The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-12

means generally. Now it cannot too often be repeated in a republic like ours that the only way by which it is possible per- manently 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 the more fortunate. 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. I am nows speaking of prosperity that comes under normal and proper condi- tions
 Interest Closely intertwned.
 "In our industrial and social system the interests of all men are so closely intertwined that in the immense ma jority of cases the straight-dealing man who by ingenuity and industry benefits himself must also benefit others. The man of great productive capacity who gets rich through guiding the labor of hum dreds or thousands of other men does so, as rule, by enabling their labor to produce more than 1t would without his guidance, and both he and they share in the benefit, so that even if the share be unequal it must never be forgotten that they too are really benefited by his suc- cess.
 "A vital factor in the success of any enterprise is the guiding intelligence of the maA 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 production 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 busi- ness ability receives an exceptional re- ward for that ability.
 But while insisting with all emphasis upon this, 1t is also true that experience has shown that when there Is no govern mental restraint or supervision, some of the exceptional men use their energies, not in ways that for the common good, but in ways which tell against this common good; and that bs 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 be- hind 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 other conditions it may take the form of dealing with the fran chises which derive their value from the grant of the representatives of the peo- pie. 1t may be aimed at the manifold abuses far-reaching in their effects which spring from over-capitalization Or it may be necessary to meet such conditions as those with which l am now dealing and to strive to procure proper supervision and regulation by the national govern ment of all great corporations engaged in interstate commerce or doing an inter- state business.
 Afraid of Each Type.
 .sThere 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 se- cure proper employers ability 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 en- acted in this state while I was governor.
 'Of course there is always the danger of abuse if legislation of this type is ap- preached In a hystercal or sentimental spirit, or, above a1l if it Is approached in a 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 wrong direction: and in any event we ought always to proceed by evolution and not by revolution. The laws must be conceived and executed Tn a spirit of sanity and justice, and with exactly as much regard for the rights of the big man as for the rights of the little man treating big man and little man exactly alike.
 ''Our ideal must be the effort to com bine all proper freedom for individual effort with some guarantee that the effort is not exercised in contravention of the eternal and immutable principles of jus tice."