The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1908-05-01
A HOT MESSAGE
FROM ROOSEVELT
Stirs Up Trusts And Their
Heads in Beanville
Labor Is Engaged in Production
Only and Should Not be Requir-
ed to Furnish Statistics

Washington, April 2S.-President
Roosevelt's special message with ref
erence to legislation needed to control
the trust of the country was read this
morning. 1t created much comment
because it is a warm document. The
president speaks in his usual plain
and unequivocal way and he has STIR
red up some of the trust aggregations
of the country especially those in
Boston, by his charges against them,
The following is a brief portion OF
the message:
In my message to the congress OF
March %, 1908, | outlined certain
measures which / believe the majority
of our countrymen desire to have en-
acted into law at this time. These
measures do not represent by any
means all that | would like to see done
if l thought it possible but they do
represent what believe can now be
done If an earnest effort toward this
end is made.
Since / wrote this message an en-
ployers liability law has been enact
ed which it is true comes short OF
what ought to have been done but
which does represent a real advance.
"A strong effort has been made to
have labor organizations completely
exempted from any of the operations
of this law whether or not their acts
are in restraint of trade. Such excep-
ton would in all probability make the
bill unconstitutional and the legisla-
ture has no more right to pass bill
without regard to whether it is con-
stitutional than the courts have light
ly to declare unconstitutional a law
which the Legislature has solemnly
enacted. The responsibility is as
great on the one side as on the other
and an abuse of power by the legisla-
ture in one direction is equally to be
condemned with an abuse of power by
the courts in the other direction. 1t is
not possible wholly to except labor
organizations from the working of
this law, and they who insist upon
totally excepting them are merely
providing that their statue shall be
kept wholly unchanged and that they
shall continue to be exposed to the ac-
ton which they now dread. Obvious
ly, an organization not formed for
profit should not be required TO fur
nish statistics in any way as COM
plete as those furnished by organiza-
lions for profit. Moreover, so far as
labor is engaged in production only
its claims to be exempted from the
antitrust law are sound. This would
substantially cover the right of labor
ers to combine, to strike peaceably,
and to enter into trade agreements
with the employers. But when labor
undertakes in a wrongful manner to
prevent the distribution and sale of
the products of labor, as by certain
forms of the boycott 1t has left the
field of production and its action may
plainly be in restraint of interstate
trade and must necessarily be subject
to inquiry, exactly as in the case of
any other combination for the same
purpose so as to determine whether
such action is contrary to sound pub
lie policy. The heartiest encourage
ment should be given to the wage
workers to form labor union and to
enter into agreements with their en-
ployers; and their right to strike SO
long as they act peaceably must be
preserved. But we should sanction
neither boycott nor blacklist which
would be illegal at common law.
The measures / advocate are in the
interest both of decent corporations
and of law-abiding labor unions. They
are moreover prominently in the in
terest of the public for in my judg-
ment the American people have def
nitely made up their minds that the
days of the reign of the great law-de-
flying and law-evading corporations
are over and that from this time on
the mighty organizations of capital
necessary for the transactions of bus
mess under modern conditions while
encouraged SO long as they act hon
estly and in the interest of the gen.
eral public are to be subjected to
careful supervision and regulation Of
a kind SO effective as to insure their
acting in the interest of the people
as whole.
Allegations are often made to the
effect that there is no real need for