Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1907-05-30


of time, serving his country with en-
tire devotion--a death that every
man may well envy.
Present Duties Those of Peace.
"The men of the generation which
fought the Civil War had their great
tasks to perform. They met them as
strong men should have met them.
They did them, and we, their children
profit by their mighty deeds. But no
generation can ever plead the great
deeds of its predecessors as an eX-
cuse for failing to perform its own
duties. Our duties are those of peace
and not of war. Nevertheless they
are of the utmost Importance; Of i'm
portance to ourselves, and of still
greater Importance to the children
who in few years will take our
places as the men and women Of this
Republic. If we wish to show our
selves worthy heirs Of the men of the
Civil War, we must do our tasks with
the thoroughness with which they did
theirs
Solution of Great Problems of Today.
Great social an industrial prob
lens confront us, and their solution
demands on our part unfal,ering
courage, and yet wise, good-natured
self-restrant; so tnat on the one
hand we shall neither BE- daunted by
difficulties nor fooled by those who
would seek to persuade us that the
difficulties are insuperable; while on
the other hand we are not misled into
showing either rasnness or vindic-
tiveness. Let us try as a people to
show the same qualities as we deal
with the industrial and social prob
lens Of today that Abraham Lincoln
showed when with indomitable reso-
luton, but with kindness, patience,
and common sense quite as remark
able, he faced -FOUR weary years of
open war in front of calumny, detrac-
ton and intrigue from behind, and
at the end gave to his councrymen
whom he had served SO well the
blood-fought gift of a race freed and
a nation united.
Federal Control of Railroads.
Zone great problem that we have
before us is to preserve the rights of
property; and .hese can only be pre-
served If we remember that they are
in less jeopardy from the socialist
and the anarchist than from the pre-
datCry man of wealth. 1t has be-
come evident that 70 refuse to invoke
the power of the nation to restrain
the Wrongs committed by the man OF
great wealth who does evil is not only
To neglec. the interests of the public,
but is to neglect the interests of the
man OF means who acts honorably by
his fellows. The power of the nation
must be eXerted to stop crimes of
cunning no less than crimes of vo-
lence. There can no hal. in the
course we have deliberately elected
to pursue, the policy of asserting the
right of the nation, SO far as it has the
power, to supervise and control the
business use of wealth, especially in
its corporate form. Today wish to
say word to you about the first and
most important feature of this task,
the, control of the common carriers
doing an interstate business; con.
troll absolutely vested in the nation,
while in so far as the common car
riers also transport the mails it Is in
my opinion probable that whether
their business is or is not interstate
it is to the same extent subject to
Federal control, under that clause of
the Constitution granting to the Ma
tional Government power to establish
post roaGs and therefore by necessary
implication power to take all action
necessary in order to keep them at
the highest point of efficiency.
Rapidly Correcting Evils.
every Federal law dealing with
corporations or with railroads that
has been put upon the statute books
during the last six years has been
step in advance in the right direction.
All action taken by the administration
under these and the pre-existing laws
has been just and proper. Every
suit undertaken during that period
has been suit not merely warranted,
but required, by the facts; a suit in
the interest of the people as a whole,
and, in the long run, particularly in
the interest of stockholders, as well
as in the interest of business men
of property generally. There can oe
no swerying from the course that has
thus been mapped out in the legisla-
ton actually enacted and in the mes
sages in which ] have asked for fur
ther legislation. We best serve the
interests of the honest railway men
| when we announce that we will fol
low out precisely this course. 1t is
the course of real, of ultimate con-
servatism, There will be no halt in
the forward movement toward full
development. of this policy; and
those Who wish us to take a step
backward or to stand still, if their
wishes were realized, would find that
they had invited an outbreak of the
very radicalism they fear. There
must be progressive legislative and