The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-20

been correets but apparently the
average 5uryman wishes to see trusts
broken up. and is quite rendy to hne
the corporation itself, but Is very re-
~Iuctnnt to find the facts sproven beyond
a reasonable doubt when 1t comes to
sending TO jail n reputable mcmber
of the business community for doing
what h business community has un-
happily grown to recognize as we'll
nigh normal in business. Moreover,
under the necessary technIenIitEes of
criminal proceedings, often the only
man who can be reached criminaIIy
will be some subordinate who is not
the real guilty party at all.
aMany men of large wealth have
been guilty of conduct which from the
moral standpoint is criminal, and their
reprehensibIe, because those commIt-
ting them have no excuse of want, of
poverty, of and ignorance to
offer as partial atonement. When in
addition to moral responsibility these
men nave "a legal responsibility which
can be proved so as to impress a Judge
and jury, then the Department will
strain every nerve to reach them
then it will take whatever action viii
be most effective under the actual con-
ditions.
"In the last six years we have
shown that there is no Individual and
no corporation so powerful that he or
II stands above the possibility of
punishment under The law.
81 very earnestly hope that the
legislation which deals with the regu-
lation of corporations engaged in in
terstate business will also deal with
the rights and interests of the wage
workers employed by those corpora
lions. Action was taken by the Com
eress last year limiting the number OF
hours that railway employees should
be employed. The law is a good one;
but If in practise 1t proves necessary
to strengthen it, 1t must be strength
ened. we have now secured a national
employers liability law, but ultimately
a more far-reaching and thorough
going law must be passed. 1t In
monstrous that n man or woman who
is crippled in an industry, even as the
result of taking whit are necessary
risks of the occupation, should be re-
CURED to bear the whole burdcn Of
the loss. That burden should be dis
tributed and not placed solely upon
the weakest individual, the one least
able to carry it. By making the en-
ployer liable the loss viii ultimately
be distributed among all the bene-
ficiaries of the business.
81 also hope that there will be Iegis-
Iation increasing the power of the
National Government to denI with
certain matters concerning the health
nf aur rQOrIa axyarx-xharo. The T-ol.,o1
authorities. for instance, should ioin
with all the State authorities in war
ring against the dreadful scourge of
tuberculosis. Your Nv State govern
ment, here in Massachusetts, deserves
high praise for the action it has taken
In these public health matters during
the last few years; and in this. as in
some other matters, l hope to see the
National Government stand abreast OF
the foremost State governments.
L have spoken of but one or two
laws which, in my Judgment, it is
eral scheme for making the inter
ference of the National Government
more effective In securing justice and
here in the United states. Let me
add. however, that while 1t is neces-
sary to have Legislation when condi-
with evils through the joint action
of all of us, yet that we can never
afford to forget that in the last analysis
NiC hiiNAiAPOlt AIT ldCiOI lO1 t1CH OIL
us must be his own individual charac-
ter. 1t is a necessary thing to have
good laws, good Institutions; but the
most necessary of all things is to have
a high quality of individual citizen
ship. This does not mean that we can
afford to neglect legislation. It will
be highly disastrous If we permit our
selves to be misled by the pleas of
those who see in an unrestricted in
dividualism the. all-sunicient p~anacea
for social evils; but 1t will be even more
disastrous to adopt the opposite pana-
cea of any socialistic system which
would destroy all individna1ism which
would root out the fibre of our whole
citizenship. In any great movement,
such as hat in which we are engaged,
nothing is more necessary than sanity,
than the refusal to be led into ex-
tremes by the advocates of the ultra
course on either side.
Those professed friends of liberty
who champion license are the worst
foes of liberty and tend by the re-
action their violence causes to throw
the Government back into the hands
of the men who champion corruption
and tyranny in the name of order.
So it is with this movement for Sc
curing justice toward all men, and
equality of opportunity so far as 1t can
be secured by governmental action.
The rich man who with hard arrogance
declines to consider the rights and the
needs of those who are less well off,
and the poor man who eXcites or in
dulges in envy and hatred of those
who are better off, are alike alien to
the spirit of our national life. Each
of them should learn to appreciate the
baseness and degradation of his point
of view, as evil in the one case as in
the other. There exists no more sordid
and ~unlovelys type of social develop
ment thar a plutocracy, for there is a
peculiar unwholesomeness I'm a social
and governmental ideal where wealth