The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-08

WageWOrker or railway, mil ana fac-
tory. In farming this simply means
that we wish to see the farmer own
his own land. We do not wish to see
the farms so large that they become
the property of absentee landlords
who farm them by tenants nor yet so
small that the farmer becomes like a
European peasant.
| Again, the depositors in our savings
banks now number over one-tenth of
our entire population. These are all
capitalists, who, through the savings
| banks, loan their money to the workers
| that is, in many cases to themselves
| to carry on their various industries.
| The more we increase their number
| the more we introduce the principles
| of cooperation into our industry. Ev-
| cry increase in the number of small
| stockholders in corporations is a good
| thing for the same reasons, and where
the employees are the stockholders the
result is particularly good Very much
| of this movement must be outside of
| anything that can be accomplished by
| legislation, but legislation can do a
| good deal. Postal savings banks will
make it easy for the poorest to keep
| their savings in absolute safety The
| regulation of the national highways
must be such that they shall serve all
people with equal justice. Corporate
| finances must be supervised so as to
| make it far safer than at present for
the man of small means to invest his
money in stocks. There must be pro-
hibition of child labor, diminution of
| woman labor, shortening of hours of
| all mechanical labor Stock watering
/ ch ho
| bling, so far as is possible, discouraged.
/ There should be progressive inner
| itance tax on large fortunes. Indus
| trial education should be encouraged
/ AS far as possible we should tighten
| the burden of taxation on the small
! man. We should put premium upon
thrift, hard work and business energy,
but these qualities cease to be the main
| factors in accommodating a fortune long
before that fortune reaches a point
| where it would be seriously affected by
any inheritance tax such as I propose
1t is eminently right that the nation
should fix the terms upon which the
great fortunes are inherited. They
rarely do good, and they often do
harm to those who inherit them in
their entirety.
Protection For Waseworkers.
The above is the merest sketch,
hardly even a sketch in outline, of the
reforms for which we should work
But there is one matter with which
the congress should deal at this ses-
sion. There should no longer be any
paltering with the question of taking
care of the wageworkers who, under
our present industrial system, become
killed, crippled or worn out as part of
the regular incidents of a given bust
ness. The majority of wageworkers
must have their rights secured for
them by state action, but the national
government should legislate in thor
oughgoing and farreaching fashion,
not only for all employees of the ma
tional government, but for all persons
engaged in interstate commerce. The
object sought for could be achieved
to a measurable degree, as far as
those killed or crippled are concerned,
by proper employers liability laws
AS far as concerns those who have
been worn out, 1 call your attention to
the fact that definite steps toward
providing old age pensions have been
taken in many of our private indus
tries. These may be indefinitely ex-
tended through voluntary association
and contributory schemes or through
the agency of savings banks, as under
the recent Massachusetts plan. To
strengthen these practical measures
should be our immediate duty. 1t is
not at present necessary to consider
the larger and more general govern
mental 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 a workman is
injured what he needs is not an ex-
pensive and doubtful lawsuit, but the
certainty of relief 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 a very
few years it runs up total far in ex-
cess of the aggregate of the dead and
wounded in any modern war No
academic theory about freedom of |
contract or constitutional liberty to |
contract" should be permitted to in
terfere with this and similar move |
ments. Progress in civilization has |
everywhere meant a limitation and |
regulation of contract. 1 call your |
espe | attention TO the bulletin of the !
bureau of labor which gives a state |
ment of the methods of treating the |
unemployed in European countries, as |
this is a subject which in Germany, |
for instance, is treated in connection
with making provision for wornout |
and crippled workmen.
Pending a thoroughgoing inyestfea-