Arizona republican., 1908-12-09

aspects is not now necessary. This
 administration is nearing its end; and, moreover, under our form of
 government the solution of the prob lem depends upon the action of the
 of the nation. Nevertheless, there
 are certain considerations which l
 wish to set before you, because l
 hope that our people will more and
 more keep thems in mind. A blind
 and ignorant resistance to every ef-
 fort for the reform of abuses and
 for the readjustment of society to
 modern industrial conditions repre-
 sents not true conservatism but an
 indictment to the widest radicalism;
 for wise radicalism and wise conserv- atism go hand in hand, one bent on
 progress, and the other bent on see
 ing that no change is made unless in
 the right direction. I believe in a steady effort, or perhaps it would be
 more accurate to say in steady eff
 forts in many different directions. to
 bring about a condition of affairs under which the men who work with hand or with brain, the laborers, the
 
 duce for the market and the men who find a market for the articles produced. shall own a far greater share than at present of the wealth they produce,/ and be enabled to in vest it in the tools and instruments by which all work is carried on As far as possible I hope to see a frank recognition of, the advantages confer red by machinery, organization. and division, of labor, accompanied by an effort to bring about a larger share in the ownership by wage worker of railway, mill and factory. In farming, this simply means that we wish to see the farmer own his own land; we do not wish to see the farms so large that they become the property of absentee landlords who farm them by tenants. nor yet so small that the farmer becomes like a European peasont. Again, the depos- itors in our savings banks now num- Der over tenth of our entire population. These are all capital ists. who through the savings banks loan their money to the workers that is. in many cases to themselves to carry on their various indus tries. The more We increase their number. the more we introduce the principles of cooperation into our industry. Every increase in the num- Der of small stockholders in corpo- ratiOns is a good thing, for the same reasons; and where the employees are the stockholders the result Is par ticularly good. Very much of this must be outside of any thing that can be accomplished by but legislation can do a good deal. Postal savings banks will make it easy for the poorest to keep their savings in absolute safety. The regulation of the national highways must be such that they shall serve all people with equal justice Corpo- rate finances must be supervised SO as to make it far safer than at present for the man of small means to invest his money in stocks. There must be prohibition of child labor, of woman labor, shorten ing of hours of all mechanical labor; stock watering should be prohibited. and stock gambling as far as is pos sible discouraged. There should be a progressive inheritance tax on large fortunes. Industrial education should be encouraged. As far as possible we should tighten the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put a premium upon thrift, hard work. and business energy; but these qualities cease to be main fac tors in accommodating a fortune long before that fortune reaches a point where it would be seriously affected by any inheritance tax such as I propose It is eminently right that the nation should fix the terms upon which the great fortunes are inner tied. They rarely do good and they often do harm to those who inherit them in their entirety.
 Protection of Labor.
 The above is the merest sketch, hardly even a sketch in outline, of the reforms which we should work. But there is one matter with which the congress should deal at this ses- sion There should no longer be any paltering with the question of talk ing care of the wage workers who. under our present industrial system. DtcOillt hilitts NiipBiths ot .Noiii out as a part of the regular incidents of a given business. The majority of wage workers must have their rights secured for them by state action; but the national government should legislate in thoroughgoing and far reaching fashion not only for all employees of the national government, but for all persons engaged in inter state commerce. The object sought for could be achieved to a measur- able degrees, as far as those killed pr crippled are concerned, by proper employers liability laws. As far as concerns those who have been worn out, I call your attention to the fact that definite steps toward providing Old-age pensions have been taken in many of our private industries. These may be indefinitely extended through voluntary association and contribu- tory schemes, or through the agency of savings banks, as under the re- cent Massachusetts plan. To strength en these practical measures should be our immediate duty; it is not at present necessary to consider the larger and more general government al schemes that most European coun- tries have found themselves obliged to adopt.
 Cur present system, or rather no system, works dreadful wrong, and