Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1904-12-07

Washington, Dec. 6-The president message was delivered to the two houses of congress this afternoon. The following is a synopsis:
 The nation continues to enjoy note worthy prosperity. Such prosperity is of course primarily due to the high individual average of our citizenship, taken together with our great natural resources; but an important factor therein is the working of our long continued governmental policies. The people have emphatically expressed their approval of the principles under lying these policies, and their desire that these principles be kept substan- tialIy unchanged, although of course applied in a progressive spirit to meet changing conditions.
 The enlargement of scope of the functions of the national government required by our development as a na- tion involves, of course, increase of expense; and the period of prosperity through which the country is passing justifes expenditures for permanent improvements far greater than would be wise in hard times. But abundant revenues and a large surplus always invite extravaganza, and constant care should be taken to guard against un- necessary increase of the ordinary ex- penses of government. The cost of doing government business should be regulated with the same rigid scrutiny as the cost of doing private business.
 In the vast and complicated mechan- ism of OUT modern civilized life the dominant note is the note of indus triaIism; and the relations of capital and labor, and especially of organized capital and organized labor, to each other and to the public at large come second in importance only to the inti- mate questions of family life.
 As long as the states retain the pri mary control of the police power the circumstances must be altogether ex treme which require interference by the federal authorities, whether in the way of safeguarding the rights of labor or in the way of seeing that wrong is not done by unruly persons who shield themselves behind the name of labor. If there is resistance to the federal courts. interference with the mails, or interstate commerce, or molestation of federal property, or if the state authorities in some crisis which they were unable to face call for help, then the federal government may interfere; but though such interference may be caused by a condition of things aIis ing out of trouble connected with some question of labor, the interfer ence itself simply takes the form of restoring order without regard to the questions which have caused the breach of order for to keep order is a primary duty and in time of disor- der and violence all other questions sink into abeyance until order has been restored.
 The wage workers are peculiarly en- titled to the protection and the en- couragement of the law. From the very nature of their occupation rail road meu, for instance, are liable to be mained in doing the legitimate work of their profession, unIess the rairload companies are required by law to make ample provision for their safety. The administration has been Zealous in enforcing the existing law for this purpose. That law should b9 amended and strengthened.
 I recommend that the congress ap- point commission to make a compre- hensive study of employers liability with the view of extending the provis- ions of great and constitutional law to all employments within the scope of federal power.
 On the trust question he says:
 When we come to deal with great corporations the need for the govern ment to act directly is far greater than in the case of labor, because great cor porations can become such only by en- gazing in interstate commerce, and in terstate commerce is peculiarly the field of the general government. It is an absurdity to expect to eliminate the abuses in great corporations of state action. 1t is difficult to be pa tient with an argument that such mat ters should pc left to the states, be-