Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-12-02
TREATMENT OF LABOR AND CAPITAL
A Problem Fraught with Great Difficulty
Saws the President.

How to secure fair treatment alike for
labor and for capital. how 10 hold IN
check the INSCRIPTIONS man. whether en-
ployer or employee. without weakening
individual initiative. without hamperlng
and cramping the industrial development
of the country, is n problem fraught with
great difficulties and one which II Is OF
the highest Importance to solve on lines
of sanity and farsighted common sense Is
well as of devotion to the right. This i5
an era of federation and combina ton.
Exactly as business men find they must
often work through corporations, and as
it is constant tendency of these corpora
tons to grow larger. so it is often neces-
sary for laboring men TO work in fedora
tons and these have become important
factors OF modern industrial life Both
kinds of federation. capitalistic and labor.
corollary they can both do evil. Opposi-
ton to each kind of organization should
take the form of opposition 10 whatever is
bad in the conduct of any given corpora
ton or union. not OF attacks upon cor
such. for some OF the most farTeachinS
beneiiccnt work for our people has been
accomplished through both corporations
ana unions. Eacn must refrain from ar
bitrary or tyranncus interference with
the rights of others. Organized capital
and organized labor alike should reTnen-
Der that in the long run the interest of
each must be brought into harmony with
the interest or the general pubic. and the
CONDUCT of each must conform to the
fundamental rules of obedience to the
law. OF individual freedom and of justice
and fair dealing toward ALI Each should
remember that in addition to power IL
must strive after the realization OF
healthy. lofty and generous ideals. Every
employer, every waEeworker, must be
guaranteed his liberty and his right TO do
he likes with his property or his labor
so long as he does not infringe upon the
rights of others. 1t is of the highest i'm
portance that employer and employee
alike should endeayor 20 appreciate each
the viewpoint of the other and the sure
disaster that will come upon both in the
long run If either grows to take as habit
uaI an attitude of sour hostility and dis
trust toward the other. Few people de-
serve better of the country than those rep
resenta tives both of CAPITAL and labor
a
tinually to bring about a good understand
ing of this kind based upon wisdom and
upon broad and kindly sympathy between
employers and employed. Above all. we
need to remember that any kind of class
sible. even more wicked. even more de-
structive to national welfare. than sec
uonal, race or religious luminosity. We
can get good government only upon condi-
ton that We keep true to the principles
judge each man not as a part or class.
but upon his individual merits. All that
we have right to ask of any man. rich
or poor, whatever his c-eed. his occupa-
ton, his birthplace or his residence, is
that he shall act well and honorably by
his nelShbor and by his country: We are
neither for the rich man as such nor for
the poor man as such; we are for the up
right man. rich or poor. So far as the
constitutional powers OF the national gov
eminent touch these matters of general
should be exercised in conformity with
the 2TiucfnleS- above set1orth-
The New Secretary.
- IS earnestly hoped Tat n secretary CO
commerce may be created. with n seat in
the cabinet Thc rapid multiplication OF
questions affecting labor and capital. the
growth and compleXity of the organiza-
lions through which both labor and CAPT
tai now find expression. the steady tend
ency toward the employment OF capital IN
huge corporations and the wonderful
strides of this couutry toward leadership
in the international business world justify
an urgent demand for the creation OF
such a position. Substantially all the
leading commercial bodies in this country
is desirable that some such measure as
that which has already passed the senate
be enacted into law. The creation or Such
a department would in itself be an ad-
supervision over the whole subject of the
great corporations doing an Interstate
business. and with this end in view the
congress should endow the department.
creased as experience might show the
need
/ hope soon to submit to the senate
reciprocity treaty with Cuba on May ~
last the United States kept its promise TO
the island by formally vacating Cuban SOIL
and turning Cuba over to those whom her
own people had chosen as the first officials
Of tho T.-yy r1oubllc-
Relations With Cuba
Cuba lies at our doors. and whatever af-
fects her for good or for i'll affects us also.
So much have our people felt this that in
the Platt amendment we definitely took
the ground that Cuba must hereafter have
closer political relations with as than with
any other power. Thus in sense Cuba
has become la part of our International
political sysfeu- This makes II necessary
that IN retufn-she- should be- lven some OF