The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-31
ROOT AN ECHO
OF ROOSEVELT.
Secretary of War Makes a
Speech in Cooper Union.
In Which He Follows the Presi-
dents Lead on Trusts.
ARE GOOD AND BAD.
He Says Weed Out the Evil
Ones and Leave the Others.
Sugar and Standard Oil Are
Among the Elect.
ARE GOOD AND BAD.


come to attend Republican meeting,
the principal speakers being Mayor Low.
Governor Odell and Secretary of War
Root Mr.. Low eulogized Governor
Odeli and his administration of state
Sffairs. Governor Odell followed in an
address in which he cast aside as absurd
the prediction that his majority would
be as small as some had prophesied.
Secretary Root spoke after the governor
had finished. He began by praisin5
Governor Odell. declaring that the peo-
pie OF the state owed the governor A
debt of gratitude for what he had done;
he had shown himself a strong man ana
on honest one in the governors chair
as he has always been in business and
politics.
The secretary said that the national
issue of this political campaign in its
most important and political aspect Is
whether President Roosevelt shall be
sustained in his administration of the
national government. Discussing the
work of congress. Secretary Root said:
THE one case of urgent necessity Tor
action which failed of response was the
bill for a Just measure of reciprocity
with Cuba: and that was defeated by d
combination between the Democrats in
congress and a small minority OF the
Republicans refusing to go with the ma
j0rity of their party. There is good rea-
son to believe that the measure will sue
coed at the next session
What is there which calls for
changer" the secretary asked rs the
reason to be found in desire for the
curbing of trusts. for an effective treat
ment of labor troubles, or for a revision
of the tariff? Certainly not
Our Democratic friends talk as il
some capitalists securing undue profits
and some tariff provisions becoming out
grown with changing conditions and
some stubborn contests between en-
ployers who wish to pay less and wage
earners who wish to be paid more for
Ia hOr and STRANGE 0bPn0n1pnI
threatening our social and political stu
alton, calling for desperate and revolu-
tionary methods. They are not new or
strange or threa tening. They are but
Temperatures. in slightly varied forms,
of some of the difficulties which have al
ways accompanied material prosperity
since tie beginning of successful enter
prise. Unfair and oppressive trusts So
called, are weeds in the garden of pros
perity. It is easy to kill them if you
kill the flowers and the fruit also, but If
you would keep the weeds down and
have the garden grow you must devote
yourself, not to desperate and destruc-
tive remedies, but to a patient, discrim-
mating and unceasing process, pulling
out the weeds and leaving the useful
plants. SO in curb1ng and regulating
those combinations of capital which are
injurious to the public either because
they mOnopolize the market or the
sources of supply or the avenues of en-
pIpyment, or prevent competition I'M
fairly and oppressively, care must be
taken not to stop great enterprises which
have le2itimately reduced the cost Of
production. not to take America out of
the race of competition for the market
CT the world. not to close the mills and
the mines. not to throw millions of work
men out of employment and deprive the
farmer of his market for the raw ma
terial of manufacture.
The evils complained of are an out
growth of the process of Industrial de-
velopment of the age. Their regulation
IS also a necessary part of that process.
Our industrial history shows that the
steady course of the process has always
been and is now toward better and not
toward worse conditions; that the diff
fusion of wealth is outstripping its con-
centratton; that the great body of the
people in the United States are climb
ing up above the hard conditions of pow
erty which have been the rule in the
worlds life, into general comfort and
independence to degree never before
known; that our prosperity is sound and
wholesome; and that courage and hope
are justified rather than dependency.
The wonderful scientific discoveries
and inventions of the last half century
have enormously and progressively in
creased the productive power Of man.
kind. There has been greater progress
in productive power during the last cen
fury than in any thousand years before
This enormous addition to the pro-
kNductive power of labor was due first to
Khe brains that made the discoveries
1uA inventions ana organized the great
combinations of capital necessary to
utilize new powers and new methods
necessary for their use and second tc
the capital that built the machines and
railroads ard wasted in the unsuccess-
ful experiments and the renewal of ma
terial superseded by the new invention
and took the chances of loss to gain the
rewards of successful enterprise. Both
the brains and the capital have CONS
from every part of this great country
and their interest in the enterprise tC
which both of them have contributed Is
reported by the stocks and bonds of the
corporations which own the mills and
the mines and the railroads It is blair
that in the distribution of this newly
acquired wealth, the brains that invest
and that organize should have theil
share; the capital that constructs an6
maintains should be rewarded for its
investment and its risk: the laborel
Should have higher wages. because his
Ia Dor is producing more: and the con.
sumner should have lower prices because
the product which he purchases is pro
Lv2ed with greater ease and at less
Tost
Capital and brains alwavs get the
advantage at first But our industrial
history shows that the laborer and the
consumer slowly but surely wrest theil
share of the advantage from capital ant
secure it for themselves. The organic.
ers of the great sugar trust made z
great deal of money for themselves, b,l-
we are getting sugar now far less thar
it cost to make it before the sugar trus
was formed. The organizers of tn,
Standard Oil company have made {
great deal of money. but the poores
American farmer is lighting his litti,
house tonight at trifling cost. NOR,
brilliantly than palaces were lighted
century ago: and these are the con
sumers shares of the wealth created b!
the brains and capital of the suga,
company and the Standard Oil com
pany.
while the returns of capital seem grea
because they are massed together an'
those of labor seem small because the
are scattered. capitals proportionate shar
of the new wealth is constantly decreas
ing and labor's proportionate share of
Is constantly increasing.
MOT only have the wages Of labor in