Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-07
THE PRESIDENT
Continued from page ~

the striking change made in the entire
West by the extended use of alfalfa.
Moreover, the department has taken
the lead in the effort to prevent the de-
forestation of the country. Where
there are forests we seek to preserve
them, and on the once treeless plains
and the prairies we are doing our best
to foster the habit of tree planting
among our people. In my own lifetime
l have seen wonderful changes brought
about by this tree planting here in
your own state and in the states imme-
diately around it.
There are a number of very import
ant questions, such as that of good
roads. with which the states alone can
deal, and where all that the national
government can do is to cooperate with
them. The same is true of the educa-
ton of the American farmer. A num-
Der of the states have themselves start
ed to help in this work and the depart
ment of agriculture does an immense
amount which is in the proper sense of
the word educational, and educa tional
in the most practical way.
1t is therefore clearly true that a
great advance has been made in the
direction of finding ways by which the
government can help the farmer to
help himself-the only kind of help
which a self-respecting man will ac-
ocpt, or. l may add, which will in the
end do him any good. Much has been
done in these ways. and farm life and
farm processes continually change for
the better. The farmer himself still
retains, because Of his surroundings
and the nature of his work, to a pre-
eminent degree the qualities which We
like to think Of as distinctly American
in considering our early history. The
man who tills his own farm, whether
on the prairie or in the woodland, the
man who grows what we eat and the
raw material which is worked up into
what we wear, still exists more nearly
under the conditions which obtained
when the "embattled farmers" of rs
made this country nation than is
true of any others of our people.
But the wage-WOrkers in our cities,
like the capitalists in our cities, face
totally changed conditions. The devel-
opmcnt of machinery and the extra
ordinary change in business conditions
have rendered the employment of CAPT.
tai and Of persons in large aggrega-
lions not merely profitable but often
necessary for success, and have spec
ialized the labor of the wage-work6A
at the same time that they haVSl
brought great aggregations of wage
workers together. More and more in
= our great Industrial centers men have
come to realize that they can not live
as independently of one another as in
the old days was the case everywhere,
and az is now the case in the country
districts.
OF course. fundamentally each man
will yet find that the chief factor in
determining his success or failure in
life is the sum Of his own individual
qualities. He can not afford to lose his
individual initiative, his individual will
and power but he can best use that
power, if for certain objects he unites
with his fellows. Much can be done by
organization, combination, union
among the wage workers; finally some
thing can be done by the direct action
of the state. 1t is not possible en-
pirically to declare when the interfer-
ence of the state should be deemed le-
Ultimate and when illegitimate
The line of demarcation between I'M
healthy overinterference and unhealthy
lack of regulation is not always we'll
defined, and shifts with the change in
our industrial needs Most certainly
we should never invoke the interfer-
ence Of the state or nation unless it is
absolutely necessary; but it is equally
true that when confident of it's neces-
sity we should not on academic grounds
refuse it. Wise factory laws, laws to
forbid the employment of child labor
and to safeguard the employees
against the effects Of culpable negli-
gence by the employer, are necessary,
not merely in the interest of the wage
worker. but in the interest of the honest
and humane employer, who should not
be penalized for his honesty and hui
mainly by being exposed to unchecked
competition with an INSCRIPTIONS rival
1t is far more difficult to deal with the
greed that works through cunning than
with the greed that works through vo-
lencc. But the effort to deal with it
must be steadily made.
Very much of our effort in reference
TO labor matters should be by every de-
vice and expedient to try to secure a
constantly better understanding be-
tween employer and employe. Every
thing possible should be done to increase
the sympathy and fellow-feeling be-
tween them, and every chance taken to
allow each to look at all questions, es-
pecially at questions in dispute, some
what through the others eyes. If met
with sincere desire to act fairly by one
another, and If there is, Furthermore,
power by each to appreciate the other s
standpoint, the chance for trouble is
minimized. l suppose every thinking
man rejoices when by mediation or ar
bitration it proves possible to settle
troubles in time to avert the suffering
and bitterness caused by strikes. More
over Cancellation committee can do
best work when the trouble is in it's be-
ginning, or at least has not come to a
head. When the break has actually
occurred. damage has been done, and
each side feels sore and angry, and it is
difficult to get them together-difficult
to make either forget its own wrongs
and remember the rights of the other
If possible the effort at Cancellation OF
mediation or arbitration should be
made in the earlier stages. and should