Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-08-20
ROOSEVELT FLAYS
TWO BAD EXTREMES
CONTINUED from First Page.)

them nave no excuse OF want, of pow
erty, of weakness and ignorance Il
offer as partial atonement When III
addition to moral responsibility these
men have a legal responsibility which
can be proved so as to impress judge
and jury. then the department. will
strain every nerve to reach them
crimnaly. Where this Is impossible
then 1t will take whatever action will
be most effective under the actual con-
ditions.
Corporation Power Curbed.
In the last six years we have shown
that there is no individual and no
corporation so powerful that he or it
stands above the possibility of punish
ment under the law
During present trouble with stock
market 1 have of course received
countless requests and suggestions
publlc and private, that / should say
or do something to ease the situation
as there is Worldwide financial dis
turbance. 1t is felt in bourses of Paris
and Berlin. British consols are lower.
while prices of railway securities have
also deprecated on the New Yorl,
stock exchange. The disturbance has
| l.
believe to be due to matters not
| particularly confined to the United
States and to matters wholly uncon-
nected with any governmental action,
4 but 1t may we'll be that the deter1nin-
alton OF the government, in which, gem
tiemen. 1t will not waver. to punish
certain malefactors of great wealth,
VINO have been responsible for some
| thing OF, the troubles. If they have
| been misled on this point the govern
ment Will not falter. Once for all let
me say that so far as | am concerned
and for the eighteen months of my adj
| ministration that yet remain there will
be no change nor let up in the effort
to secure honest observance of the
law, for l regard this case a struggle
tor supremacy between the people,
| thru their governmental agencies. and
few ruthless but determined men,
whose money makes them especially
formidable behind their breat works of
corporation organization. l wish nc,
mistake TO be made. But l desire to-
nave 1t understood that we must con-.
tinue to enforce fair dealing of man
with man and 1t will be our aim to
help every honest corporation and do
no harm to any of them
l very earnestly hope that the legis-
lation which deals with the regulation
of corporations engaged in interstate
business will also deal with the rights
and interests of the wageworkers en-
ployed by those. corpora TONS Action
was taken by Yl1e congress last year
limiting the number of hours that rail-
oh Ha
The law is good one; but If in prac-
zee 1t proves necessary to strengthen
IL, 1t must be strengthened. We have
now secured a national employers liza
ollity law; but ultimately a more far
reachlhgt and thorough-going law must
De passea, 1t is monstrous that man
on woman who is crippled in an indus
Try even as the result of taking what
are me necessary risks of the occupa-
tioh should be required to bear the
whole burden of the loss. That bur-
aen should be distributed and not
plae solely upon the weakest indi-
VidIai, the one least able to carry il.
ny making the employer liable the loss
VIII ultimately be distributed among
a.! the beneficiaries of the business.
Individual Also Needs Laws.
nave spoken of but one or two
iaWs which, in my Judgment it is adj
Vlsable to enact as a part of the gem
eral scheme for making the interfer-
ence, of the national government more
eHectiVe in securing justice and ia II
dealing as between man and man here
IN the United States. Let me add
however, that While it is necessary to
have legislation when conditions arise
Where we can only cope with evils
thfu the joint action of all of us. vet
mat We can never afford to forget
thai in the last analysis the all-impor-
.tant factor for each of us must be his
own Individual character 1t is
necessary thing to have good laws,
good institutions: but the most neces-
sary OF all things is to have a high
quality of individual citizenship. This
does not mean that we can afford to
neglect legislation. 1t will be highly
disastrous If we permit ourselves to
be misled by the pleas of those who
see in an unrestricted individualism
the all-sufficient panacea for social
evils; but it will be even more disas-
trous to adopt the opposite panacea
of any socialistic system which would
root out the fiber of our whole citi-
zenship. In any great movement. such
as that in which we are engaged, moth
ing is more necessary than sanity, than
the refusal to be led into extremes
by the advocates of the ultra course
on either side. Those protested friends
of liberty who champion license are
the worst foes of liberty and tend oy
the reaction their violence causes 10
throw the government back into the
hands of the men who champion cor
ruption and tyranny in the name of
order. So 1t is with this movement
for securing justice toward all men.
and equality of opportunity so far as
it can be secured by governmental
action. The rich man who with hard
arrogance declines to consider the
we'll off. and the poor man who ex-
cites or INDUCES 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 appre-
ciate 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 unlovely type Of
social development than a plutocraey, I
for there is a peculiar unwholesome- I
ness in social and governmental
ideal where wealth by and OF itself is |
held up as the greatest good. The /
of such view, whether
il finds its expression in the life of a