Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1910-09-08
Roosevelt AXIS
TO LABOR WORLD.
His Best Friends Numbered
Among Union O Organizations.
DISHONEST LEADER i i CURSE,

pioyers' Liability-Favors Planks Of
Federation Of Labor.
Fargo, N. D., Sept. 5.-Today, on
Labor day, speak in one sense espe-
:ially to those personally and vitality
interested in the labor struggle, and
yet speak Of this primarily as one
aspect of the larger social struggle
growing out Of the attempts to read
Just social conditions and make them
more equitable. =
The nineteenth century was dis
tinctly one of economic triumphs-
umphs in the domain Of production,
Including transportation and the me-
chanics of exchange. The marvellous
progress made in these respects multi
piled mans productive power to an
almost uncomfortable degree.
In the matter of the production of
wealth as much progress was made
during the nineteenth century as dur
ing all previous periods since history
dawned-that is, the changes brought
in single century through machinery
and steam have been greater than the
sum total of the changes Of the pre-
cedfng thousands of years, and these
very changes and this material prog
ress have thrust upon us social and
political problems Of the first magni-
tude. ... ......~.
The American wage Garner faces
this larger social problem in dual
capacity-first as a citizen Of the re-
public charged with the full duty Of
citizenship and next as a wage earn
er-as a wageworker who, together
with his fellow workers, is vitality
concerned in the question Of wages
and general conditions of employment,
which affect not only his well being
and that Of his wife and children, but
the opportunities Of all workers for q
higher development.
Three Different Factors.
It is true of wageworkers, as of all
other citizens, that most of their pHog-
ress must depend upon their own mi
tiative and their own efforts. Never
theless there are three different fac
tors in this progress. There is, first,
the share which the mans own indi-
vidual qualities must determine. This
Is the most important Of all, for moth
ing can supply the place Of individual
capacity. -'s ~
Yet there are two other factors also
Of prime Importance namely, what
can be done by the wageworkers in CO.
operation with one another, and what
can be done by government-that is,
by the instrument through which all
the people work collectively. l.
Wages and other most important
conditions of employment must re-
main largely outside Of government
control; must be left for adjustment
by free contract between employers
and wage earners. But to attempt to
leave this merely to Individual action
means the absolute destruction Of indi-
vidualism, for where the individual is
SO weak that he perforce has to accept
whatever a strongly organized body
chooses to give him, his individual lib
erty becomes mere sham and mock.
cry. re" X
It is indispensably necessary, in order
to preserve to the largest degree our
system of individualism, that there
should be effective and organized col
lective action. The wage earners must
act jointly, through the process of col
lective bargaining, in great Industrial
enterprises. Only thus can they be put
upon plane Of economic equality with
their corporate employers.
Only thus is freedom Of contract
made real thing and not mere legal
fiction. There are occasional occupa-
tons where this is not necessary; but,
speaking broadly, it is necessary
throughout the great world Of organ
lied industry.
I believe this practice Of collective
bargaining, effective only through such
organizations as the trades unions, to
have been one Of the most potent
forces In the past century in promot-
ing the progress Of the wage earners
and in securing larger social progress
for humanity. 1 believe in the prin-
ciple Of organized labor and IN the
practice Of collective bargaining, not
merely asa desirable thing for the
wage earners, but as something which
has been demonstrated to be essential
in the; long run to their permanent
progress.
Weaknesses and Defects.
This does not mean that I unequivo.
cally indorse any or all practices that
labor organizatio may happen to
adopt or any or all principle that they
may choose to enunciate. Labor or
ganizations have the weaknesses and
defects common to all other forms 81
human organizat tons. Sometimes they
act very well, and sometimes they act
very badly. And ] am Tor them when
they act well, and am against them
when they act badly.
ss believe that their existence Ii q