Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-08-30

the unthinking of standing in extreme op-
position to them. But this Is precisely what
the present Congress has done. Instead of
enacting antitrust laws which are either so
vague or so sweeping to completely de-
feat their own objects, it has given us an
interstate commerce law which will enable
us to exercise in thorough fashion a super
vision over the common carriers of this
country so as, while scrupulously safeguard
ing their proper interests to prevent them
from charging excessive rates: to prevent
their taVoring one man at the expense of
another; and especially a strong man at the
expense of a weak man and to require
them to be fully accountable to the public
for the service which to their own profit
they render the public.
The previous Congress, by the enactment
of the Elkins law and by the creation of
the Department of Commerce and Labor, in
Guiding the Bureau of Corporations, had en-
abIed US to make great strides in advance
along the path of thus bringing the use of
wealth in business under the supervision and
regulation of the national government, for
in actual practice 1t has proved a sham and
pretense to say that the several states can
thus supervise and regulate it. The strides
taken by the present Congress have been
even longer in the right direction. The en-
actment Of the pure food bill and the pass
age of the bill which will render effective
the control of the government over the meat
packing Industries are really along the same
general line as the passage of the interstate
commerce law, and are second only to it in
Importance.
Extremists Not Satisfied.
Perhaps the peculiar merit of these laws
is best shown by the fact that while they
have aroused the deepest anger of the reac-
tionaries, of the men who make fetish of
wealth, they have not satisfied the unwise
extremists; and the present Congress in
achieving this merit has acted in the exact
spirit of Abraham Lincoln, who was never
to be frightened out of going forward by
the cries of those who feared progress, nor
yet to be hurried into a precipitate advance
by the demands Of the crude thinking,
though often well meaning men, who are not
accustomed soberly to distinguish between
phrase making and action.
To the men who come in the latter cate
CORY all we need to say is to bid them pos
sess their souls in peace They have ad-
vocated action but we have taken action
and the fact that this action has been sober
and temperate has been in no small degree
the cause of its far reaching efficiency.
To the former classic the reactionarfes
who seem to fear that to deal in proper
fashion with the abuses of property is some
how an attack upon property-we would re
call the words of Edmund Burke IF
wealth is obedient and laborious in. the ser
vice Of virtue and public honor, then wealth
is in its place and has its use But if this
order is changed and honor is TO be sacri-
! feed to the conservation Of riches, riches
which have neither eyes, nor hands, nor
| anything truly vital in them, cannot long
survive the well being Of their
| legitimate masters. If we com
| mand our wealth we shall be rich and free
/ If our wealth commands US we are poor
indeed
Rights of Wage Farmers.
In addition to thus dealing with the prop
er control of capitalisuic wealth, Congress
| has also taken important steps in securing
! to the wage workers certain great rights
| At the session that has just closed an en-
| ployers liability law was enacted which
! puts the national government in its proper
| place as regards such legislation.
An eight hour law was already on the
| statute books but, as is almost inevitable
with such laws, there has at first been great
| confusion to whose duty it was among
| the different public officials to enforce It.
| This confusion has now been remedied, and
| the law is in process of thorough enforce
ment- If this enforcement demonstrates the
need of additional legislation to make this
| eight hour law effective, l II all ask for such
! legislation.
/ may add that next year 1 shall ask Con-
/ gress to put in the permanent form Of law
| the provision | have made by executive or
| der for securing to the wage workers under
| the government half holidays during the
summer months, just as regular holidays are
| now secured By law for the salaried clerical
! workers in the classified service.
No Congress has ever more clearly shown
! its practical appreciation of the fact that
| the welfare of the tillers of the soil make
| the real basis of the welfare of the nation
| as a whole. We viii do everything that
| can be done to further the interests of the
| farmer and the wage worker; and this dec
/ laratiOn is subject only TO one reservation
which is. that for no man, and no body
/ of men-will do anything that is wrong.
| Our constant aim is TO do justice TO every
| man, and to treat each man as by his own
| actions he shows that he deserves to be
treated
Favors Labor Unions.
We favor the organization of labor, as
we favor the organization Of capital hut on