The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-06
rwo IApon DAY SPEECHES.

MIR. Taft made a speech yesterday
before the Minnesota State Agricul-
tural Society at St Paul in celebra-
ton of Labor Day. Colonel Roose-
Welt made a Labor Day speech at Far
go, North Dakota. The Colonefs
speech was three or four times as
long as the Presidents: the Presi-
dents was three or four times as good
as the Coloners. The President was
concise, the ColoneI discursire; the
President said something worth say
ing because he had something TO say
worth saying; the Colonel said some
thing because he was expected TO say
something, but he said nothing new
and nothing that he had not already said
many times, and that he Will not say
again many times. so readily do his
homilies, which are of the patent re-
yersible kind, lend themselves to any
occasion and any audience. the Pfes'-
dent was practical; the Colonel PM
losophical for want of better term
The President was speaking In the
United States for men of flesh and
blood; the Colonel was beating the
air of some Utopia wherein only sucn
| creatures as Jacob Riis and Garlielo
and Pinchot, not TO mention CLAWS
and Kerpy, can dwell. The President
meant what he said; the Colonel dian
| know what he meant by what he SAID
| The former was, clear as mountain
stream, the latter utterly "confusti-
| Gated" A few specimen quotations
from what they said will illustrate
| the point we have in mind.
i ,rhe Colonel:-.I believe in the prln-
cinle OF organized labor. This does
not mean that l unequivocally indorso
any ana all practices that labor or
CARNATIONS may happen to adopt,
Sometimes they act very we'll, and
sometimes they act very badly; and l
am for them when they act well, and
am against them when they act
badly. Whether In man or In
4 an organized body of men, the power
may be twisted into evil; and in pro-
portion as the power grows, so 1t be-
. comes steadily more important that
HI should be handled Alright. Our
social organization Is too complex Tor
us TO fail quickly to condemn those
who, with levity or in spirit OF
wanton brutality, bring about far
reaching and disastrous interference
with It's normal processes"
The president:-''rhis is Labor Day
day given over to emphasizing the
Importance of manual labor in ouI
civilization and to pr9perly eXaltina
its dignity. j. Instead of being a
mere manual vocation as 1t was years
ago, it (farming) now has become a
scientific and practical profession.
All this legislation (enumeratng it)
4 has been in the interest of the farmers
and might be characterized as class
legislation: but so great is the genera
public interest in the promotion o
agriculture that it cannot be termed
unduly privileged or Objectionable.
This legislation (the establishment o
bureau OF labor, compensation fo
those injured on Interstate railways
the allen contract law, the bureau Of
| mines) is in the interest and for thu
! benefit Of class--the worklngmen
} btit they are SO large class and thei,
! twe1fare IS SO important at large tina
IL while it might be characterized a
n glass legislation 1t is greatly for tn
$ public veal and cannot be dominated
e privileged or Objectionable, p. Blu
d there is a kind of legislation tina
g does come under the head q
vicious class leglslation-the lsglsla-