Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-04-28
A STRONG MESSAGE
FROM THE PRESIDENT
In Which He Urges Congress to Pass
Certain Measures Of Great I'm
portanCe to the Country.

of the abuses which have caused the
present unrest. In a democracy like
ours it is idle to expect permanently
to thwrrt the determination of the
great body of our citizens. 1t may be
and often is the highest duty of a
court, legislature, or an executive,
to resist and defy gust of popular
passion; and most certainly no public
servant, whatever may be the conse-
qucnces to himself should yield to
what he thinks wrong But in a ques-
ton whicn is cmphatically one OF pub
lie policy, the policy which the public
demands is sure in the end to be adopt
cd; and Il persistent refusal to grant
to Il large portion of our people what
is right is only too apt in the end TO
result III causing such irritation that
when the right is obtained it is OBJ
tanned in the course of a movement
so i'll considered and violent as to be
accompanied " much that is wrong.
rho proc CSs of injunction in labor DIS
lute&, a!~ well as where State laws arc
involved should be used sparingly
and only when there is the clearcst
necessity for it: but it is one So neces-
sary - the efficient performance Of
duty u, the court on behalf of the Ma
ton that it is in the highest degree t.
be regretted that it should be liable to
reckless use; for this reckless use tends
10 make honest mon desire so Ia nam
prs it's execution as to destroy its use
lulnesS
every iarsightcd patriot should pro-
tcst first of ell against the growth In
this country Of that evil thing which
IS called "cass consciousness me
iJ magoSuc, the sinister or foolish so
cialist visionary who strives to arouse
this feeling Of class consciousness IN
or working people, does foul and
evil thing; for he is no true Amerl-
can, IL is no sclf-reSpecting citizen OF
this H2uu,yiic, he forfeits his right to
stand with manly sclf-reliance on q
footing Of entire equality with all 9TH
r. citizens, who bows to envy and
grccd, who crrcts the doctrine of class
l3trcd into q ShibbolCtl. who SubSti-
utes loyalty To inen of a particular
status. whether rich or poor. for 10y
| lty to those eternal and immutable
principles Of righteousness which bid
is treat each man on his worth as 4
MAN WITHOUT ItSttlu " HIS WEALTH VI
ni.; poverty. But evil though the in
| lucncc of these demagogues and Wis
| Sionaries is, it is no worse in its con-
| sequences than the influence exer-
| Used by the man of great wealth OF
| the man Of power and position in tho
| Industrial world, who by his lack OF
sympathy with. and lack of under
standing of, still more by any exhibit
| ton Of uncompromising hostility to
| the millions of our working people
tends to unite them against their fel-
| low-Americans who are better off il
| this worlds goods 1t is a bad thing
| to teach our working people that mef
| Of means, that men who have the
| largest proportion of the substantial
| comforts of life, are necessaril!
| greedy. graSping. and cold-hearted
| and that they unjustly demand ant
appropriate more than their share o
| the substance of the many. Steri
| condemnation should be visited upoi
| dcmagogue and visionary who teacl
| this untruth. and even sterner upol
those capitalists who are in trutl
| grasping and greedy and brutal,
| 1isrcgardfuI of the rights Of others
and who by their actions teach TIL
| dreadful lesson far more effectivel,
than any mere preacher of unrest. 4
CLASS grievance left too long with
| out remedy breeds "class conscious
ncss' and therefore class resentment.
The strengthening of the antitrus
| law is; demanded upon both moral ant
| economic grounds. Our purpose il
| strengthening it is to secure more eff
| fective control by the National Gov
eminent over the business use of thu
vast masses of individual, and es
| pecially Of corporate. wealth, which
| at the present time monopolize mos
| Of the interstate business of the coun
try; and we believe the control car
best be exercised by preventing thu
| growth of abuses, rather than mere
| ly by trying to destroy them wher
they have already grown. In thu
| highest sense of the word this move
| GNoptin11cd on page Eight