The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1908-04-28
ROOSEVELT MESSAGE
Continued from page 81

EMMY enacted The responsibility
Is as great on the one side as on the
other, and an abuse of power by the
Legislature in one direction IS equally
70 be condemned with an abuse OF
power by the courts in the other di-
rection. 1t is not possibly wholly to
except labor organizations from the
workings of this law, and they who
insist upon totally excepting them
IRE merely that their status
shall be kept wholly unchanged. and
sh4s they shall continue to be expos
I'd to the action which they now
Tread. obviously, an organization
not formed for profit should not DO
requiI,d to furnish statistics in any
way as complete as those furnished
W organ lltions for profit More
over, so far as labor is engaged in
production only, its claim to be ex-
empted from the antitrust law are
sound. This would substantially
cover the right Of laborers to com
btne, to strike peaceably. and to en-
ter into trade agreements with the
employers. But when labor under
takes in wrongful manner to pre-
vent the distribution and sale OF the
products Of labor, as, by certain
forms OF the boycott, 1t has left the
field of production, and It's action
may plainly be in restraint of inter-
state 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 toI
sound public policy.
The first duty of every man Is tol
9rovide livelihood for himself and
for those dependent upon him; 1t is
from every standpoint desirable that
each of our citizens should endcavorI
by hard work and honorable methods
to secure for him and his such a
competence as will carry with 1t the
opportunity to enjoy in reaI)nable
fashion the comforts and reiinements
of life; and, Furthermore, the man of
great business ability who obtains a
fortune in upright fashion inevitably
in so doing confers benefit upon
the community whole and Is en-
titled to reward. to respect and to
admiration. But among the many
kinds of evil, social, industrial, and
political. which 1t is our duty as
nation sternly to combat, there ISL
none at the same time more base and
more dangerous than the greed which
treats the plain and simple rules OF
honesty with cynical contempt II
they interfere with making proft;
and as a nation we can not be held
guiltless II we condonc such action
The man who breaches hatred OF
wealth honestly acquired, who In
culcatcs envy and jealousy and sland-
erous ill will toward those OF his fell
lows who by thrift, energy, and In
dustry have become men OF means,
is a menace to the community. But
his counterpart in evil Is to be found
in that particular kind Of multimil-
lionaire who is almost the least enyi-
able, and is certainly one OF the least
of all our citizens; whose
son Is fool and his daughter a Tor
eign princess; whose nominal pleas
ures are at best those Of tasteless
and extravagant luxury, and whose
real delight whose real life work, Is
the accumulation and use OF power
In It's most sordid and least eleNating
form. In the choas of an absolutely
commercial Individual
ism under modern conditions, this Is
a type that\ becomes prominent as IN
evitably as the marauder baron be-
came prominent in the physical chaos
OF the dark ages. We are striving
for legislation to minimize the abuses
which give this type Its Furnishing
partly for the sake 81
what can be accomplished by the leg
islation itself, and partly because the
legislation marks our participation in
a greet and stern moral movement to
bring our ideals. and our conduct into
accord