The morning journal-courier., 1908-09-08
The Gunwale Race, One of the Best of the Day

government did not hestow them upon us--the government cannot righfully withdraw them from us. we all come into the world without our yoliton; the environment of youth largely de- termines the course of our lives, and this environment is not of our choos- ing. We live under the same moral obligations. and are responsible to the same Supreme Being. We have our needs that must be supplied. we re- quire food clothing, shelter, compan- ionship. We have our domestic ties, and the tenderness of these ties is not measured by wealth or position in so- ciety. Man has used petty distinc- tons 10 separate society into different classes, but these distinctions are in- significant when compared with the great simllarlties that unite us in common destiny and impel us toward common end
 on this day it Is well to emphasize the fact that we are linked together by bonds which we could not break if we would and should not weaken If we could It ought to be easy to learn this lesson in the United States. for here. more than anywhere else, people feel their interdependence. We have no law of primogeniture to separate the oldest son from his brothers and sisters and we have no law of entail to prevent the alienation of an estate. There ls no aristocracy resting upon birth or kingly favor; and If the people perform their civic duties there will be no plutocracy rul- ing in the name of the dollar Here ! the road to advancement Is a public ] highway. and 1t Is within our power to keep t open to all alike. Here, ! too. the government ls within the con | trol of the people, and no department ] of the service is out of the reach of I the voter or beyond the influence of public opinion Under our constitu- ton some branches of the government arc more responsive than others to the public will but our government can be controlled by the people from ] tho organic law which we call the constitution to the statute and the courts decree.
 X long step toward tho elevation of ] labor to ts proper position In the na- l tlons deliberations is to he found in the establishment of a department of 1 labor, with a cabinet officer at It's head. The wage-earners deserve this recognition. and the executive Is entl- tied to the assistance which such an official could render him. l regard the Inauguration of this reform as the opening of new era in which those who toll will have voice in the de- Alterations Of the presidents council chamber.
 The labor organization has beo l seriously handicapped by the fact that
 1t has been--and I am not sure tha; lt has no, been done unwittlnpv.- yoked up with the industrial combina- tions known as trusts. The proneneSs of trust defenders to use the labor or Ranization as an excuse for comblna- lions in restraint of trade has aroused tho suspicion that they nave been chased together for the purpose of shielding tho combinations Of capt. tai. As the result of eighteen years Of antitrust legislation. only one man has been given penal sentence for violating the federal law on this sub ject. and that man was member of a labor organization rather than a trust magnate The laborlng man IS justified in his demand that dis tinction shall be drawn between the labor organization and the industrial monopoly
 The trust and the labor organization cannot be described in the same Ian guage, The trust magnates nave used their power to amass swollen fortunes while no one will say that he labor organization has as yet secured for It's members more than their share f the profits arising from their work. But there are fundamental differences. The trust is q combination of dollars; tue labor organization Is an associa- ton of human beings. In trust a flow men attempt to control the prod uct of others in labor orga nizatior, the members unite for the protection of that which Is their own. namely, their own labor. which, being neces- sarN to their existence. Is a part of them, The trust deals with lead ma. ter; the labor organization deals with life and with intellectual md moral forces. No impartial student of the subject will deny the right of the h. boring man to exemption from the ca. eration of the existing antitrust law.
 If the labor organization needs 60 be regulated hy law, let if be reguat- ed by a law which deals with man as