Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1905-08-11

attack upon men of means generally.
NOW 1t cannot too often be repeated
IN 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
fortunate If, under such circumstan-
ces, the less fortunate man is moved
| by envy of his more fortunate brother
| to strike at the conditions under
which they have both, though un-
equally, prospered, he may rest as
sured 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.
What Benefits the Man of Productive
Ability Benefits Others as Well.
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 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 a rule, by en-
abling their labor to produce more
than it 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 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 busi-
ness ability receives an exceptional
reward for that ability.
Legislation Needed 20 restrain Men
of Exceptional Abilities From
Working Harm to Others.
But while insisting with all empha-
sis upon this, it is also true that ex-
perience has shown that when there
is no governmental restraint or SUI
peryision, some of the exceptional
men use their energies, not in ways
that are for the common good, but
in ways which tell against this COM
mon good; and that by so doing they
not only wrong smaller and less able
men-whether wage-workers or small
producers and traders-but force 9th
er men of exceptional abilities them
selves 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 other conditions it may
take the form of dealing with the
franchises which derive 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 over
capitalization. Or it may be neces-
sary to meet such conditions as those
with which / am now dealing and to
strive to procure proper supervision
and regulation by the national gov
ernment of all great corporations en-
gagged in interstate commerce or doing
an interstate business.
There Must Be Justice to Both Classes
in Any Legislation to Be Made.
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 chill
dren; much the same kind of argu-
ment 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 senti
mental spirit, or, above all, if it is
approached in spirit of envy anG
hatred toward men of wealth.
We must not try to go too fast, un
der penalty of finding that we may bt
going in the wrong direction; and il
any event, we ought always to proceed
by evolution and not by revolution
. The laws must be conceived and exc
cuted in spirit of sanity and justice
and with exactly as much regard TO
+ the rights of the big man as for thu
, rights of the little man-treating hi.
man and little man exactly alike.
ri Our ideal must be the effort to com
> bine all proper freedom for individua
! effort with some guarantee that tn
, effort is not exercised in contraver
: ton of the eternal and immutabl
. principles of justice.