception.
Must Deal with New Conditions.
The Vice President paid a high trib-
ute to the character and energy of his
hearers, descended, he said, from a race
of pioneers which had pushed westward
into the wilderness and laid the
foundations for new Commonwealths.
The men with ak and pick and plow,
who, he said, had pushed to compile
ton the dominion of our people over
the American wilderness, had shown by
their qualities of daring, endurance and
| far-sightedness that they recognized in
practical form the fundamental law OF
success in American life-the law of
worthy work; the law of ~resoiute, high
endeavor. Continuing, he. said:
I'VE cannot possibly do our best
work as a nation unless all of us know
how to act in combination as well as to
act, each individual for himself. This
acting in combination can take many
forms, but of course it's most effective
form must be when it comes in shape
of law; that is, of action by the COM
munity as a whole through the law
making body. No hard and fast rule
can be laid down as to where our legis-
lation shall stop in interfering between
man and man, between interest and in
~terests. All that can be said is that it
is highly undesirable on the one hand,
to weaken individual initiative, and,
on the other hand, that in a constantly
increasing number of cases we shall
find it necessary in the future to
shackle cunning as in the past we have
shackled force. 1t is not highly desir-
able, but necessary that there should
be legislation which shall carefully
shield the interests of wage-workers,
and which shall discriminate in favor
of the honest and humane employer by
removing the disadvantage under
which he stands when compared with
INSCRIPTIONS competitors who have no
conscience and will do right only under
fear of punishment. Nor can legisla-
ton stop with what are termed labor
questions. The vast individual and
| corporate fortunes, the vast combina-
tons of capital, which have marked
the development of our industrial sys-
tenn create new conditions and necessi-
tate a change from the old attitude of
the state and nation toward prosperity.
Must Control Corporations.
"Our interests are at bottom COM
| mon. In the long run we go up or
down together. Yet more and more
it is evident thai the state, and if nee
| essary the nation, has got to possess
| the right of supervision and control as
| regards the great corporations which
are it's creatures; particularly as re-
| CARDS the great business combinations
which derive a portion of their import
ance from the existence of some mo-
| nopolistic tendency"
AS to our relations with foreign pow
ers, Vice President Roosevelt said
that our nation, while first of all seeing
to it's own domestic well-being, must
| not shrink from playing it's part among
the great nations without. Our duty
| he said, may take many forms in the
future as it has taken many forms in
the past. We must ever face the fact
| of our shifting national needs, of the
always-changing opportunities that
| present themselves. But we may be
| certain of one thing; whether we wish
| it or not, we cannot avoid hereafter
having duties to do in the face of other
nations. All hat we car do is to set
| tie whether we shall perform these du-
ties we'll or i'll.
ar Of nc maka II evident that we in