Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1908-02-06
IN SPECIAL MESSAGE
President Urges Necessity Of Ger
tain Labor Legislation.
FOR ENFORCING THE LAWS
Refers to the Bitter and Persistent
Attacks Now Being Made on
the Administration.

Washington, Feb. i. - President
Roosevelt has sent a special message
to congress in which he again calls
attention to the abuse of injunctions
in labor cases and urges remedial leg
islation. The president also recon-
mends the re-enactment of the EN-
ployers' liability act, recently de-
clared unconstitutional, limited in
scope to apply only to interstate COM
merce. He refers at length to gam
bling in stocks and futures and urges
that action be taken to prevent at
least the making Of large sales of
what men do not possess and corner
ing the market. In recommending the
strengthening of antitrust laws he
calls attention to the bitter and per
sistent attacks on the administration
now being made by corporations
brought to the bar of justice for viola
| ton of law. On this subject he says,
in part:
The attack by the great corpora
lions on the administrations actions
lldfG DCGI S1NCH q WluC ~ ieltl
throughout the country, in the news
papers and otherwise, by those writer's
and speakers who, consciously OF UNI
consciously, act as the representatives
of predatory wealth-of the wealth
accumulated on a giant scale by all
forms of i%niquity, ranging from the
oppression of wage workers to unfair
~.J ,--l,-J~-~., ~,@4l>~l1 ~F 1-,,,l,;-,,
cut competition, and to ~defrauding
the public by stock jobbing and the
manipulation of securities. The adj
ministration and those who support
its views are not only not engaged in
an assault on property, but are siren
uous upholders of the rights of prop
erty. The books and pamphlets, the
controlled newspapers, the speeches
by public or private men to which |
refer, are usually and especially In
the interest of the Standard Oil trust
and of certain notorious railroad com
binations, but they also defend other
individuals and corporations of great
wealth that have been guilty of wrong.
doing. 1t is only rarely that the men
responsible for the wrongdoing them.
selves speak or write. Normally they
hire others to do their bidding or find
others who will do it without hire.
Every Honest Measure Opposed.
From the railroad rate law to the
pure food law every measure for hon.
esty in business that has been passed
during the last six years has been OPP.
posed by these men on it's passage
and in its administration with every
resource that bitter and INSCRIPTIONS
craft could suggest and the command
of almost unlimited money secure. But
for the last year the attack has been
made with most bitterness upon the
actual administration of the law, espe-
cially through the department Of jus.
tice, but also through the interstate
commerce commission and the bureau
of corporations. The extraordinary
violence of the assaults upon our pol
icy contained in these speeches, edi
torials, articles, advertisements and
pamphlets and the enormous sums OF
money spent in these various ways
give a fairly accurate of the
anger and terror which our public &C.
lions have caused the corrupt men
of vast wealth to feel in the very mar.
row of their being.
We act in no vindictive spirit and
we are no respecter of persons We
seek to stop wrongdoing and we de.
sire to punish w%rongdoers only so far
as it is necessary to achieve this end
We seek to control law defying
wealth; in the first place to prevent
it's doing dire evil to the republic and
in the next place 10 avoid the vindic-
live and dreadful radicalism which, If
left uncontrolled, ii is certain in the
end to rouse
The methods by which the Standard
Oil people and others have achieved
great fortunes a only be justified by
the advocacy of a system of morals
which would also justify every form
of criminality on the part of a labor
union and every form of violence, cor
ruption and fraud, from murder to
bribery and ballot box stuffing in poll
tics.