Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-11
PRESIDENT IN
FAVOR OF TAX
4 ON lie GACIES
RooseyeltAgain Visits
jamestown
Attends Dedication of Georgia State
Building at Exposition and
Delivers Two Addresses
During Day
sx Assooiated Press.

BY Associated Press.
EXPOSITION GROUNDS, Va, June
1G-President Roosevelt today attended
the formal opening of the Georgia state
bpilding, reproduction of the ances-
trail home of his mother, and delivered
two addresses. In his speeches he ad-
vocated an Inheritance tax and legis-
lation providing for the payment of
employees injured while at work.
president Roosevelt and party left
the exposition grounds at 4:47 o'clock
this afternoon and proceeded to the
Mayfiower which started for Washing
ton at o'clock on schedule time.
In his address at the Georgia build
ing President Roosevelt spoke in part
as follows:
TT cannot express how deeply touched
Lam at the action of the state of
Georgia, my mothers state, the state
from which / draw half the blood in
my veins, in erecting as the Georgia
state house at the Jamestown eXposi-
tfon a replica of my grandfather's s
hsuse at Roswell, Ga; the house in
which my mother passed her youth and
where she was married to my father
It is an act of gracious courtesy and
consideration which l very deeply ap-
preciate; and through the governor and
other representatives of Georgia I de-
sire from my heart to thank all her
citizens.
ssEach community has its especial
temptations; and if it is wise, each
community will try to cure itself rath-
ef than to cause heartburnings by
railing at the shortcomings of sister
community. There is ample field for
the reform energies of every one of
us in his or her particular sphere of
home and neighborhood activity.
s'Not only is all of this true as be-
tween one community and another,
but it is lust as true between one class
of our citizens and another. Now and
then we meet well-meaning people who
have a genuine horror and dread of all
rich men and think of them as being
set apart by peculiar vice and iniquity.
Now and then we meet equally we'll
meaning rich men who have an equally
irrational dread of those whom they
style 'labor leaders" In each case I
think the hostility is in large part due
to want of sympathy caused by COM
plete ignorance of the men who arouse
such distrust or anger.
1--WE need laws for the control of
vast corporations such as were not
needed when the individual fortunes
were far smaller than at present and
when these fortunes were not COM
a
way we need to change our attitude
toward labor problems from what that
attitude was in the days when the
great bulk Of our people lived in the
country with no more complex labor
relations than is implied in the con-
nection between the farmer and the
hired help.
!. Wants Aid for Injured
s'The great increase in mechanical and
manufacturing operations means cor
responding increase in the number of
accidents to the wage workers employed
therein, these including both prevent
able and inevitable accidents. To the
ordinary wage workers. family such a
calamity means grim hardship. AS the
work is done for the employer, and
therefore ultimately for the public, 1t
issa bitter injustice that it should be
tlfe wage worker himself and his wife
and children who bear the whole PEN
atty. Legislation should be had, alike
from the nation and from the states, not
only to guard against the needless null
tiplication of these accidents, but to re-
lieye the financial suffering due to them.
NrLast winter congress passed a safety
appliance law which marked a long
stride in the right direction. But there
should be additional legislation to Sc
cure pecuniary compensation to work.
men suffering from accidents, and when
they are killed, to their families At pres
ent both in the sphere covered by nation
aElegislation and in the sphere covered
by state legislation the law in too many
cases leaves the financial burden of in
dRStrial accidents to be borne by the
injured workmen and their families;
and a workman who suffers from an
accident either has no case at all for re-
dress or else Qlust undertake suit for
damages against his employer. The
present practice is based on the view
announced nearly seventy years ago
that principles of justice and good
sense demand that a workman shall
take upon himself all the ordinary risks
of his occupation In my view, prin-
ciples of justice and good sense demand
the very reverse of this view.
N"AS matter of fact, there Is no sound
economic reason for distinction between
accidents caused by negligence and
those which are unavoidable, and the
law should be such that the payment of
those accidents will become automatic
instead of being a matter for a law
suit. Workrnen should receive certain
definite and limited compensation for all
accidents in industry, irrespective of
negligence"
FaVors Inheritance Tax
In his speech to editors the president
called attention TO the work for which
the Inland Waterways commission has
been appointed recently. He stated
that its duty was to propose a COM
prehensive plan for the utilization of
the great potential highways of the
nation, and that it was clearly i'm
possible for it to accomplish its great
task without considering the relation
of streams to the conservation and use
of all other natural resources. 81 have
asked that it do so
President Roosevelt dealt at length
with the question of an income and
Inheritance tax, saying, in part:
-.Now as to the matter of taxation.
Most great civilized countries have an
income tax and an inheritance tax
In my judgment both should be part
of our system of federal taxation. /
speak diffidently about the income tax
because one scheme for an income tax
was declared unconstitutional by the
supreme court by vote of five to
four; and in addition it is a difficult
tax to administer in its practical work
tngs and great care would have to be
exercised to see that it was not evaded
NV fha very man whom il is most de-