The Ketchikan miner., 1908-12-12
MESSAGE RECEIVED BY CONGRESS President Roosevelt Advocates the Adoption of
 Varied Measures for Bettering Conditions

iash;uu not only for all employees of tas, National Government, but for all ?, rsous engaged in interstate con- merre. The object sought for could iae achieved 10 measurable degree, = ,;r a> those killed or crippled are
 .e,rned, by proper employers lia- " laws. As far as concerns those sIo have been worn out. call your attention to the fact that definite steps toward providing old-age pensions have been taken in mary of our pri- vate industries. These may be indeti- nitely' extended through voluntary association and contri butory schemes, or through the agency of savings banks. as under the recent Massachus. etts plan. To strengthen these practi- cai measures should De our immediate duty; it is not at present necessary to consider the larger and more genera governmental schemes that most European governments have found themselves obliged to adopt.
 Our present system, or rather no system, works dreadful wrong, and is of benefit to only one class of people the lawyers. When workman is in- iured what he needs is not an expen- sive and doubtful lawsuit, but the certainty of reliet through immediate administrative action. The number of accidents which result in the death or crippling of wageworkers, in the Union at large, is simply appalling in very few years it runs up total far in excess of the aggregate of the dead ard wounded in any modern war. No academic theory about freedom of contractn or 'constitu- tional liberty to contract' should be permitted to interfere with this similar movement. Progress in civi- lization has everywhere meant lim- tation and regulation of contract. l call your especial attention to the bulletin of the Bureau of Labor which gives a statement of the meth- cd of treating the unemployed in European countries, as this is a sub- lect which in Germany, for instance is treated in connection with making provision for worn out and crippled workmen.
 Pending a thoroughgoing investiga- tion and action there is certain legis- alton which should be enacted at once. The law, passed at the last session of the Congress. granting com pensation to certain classes ot em. ployees of the Government, should be extended to include all employees oi the Government and should be made more liberal in its terms. There is no good ground for the distinction made in the law between those engag- ed in hazardous occupations and those not so engaged. If a man is injured or killed in any line cf work, it was hazardous in his case. Whether per cent or 10 per cent of those following given occupation actually suffer in- jury or death ought not to have any bearing on the question of their re- ceiying compensation. It is a grim logic which says to an injured em- ployee or to the dependents of one killed that he or they are entitled to DO compensation because very few people other than he have been inJur- ed or killed in that occupation. Per haps one of the most striking omis- sions in tEe law is that it does not en- brace peace officers and others whose lives may be sacrificed in enforcing the laws of the United States. The terms of the act provided compensa. ton should be made more liberal than in the present act. A years compen- sation is not adequate for wage earner's family in the event of his death by accident in the course of his employ yment. And in the event of his death occurring, say, ten or eleven months after the accident, the family would only receive as compensation the equivalent of one or two months earnings. In this respect the gener- osity Of the United States towards it's employees compares most unfavorably with that of every country n Europe even the poorest.
 l again renew my recommendation for postal savings banks, for the se- curity of -the Government behind them. The object is to encourage thrift and economy in the wage-earn- CT and person of moderate means. In fourteen States the deposits in savings banks as reported to the Comptroller Of the Currency amounts to $, jJ0, 243, 402, or gs.4 per cent of the entire de- positS, while in the remaining g States there are only s10. 3Os, 543, or l.6 per cent. showing conclusively that there are many localities in the United States where sufficient oppor- tunity, is rot given to the people to deposit their savings. The result is that money is kept in hiding and un- employed. It is believed that in the aggregate vast sums of money would