The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-12-05


delivered to the two houses of con-
gress today. Regulation of railroad
rates is made the most prominent feat
ure of the message. Federal regula-
ton Of insurance companies, purifica-
ton of federal elections, reform in the
public land laws, restriction of immi-
grafton and labor problems come next
in Importance. The message in part is
as follows:
To the Senate and House of Represent
atives:
The people of this country continue
to enjoy great prosperity. Undoubt-
eddy there will be ebb and flow in such
prosperity and this ebb and flow will
be felt more or less by all members of
the community, both by the deserving
and the undeserving. Against the
wrath of the Lord the wisdom Of man
can not avail; in times of flood or
drought human ingenuity can but par
TALLY repair the disaster. A general
failure of crops would hurt all of u.s.
Again, if the folly Of man mars the
general we'll being, then those who are
innocent of the folly will have to pay
part of the penalty incurred by those
who are guilty of the folly. A panic
brought on by the speculative folly of
part of the business community would
hurt the whole business community.
But such stoppage of welfare, though
it might be severe, would not be last
ing. In the long run the one vital fac
tor in the permanent prosperity of the
| country is the high individual charac-
ter of the average American worker,
the average American citizen, no mat
ter whether his work be mental or
manual, whether he be farmer or wage
man.
In our industrial and social system
the interests of all men are SO closely
intertwined that in the immense ma
jority of cases a straight dealing man
who by his efficiency, by his ingenuity
and industry, benefits himself must al
so benefit others. Normally the man
of great productive capacity who be-
comes rich by guiding the labor of
many other men does SO by enabling
them to produce more than they could
produce without his guidance; and
both he and they share in the benefit,
which comes also to the public at
large The superficial fact that the
sharing may be unequal must never
blind US to the underlying fact that
there is this sharing, and that the ben
eft comes in some degree to each ma
concerned. Normally the wage worker,
the man of small means, and the aver
age consumer, as we'll as the average
producer, are all alike helped by MAX
ing conditions such that the man of
exceptional business ability receives
an exceptional reward for his ability.
help the general prosperity; but no
such help of permanently beneficial
character can be given to the less able
and less fortunate, save as the results
of policy which shall inure to the
advantage of all Industrious and eff
cient people who act decently; and this
is only another way of saying that any
benefit which comes to the less able
and less fortunate must of
necessity come even more to the
more able and more fortunate If, there
fore, the less fortunate man is moved
brother to strike at the conditions I'M
der which they have both, though I'M
: equally, prospered, the result will as
suredly, be that while damage may
come to the one struck at, it will visit
with an even heavier load the one who
strikes the blow Taken as whole we
must all go up or go down together.
l SOTpOTdCIOnSs
Yet, while not merely admitting but
insisting upon this, it is also true that
where there is no governmental re-
straint or supervision some of the ex-
ceptional men use their energies not in
ways that are for the common good
but in ways which tell against this
| common good. The fortunes amassed
through corporate organization are
now so large, and vest such power in
those that WELD them, as to make ii
a matter of necessity to give to the
sovereign-that is, to the government
which represents the people as a whole
some effective power of supervision