The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-12-03

of the holder, convertible into the estab-
lished gold standard.
l again call your attention to the need
of passing a proper immigration law,
covering the points outlined in my mes
sage to you at the nrst session of the
pre- sent congress; but substantially such
bill has already passed the house.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
How to secure fair treatment alike for
labor and for capital how to hold in
check the unscrupulous man, whether
employer or employee, without weakening
individual initiative, without hanlpering
and cramping the Industrial development
of the country, is problem fraught with
great difficulties and one which 1t is Of
the highest Importance to solve on lines
of sanity and far-sighted common-sense
as well as of devotion to the right. This
is an era of federation and combination.
Exactly as business men find that they
must often work through corporations,
and as 1t is constant tendency of these
corporations to grow larger, so 1t Is often
necessary for laboring men to work in
declarations, and these have become i'm
portant factors of modern industrial life.
Both kinds of federation, capitalstic and
labor, can do much good and as a nee
essary corollary they can both do evil.
should take the form of opposition to
whatever is bad in the conduct of any
given corporation or union-not of attacks
upon corporations as such nor upon un-
ions as such; for some of the most far
reaching beneficent work for orr people
has been accomplished through both cor
porations and unions. Each must refrain
II en- arbitrary or tyrannous interference
with the rights Of others. Organized cap
fot .frr1 1O1. aftI s.t<1
member that in the long run the interest
of each must be brought into harmony
with the interest of the general public;
and the conduct of each p1ust conform
with the fundamental rules of obedience
to the law, Of individual freedom, and of
Justice and fair dealing toward all. Each
should remember that In addition to
power it must strive after the realization
Of healthy, lofty and generous ideals.
Every employer, every wage worker,
must be guaranteed his liberty and his
right to do as he likes with his property
or his labor so long as he does not In
fringe upon the rights of others. 1t Is
of the highest Importance that employer
and employee alike should endeavor to APP
preciate the viewpoint of the other and
the sure disaster that will come upon
both in the long run If either grows to
take as habitual an attitude of sour hos
tility and dstrust toward the other. Few
people deserve better of the country than
those representatives both of capital and
labor-and there are many such-who
work continually to brinS about a good
understanding of this kind. based upon
wisdom and upon broad and kindly SYM
pathy between employers and employed.
Above all, we need to remember that any
kind of class animosity in the political
world is, If possible, even more wicked,
even more destructive to national well
fare. than sectional, race, or religious an
mostly. We can get good government
or1y uron condition that we keep true to
the principles upon which this nation was
founded, and Judge each man not as a
part of a class, but upon his individual
merits. All that we have right to ask
of any man, rich or poor, whatever his
creed, his occupation, his birthplace or
his residence, is that he shall act well
and honorably by his neighbor and by
his country. We are neither for the rich
man as such nor for the poor man as
such; we are for the upright man. rich
or poor. So far as the constitutional pow
ers of the national government touch
these matters of general and vital mo-
ment to the nation they should be exer-
cised in conformity with the principles
above set forth.
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE.
1t is earnestly hoped that secretary
of commerce may be created, with a
seat in the cabinet The rapid multiple
cation of questions affecting labor and
capital, the growth and complexity of
the organizations through which both
labor and capital now find expression, the
ste ady tendency toward the employment
of capital In huge corporations. and the
wonderful strides of this country toward
leadership in the international business
world justify an urgent demand for the
creation Of such a. position. Substantial
ly all the leading commercial bodies in
this country have united in requesting its
creation. 1t Is desirable that some such
measure as that which has already
passed the senate be enacted into law.
The creation of such depar tment would
in itself be an advance toward dealing
with and exercising supervision over the
whole subject Of the great corporations