The Colorado statesman., 1908-05-02
PRESIDENT IN SPECIAL MESSAGE
ASKS FOR NEEDED LEGISLATION
WOULD CURB LAw-DEFYINe CORPORATIONS RESTRICT
SCOPE ERGENcY
ESTABLISHMENT POSTAL SAVINGS

repetition of the abuses which have
caused the present unrest.
In democracy like ours it is idle
to expect permanently to thwart the de-
termination of the great body of our
citizens. 1t may be, and often is, the
highest duty of a court, a legislature
or an executive to resist and defy
gust of popular passion; and most GER
tainly no public servant knows what
may be the consequences to himself
should he yield to what he thinks
wrong.
But in a question which is emphat
ically one of public policy the policy
which the public demand is sure in
the end to be adopted, and persist
ent refusal to grant to large portion
of our people what is right is only too
certain in the end to result in causing
such irritation that when the right is
obtained it is obtained in movement
so ill-considered and violent as to be
accompanied by much that is wrong.
The process of injunction in labor
troubles, as well as where state laws
are involved, should be used spar
ingly and only when there is the clear
est necessity for it; but it is one SO
necessary to the efficient perform
ance of the duty of courts on behalf
of the nation that it is in the highest
degree to be regretted that 1t should
be liable to reckless use; for this reck-
less use tends to make honest men to
desire to SO hamper its execution as to
destroy its usefulness.
Every far-sighted patriot should
protest first of all against the growth
in this country of that evil thing
which is called class consciousness
The demagogue, the sinister or Social
ist visionary who strives to arouse
this feeling of class consciousness in
our working people does a foul and
evil thing; for he is no true American,
he is no self-respecting citizen of this
republic, he forfeits his right to stand
with manly self-reliance on a footing
of entire equality with all other citi-
zens, who bows to envy and greed, who
erects this doctrine of class hatred
into a shibboleth, who substitutes
loyalty to men of particular status,
whether rich or poor for loyalty to
the eternal and immutable principles
of righteousness which bid us treat
each man on his worth as a man with
out regard to his wealth or poverty.
But evil though the influence of
it is no worse in it's consequences than
the Influences exercised by the man of
great wealth or the man of power and
position in the industrial world who
by his lack of sympathy with and lack
of understanding to, the millions of
our working people, tends to unite
| them against their fellow Americans
who are better off in this world S
goods.
1T is a bad thing to teach our work
| ing people that men of means who
! have the largest proportion of the sub
! stantial comforts of life are necessarily
| greedy, grasping and cold-hearted and
/ that they unjustly demand and appro-
| pirate more than their share of the
| substance of the many. Stern condem-
nation should be visited upon dema-
| gogues and visionary who teach this
untruth, and sterner still upon those
| capitalists who are in truth grasping
and greedy and brutally disregardful
of the rights of others, and who by
their actions teach the dreadful lesson
far more effectively than any mere
| preacher of unrest.
"A class grievance left too long
without remedy breeds class con
sciousness,' and therefore class re-
| sentiment.
The strengthening of the antitrust
| law is demanded upon moral and eco
nomical grounds. Our purpose in
| Strengthening it is to secure more eff
fective control by the national gov
| vast masses of individual and espe-
cially of corporate wealth, which at
the present time monopoliZe most OF
the interstate business of the country;
and We believe the control can best
be exercised by preventing the growth
of abuses, rather than merely by trying
! to destroy them when they have al
ready grown. In the higher sense OF
the word this movement for thorough
control of the business use of this
great wealth is conservative.
The heartiest encouragement should
be given to wage workers to form labor
unions and to enter into agreement
with their employers, and their right to
strike so long as they act peaceable
must be preserved. But we should
sanction neither boycott nor a black
list which would be illegal at common
law.
The measures | advocate are in the
interest of both decent corporations
and law abiding labor unions. They are
moreover, pre-emlnently In the interest
of the public, for in my judgment the
American public have definitely made
up their mind that the days of the reign
of the great law defying and law evad
ing corporations are over and that from
this time on the mighty organizations
of capital necessary for the transaction
of business under modern conditions
while encouraged so long as they act
.| ] lnnDCt1N in, n q
eral public, are to be subjected tC
careful supervision and regulation of q
kind so effective as to insure their act
ing in the interest of the people as a
whole"