The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-08-24
ROOSEVELT engine
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
well themselves yet sea others who are
no more deserving doing far better.
THE ONLY REMEDY.
Continued from First Page.)

no more deserving dong lar Detter.
THE ONLY REMEDY.
Wise laws and fearless, and upright
administration Of the laws can give the
opportunity for such prosperity as that
we see about us. But this is all that they
can do. When the conditions have been
created Which make prosperity possible
.hen each individual man must accomplish
it for himself by his own thrift energy
and industry. When people wax fat they
Kick as they have been prone to do since
thu days Of Jeshurn, they will speedily
destroy their own prosperity. II they
sc into wild speculation and lose their
heads they have lost that which no lesis-
Iation can supply and the business world
will suffer in consequence. If in a spirit
Of s,lllen envy they insist on pulling down
those who have profited most by the
years of fatness they will bury themselves
IN the crash of the common disaster they
contributed to make.
A PERSONAL THING.
Now the upshot of all this is that it
is peculiarly encumbent upon us at a time
of such material wellbeng. Individually
as we'll as a nation. that each on his
own account show that we possess the
qualities OF prudence and self
restraint. In our government We
of economic policy while remembering
that this fixity must not be fossilized
that there must not be inability to shape
our course anew as the needs arise.
I'VE may not like the combination of
large corpora tons. but it Is a fact never
theless. that as far as we can it is an
inevitable result of various causes prorni-
nent among which has been the immense
Importance steam and electricity have
assumed in modern life Urban people
have grown in this country much faster
than the population elsewhere during
the last century, and wherever men are
gathered together in vast masses 1t fol-
lows that they must work faster by COM
binattons among themselves.
SOME PREFER OLD WAYS
Now, I suppose that the most Of us
prefer on many accounts the old ways
of life under which the average man
lived moro to himself and by himself
when the average community was more
seIf-dependent and where. though the
standard of comfort was lower on the
average. yet there was less of the glar-
ing inequality in worldly conditions
which we now see in our great city. 1t
is not true that the poor have grown
poorer, but some of the rich have grown
so very much richer that where multi
tudes of men are herded together in a
locker as more violent than formerly
"On the whole our people earn more and
live better than ever before and the pro-
gress of which we are so proud. could
not have taken place had * not been
for the great up-buiiding of Industrial
centres, such s our commercial and
manufacturing cities
TO COMBAT EVILS
For some of the evils which have at
tended us we can at present see no COM
plete remedy; for others the remedy
must come by the action of men them
selves In their private capacity, whether
merely as individuals or by combination
one with another. For yet others soma
remedy can be found in Legislative and
Executive action National State or NUM-
cipal. Much of the. complaint against
combinations is entirely unwarranted I'm
der present day conditions it is as neces-
sary to have corporations in the bust
ness world as it is to have organization
among wage workers. But we have
right to ask In each that they shall 90
good and not harm. Exactly as Ia bor
organizations when managed intelligently
and in a spirit Of justice and fair play
as OF very good service, not orIv to the
wage workers, but to the whole COM
munity, as the history of labor organiza-
ton has clearly shown, so wealth when
used Alright is not only benefit to the
community as a whole, but indispensable
to the unbuilding condluons which the
country has accepted
WEALTH "A MENACE.
"a great fortune may be in a sense a
menace to the community as whole,
just as great intellect does il it is un-
accompanied by development of charac-
ter. But obviously this no more affords
grounds for condemning wealth than it
does for condemning intellect. Every
man of power by the very fact OF the
power is capable OF doing damage to his
neighbors but we cannot afford to dis
courage the development f'such intellec-
tual power because it IS possible they
may use their power for bad ends.