Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-08-12

there is always danger lest what is
said may be misinterpreted as an at
tack upon men of means generally.
Now it can not too often be repeated
in a republic like ours that the only
way by which it is possible perma
nently to benefit the condition of the
less able and less fortunate. is SO to
shape our policy that all Industrious
and efficient people who act decently
may be benefited; and this means, of
course, that the benefit will come even
more to the more able and more for
tunate. If, under such circumstances,
the less fortunate man is moved by
envy OF his more fortunate brother to
strike at the conditions under which
they have both, though unequally,
prospered, he may rest assured that
while the result may be damaging to
the other man, it will be even more
damaging to himself. OF course, / am
now speaking of prosperity that comes
under normal and proper conditions.
IN our Industrial and social system
the interests of all men are so closely
intertwined that in the immense ma
iority of cases the straight dealing
man who bv ingenuity and industry
benefits himself must also benefit 9TH
ers. The man of great productive ca
pacity who gets rich through guiding
the labor of hundreds or thousands
of other men does so. as rule, by
enabling their labor to produce more
than it would without his guidance,
and both he and they share in the
unequal it must never be forgotten
that they too are really benefited by
his success.
"A vital factor In the success of any
enterprise is the guiding intelligence
OF the man at the top, and there is
need in the interest Of all of us to
encourage rather than to discourage
the activity of the exceptional men
who guide average men so that their
labor may result in increased produc-
ton of the kind which Is demanded at
the time. Normally we help the wage
worker, we help the man of small
means, by making conditions such
that the man Of exceptional business
ability receives an exceptional reward
for that ability.
But while insisting with all en-
phasis upon this it is also true that
experience has shown that when there
Is no governmental restraint or super
vision, some of the exceptional men
use their energies, not in ways that
are for the common good, but in ways
which tell against this common good;
and that by so doing they not only
wrong smaller and less able men
whether wage-workers or small pro-
ducers and traders-but force other
men of exceptional abilities themselves
to do what is wrong under penalty Of
falling behind In the keen race for
success. There is need of legislation
to strive to meet such abuses. At one
time or in one place this legislation
may take the form of factory laws and
employers liability laws. Under 9TH
err conditions it may take the form of
will, -; 4. I
rive their value from the grant of the
representatives of the people 1t may
be aimed at the manifold abuses, far
reaching In their effects. Which spring
from decentralization. Or it may be
necessary to meet such conditions as
those with which 1 am now dealing
and to strive to procure proper super
vision and regulation by the national
government of all great corporations
engaged in interstate commerce or do
Ing an interstate business.
There are good people who are
afraid of each type of legislation; and
much the same kind of argument that
is now advanced against the effort to
regulate big corporations has been
again and again advanced against the
effort to secure proper employers liza
bility laws or proper factory laws with
reference to women and children;
much the same kind of argument was
advanced but five years ago against
the franchise-tax law enacted in this
state while l was governor.
of course there is always the dan
ger of abuse if legislation of this type
Is approached in hysterical or SEN
tinnental spirit, or, above ALL IL it Is
approached in q spirit of envy and
hatred toward men of wealth
we must not try to go too fast,
under penalty of finding that we may
be going in the wron~ direction; and
In any event, we ought always to pro
coed by evolution and not by revolu-
ton. The laws must be conceived and
executed in spirit of sanity and jus
tice and with exactly as much regard
for the rights Of the big man as for
the rights of the little nan-treating
big man and little man exactly alike.
Our ideal must be the effort to
combine a proper freedom for indi-
vidual effort with some guarantee
that the effort is not exercised in con-
trayention of the eternal and irnnlut-
able principles of Justice